Northampton: Join ERTA and be part of the answer to alternatives to a roads only agenda!

Ref: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-59687370

Our concern ‘as ever’ is the blight this could, without being made to bridge the former Northampton-Market Harborough railway course (cost) would inflict locked-in blight, ruination of the rail reopening and compound congestion further with zero other options. Trams don’t handle lorry-load freight! We need to align England's Economic Heartland’s (EEH) corridor studies with reality now! There is currently a gap which needs railing now.

There is a gap between what is espoused and what our agenda is. Do we abandon and let go and 10 years’ time see more of the same exacerbated or do we think of how we can move their focuses towards more of what we wish for? I need ERTA and public on-side and to give me feedback and help advance our causes. Otherwise, it is all jobs for the professionals, more of the same and futility. This, in a Climate Emergency, diminutive resources and demand-supply increases. Unless mechanisms are put in place to address this at grassroots upwards,

I fail to see any aggregate gains beyond what East-West Rail facilitates and sorting the Bedford Midland bottleneck is not going to be plain sailing I suspect. Timescales differ and complacency on the one hand versus it's all over on the other and we're somewhere between those 2 extremes? Let me know what you think best if you wish and help be part of the solution by getting a programme of Skype meetings underway. I want to see a growing ERTA pulling together to address this credibly and meaningfully, I can't do it solo. I am neither a Revolutionary or a Preservationist per se, but believe moderate gains can be made and the system should service that in the greater and national good interest.

My question rhetorically is how it translates to specific schemes and reopening agendas. Why spend £millions more bypassing an urban area when for want of lesser £millions, a Level Crossing here and there where land use does not lend to bridges or underpasses could be done for want of political will and a little pragmatism? To join our free email loop, please send requests to richard.erta@gmail.com

We believe development and roads x roads and infill development is the wrong way to go and is unsustainable x nationwide of principle and policy-action outcomes. What we need is a new agenda following the rhetoric of COP26 and aftermath to inform policy and actions commensurate with switching from road based planning and assumptions to fostering more people and goods by rail nationwide. Rail routes need protecting, green corridors need widening and switching of the £41 billion new roads funds to new local, conventional rails instead, needs to be the New Year Resolution of Government downwards and local grassroots upwards. Christmas and holiday months (December and August) are usually times when amidst the distractions of other things, bad news or controversial policy agendas are rolled out sadly. As campaigners we need to be vigilant. 

Please write to local MP's in Northampton and along the Northampton-Market Harborough Corridor/search 

https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons and write/email in support of protecting a viable rail link corridor with lands for deviations where any blockages exist. Unless this principle is followed in Northampton and elsewhere, we are in a terrible state of inertia and destructives agendas with the built environment being mis-applied. We need to rebalance with rail more and welcome support, expressed in joining ERTA: https://ertarail.co.uk/

Further reading: Save land, re-rail not roads! https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/news/cabinet-consider-ps20-million-funding-bid-north-west-relief-road

East-West Rail Matters and associated issues

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Greetings! As we enter the Festive Season, some of us may wish to take five minutes to have a read of the attached said pamphlet. It is not aiming to be an exercise in fact and figure gathering nor a final word, but our contribution to an on-going debate. It aims to give new-comers - yes they exist! - a basic introduction and add a flavour of the ERTA take on the matters pertaining. We do stalls and it is aimed to give out to people as often we get questions and demands for updates on matters around East-West and whilst there can be the straight through Bedford or website address references, we feel it is more complicated than that. 

Our take is that we do need more-than one east-west rail link. There's currently the North London Line, the Peterborough-Leicester-Nuneaton line and virtually nothing in between, some 100 miles without any rail challenge/competition. Freight from the East Coast Ports goes a great way round to get to and from the West Midlands and a large haul of lorries plies the A14 for example.

It is ironic that the A421 and A428 have and are being progressively dualled and bypasses installed, but no equivalent railway has been progressed in a similar fashion. This despite growing volumes of traffic, filling urban roads to gridlock, the pollution from static exhausts and waste in time, cost and energy when we have much ado around COP26 and respective environmental, efficiency and cost productive ratio matters. Getting rail-based transport right is crucial, giving things like modal shift, choice and traffic reduction a chance to happen whilst keeping the economic wheels turning. 

Our view is simple, by reinstating the St John's triangle and going east of Bedford via the old line, studying challenges and blockages with a view to overcome until east of Willington and thence north of built Blunham to approach the Tempsford Plains from the south-west with physical rail connections for Peterborough and south, Stevenage and East Bedfordshire as well as a Cambridge/East Anglia link to have full and direct access to Bedford County Town and beyond beit north or west of Bedford. Route E and the current tabled suggestions does not offer that even as it is cross-referenced in some other documentation for example. Passenger trains could come into and reverse out of Bedford Midland if extra bays are provided on where the old Focus DIY Warehouse used to be, now extra parking. Bedford is long overdue for a new station concourse and complex on the site; nothing new hardly since around 1977, whereas Oxford has had about 2 or 3 refurbishments since that.

The 1960's Bedford Committee recommended linkage with Bedford Midland via reversal and with an upgraded line between Bedford St Johns and Bedford Midland, the timings could be negligible overall, compared to anything road-based offers. 

Happy to discuss further and a perusal of our Facebook Page is recommended: 

https://www.facebook.com/Bedford2CambridgeRail

Seasons Greetings to all and thanks for listening!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

For copied (pdf colour) please send email requets to richard.erta@gmail.com or scroll down our Publicity Page: https://ertarail.co.uk/publicity/

Relief Lines needed for more by rail

Dear All

I attach a diagram which shows the 'relief' a new build Bedford-Northampton-Market Harborough Rail inclusive of Owen's Rugby-Magna-Narborough link could offer relief off existing main lines as well as key connectives. Please feel free to use it for regional connectivity purposes/illustration. The Bedford-Northampton-MH are new builds, but would enable more by rail - people and goods and give capacity relief to existing main lines. Please give support. 

Although I am not aware of any formal measure, my experience is that population catchments can be immediate, 3-5 miles and up to 10 miles in some cases. Grade by putting a compass on a map and doing a circle proportionately and the catchment size and potential can be a surprise. Do it along a line and a lot of demand potential can be realised. Even if only say 10% of 100, 000 use a line from both ends (say Bedford and Northampton) that can be 20, 000 a day plus coincidental and new flows/unexpected demand. We have to believe in ourselves and communities and environmentally as well as practically, re-railing seems the best investment for multiple rewards. That is why keeping options open is critical in terms of corridor widening and route protection. Olney may be lost requring a new build for 10 miles north from Castle Ashby Estate - Stevington Walk (or alongside) but a Parkway Station near where the A428 and A509 intercepts each other, could tap into flows of traffic for wider commuting and a 3 mile drive north of Olney for east-west connectivity is still 7 miles less than driving to MIlton Keynes Central and trying to find a parking slot. So all to play for if planners keep options open and craft/tailor development demand to keep the critical access spaces for junctioning open. 

That is where Cambridge got it wrong and now the default is complex and less-than a straight line! We can learn from these mistakes. What we need to tell Government and Whitehall, is the nation needs an on-going programme of every region inclusive rebuilds, reopenings and select pieces of new build. Great Central Corridor could play a role, but Government needs to act to protect the remains of the corridor and infrastructure and realign development to ensure a viable corridor. If not, development goes in, locks-in a roads based only impact and solution and existing infrastructure, road and rail, gets over-demand/crowded with associated exhaust pollution. We can act now, we are not helpless, but alas, we need the plan and commitment for the long haul. ERTA is ready to play its part respectively. ERTA has supported calls for the Aylesbury-Milton Keynes leg to be included in East-West Rail with new stations to spread the load at Calvert, Claydon and West Bletchley/Newton Longville. At the Bedford end, a new station on the Bedford-Bletchley Railway at Kempston Town/Retail Park with a connecting footbridge. Kempston commands upwards of 18, 000 population and is an area with a lot of industrial warehouse development along the A421 corridor. All that goes by road, unless we have a local plan to switch and invest and grow rail usage. The pattern repeats. Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

E. richard.erta@gmail.com

Let’s cut road congestion and train overcrowding through choice.

Ø Leicester has been an over-looked city, but is increasingly a place people wish to go to, visit, shop, work and live in.
Ø Leicester is both a gateway to and from the wider East Midlands, getting the rail access and capacity right for the city is crucial for more trains to and from other places and offering a comprehensive rail alternative.
Ø Roads alone cannot cope. In the 1960’s closures of local rails and building motorways seemed a good idea, but it eroded choice, locked-in dependency on roads and vehicles with air pollution, over-demand and congestion delaying everyone.
Ø English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary membership association and we welcome your interest, help and support to seek improvements. Join us today and help make a difference. We table forums for people to attend and make common cause with us. It is voluntary and ‘open to all’.

Ø We need inclusive, accessible and affordable public transport bus and rail. Walking and cycling only take us so far. We need modal shift from road to rail for a variety of good social, economic and environmental reasons. It should be common sense, yet we have a system which is hugely complicated, elitist and expensive. Things drastically need to change and delivery of rail choice ratcheted up as a local, regional and nationwide priority. Help us with this cause.

For further reading, please see our website Publicity Page and scroll down to find more around East-West Rail matters: https://ertarail.co.uk/publicity/

Northern Rail Debacles and Press Release

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Re: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/purpose-of-hs2-destroyed-if-yorkshire-leg-scrapped-warns-top-rail-expert-3362965

Greetings! We observe news reports of culling part of HS2 and associated Northern Powerhouse HS3 with some concern, as to what any Plan B if at all will look like? COP 26 showed a dire need to cut emissions and transport is a key sector to get right, granted home and abroad, but leadership blinks first in any case and so must we as a nation surely? 

Therefore re-railing communities with station accessibility, inclusion and affordability at the point of use comes to the fore. Likewise as per attached press release, you cannot default when thanks to the closures, rail no longer exists or glaring gaps exist, which can only mean locked-in default to roads and more roads is bad for pollution, emissions, congestion, time delay and cost to name but a few. 

Government and Opposition of all tiers and shades need to be held accountable to come up with what they would do and not promise the earth, which is not necessarily honest given the short-termism of political government tenures. I also attach a press rlease from our colleagues calling for an alternative to HS2 and/or HS3 and putting their own oar in to the discussion. Add to this the ERTA and others have mentioned finishing Midland Main Line electrification and asociated matters would again add positively to the jigsaw cum mosaic pattern of what we need for a better spread of rail and give rail a better deal contrast a need to transfer the £41 billion the Chancellor found for new roads, which again, needs challenging, not silence by opposition armed with their own Reversing Beeching Master Plans. 

If Government were leading on these matters, they would call-in the turning of an old trackbed to a canal between Guildford and Horsham and demand/provide funding for studying reviving a rail link for Reading-Brighton direct 'not via London'. Instead, added to which their Highways blocking bridges and demolishing railway structures plan, all seems to fly in the face of environment, levelling up and pragmatic 'keeping options open'. 

Again, many proposals to use trackbeds for other things to keep reopening alive, have in themselves turned to become objectors to rebuilding or new railways, so few panaceas but a dire need for Government and other tiers to nurture modal shift from road to rail again as a staple people and goods carriage facility and infrastructure. ERTA will play its role with your continued support. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

richard.erta@gmail.com 

ERTA Bedford Area Forum - open to all so all welcome!

As I get older and less-able to do some things, I am determined to continue to flag up the Bedford agenda where I live. It is hoped others will do the same for where they are based by becoming area reps for ERTA and recruiting more support for our causes via membership and setting forth agendas consistent with what we are about like:

a. local rail and station reopenings/rebuilds/select new builds

b. better and integrated bus-rail transport, affordability and experiences

c. pedestrian and cycle access in all planning, improved layouts and safety.

d. end product, less reliant on roads, vehicles, fossil fuel and pollution, congestion and mayhem impacting stress on people's lives.

I can't do nationwide cover except strategically in setting frameworks which enable others to take responsibility on their local scene, but what I can do is strive to model best practices within realistic means-ways and export any exemplification to others. 

Our Bedford approach has 3 strands to it:

a. tabling a regular forum open to all

b. doing the St Paul's monthly stall and others where logistics lend themselves

c. regular leafleting, starting again 1st February 2022. 

Of course new members and recruited volunteers can assist with these things and take-on project work and/or filter into the national scene and find their place in forwarding more of what we wish for.

In short, it is the adage of 'think global, act local', as someone else said "if I can't find what I am looking for in my own back yard, I may not find it at all" (I paraphrase). Change starts with us, not necessarily COP26 and variations thereof. At the end of the day, it is the translation to local policies, practises and actions which inform whether we make given goals or fail. Small things add up, doing small things well and consistently makes a contribution we can recommend to others born of our own walk, within our means, greater or lesser. What is clear is that business as usual, is not acceptable, even as we all have to do the dailies. I attach our minutes,  agenda and flyer and welcome your further kind interest. Please do feel free to pass on to potentially interested others. If interested in being an area rep where you live, please do let me know and we can discuss further by email. ERTA is an association which works grassroots upwards, rather than assuming a national position and preaching top-down i.e. "do as I say, not as I do!". Our method sends signals upwards which informs a base-note pointing to things which we believe could make a significant contribution to the quality of all lives locally, then to the regions and ultimately nationwide and beyond. We rely on growing membership and volunteers to enable that to be effective, to put meat on the bones to coin a phrase. Like it or loathe it, East-West Rail's case is made many times over via studies coming in at £millions with a budget of delivery of £4.5 billion or thereof.... We could never have achieved that, but the groundswell of awareness and support grassroots upwards has inspired and informed and carried through the gloom of 30 wasted years, the idea persists, albeit the fine-tuning and route definition - we want one route, the promoters are tasked with another; but the principles of aspiration and directing professional focus are sound ones. Could it be done elsewhere? That is the challenge not for us or me per se, but principles courting local support and advocacy. Arlesey Station opened in 1988 took 3 years by top campaigners and public support. Wixams now over a decade, Ampthill can be done if Wixams can be done, two platforms, bus shelters and access overbridges and adequate land. Likewise stations north of Bedford, the 20 mile gap between Bedford and Wellingborough commands a station around halfway, as villages grow and more cars hit the roads, Bedford Midland and local roads will not sustain that growth based on 2.5 cars per average household. So what can give, what can take? It needs a vision, a plan, a consensus and advocacy. Will you step into that brief? This is what ERTA is about finding, and every position filled and done well, is gained for next ones to be done as well, nationwide! Meanwhile these 3 things stand in tension:

1. Time is running out

2. Seize the day

3. Together we are stronger

For details of what is happening, please join our email loop via richard.erta@gmail.com Thank you.

ERTA Newsletter and COP26 Glasgow Reflections

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Greetings! I attach ERTA's latest newsletter this sunny November day. These are exciting times but also ones of some apprehension and uncertainty. Which way will the wind blow?! Is it the case of 'gone with the wind' or 'wind in the willows' in what to expect with COP26 and outcomes and indeed, the environmental conditions we may face in weeks and years to come?

On the one hand, to put it bluntly, there are elephants in the room. For example the most recent budget was not particularly 'green' with subsidies to road and aviation outstripping that given to rail expansion (I don't include HS2 in this assessment) of local, conventional, mixed use rail links as part of a nationwide plan to fill glaring gaps in the rail network and encourage through choice modal shift more for people and goods. Yes, there's a trickle of reopenings, but nowhere near the rhetoric of 'Reversing Beeching'! 

On the other hand, opposition parties of whatever shade have a moral obligation to show what would they do/offer if in power and to produce their own templates for modal shift with definitions of where, what and how reopenings, rebuilds and select pieces of new builds will be done under their support and governorship. Waffle and bland prescriptions, saying walking and cycling sounds good, but rail deals with bulk and in cases like the A14 (Felixstowe-West Midlands) there is no parallel rail with the capacity, speed and eruditeness to offer a real switch. There are other examples elsewhere too. So this is a time to put up, stand up or accept that things time out, things move on and so must we in some shape or form.

ERTA continues to work with the people and fiscal resources it has to champion rail alternatives and integrated better public transport. Affordability is a critical part of any modal shift plan and equation. Work these days often informs a need to pursue transport, prescriptions of walking 3 miles either way for warehouse work is to pit the bar high if many cannot do that physically and need better public transport, relevant and affordable on Living or Minimum Wages. Handing out Under 65's more combined bus-rail passes especially for local commutes like Bedford-Milton Keynes, St Albans or Cambridge for example could be a perk to enable more and fill empty capacity. Alas, we meet ideological objections and translates to contracting buses which can run empty in some cases whilst others remain disenfranchised. How long can such a stand-off continue? 

Like everything, it is a work in progress, but time is running out and Covid is yet another factor disrupting any straight lines fathomed amidst the spaghetti of pluralism and multi-tasked focuses. ERTA will continue to play its role feeding helpful solutions rail-wise grassroots upwards. This is no time for broken systems and an opportunity to apply common sense and that if something is right, delivery is what counts not £million pontificating around endless reports, studies and spiralling costs defeating delivery in circular motions often as well. East-West Rail Oxford-Milton Keynes-Bedford could have been reopened decades ago and incrementally upgraded as it earned its keep. Instead it has dragged on and still we await a train between Bedford or Milton Keynes to Aylesbury or Oxford. That is where the politics and system, not for want of many efforts, has failed to deliver in a timely manner. We must foster a new way of getting things done surely? As ever, who will blink first and yes, the Government does have a pivotal role!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

Ps. If you are not on our free email loop and wish to be, please send requests to richard.erta@gmail.com Thank you.

News and ERTA Events and Opportunities: Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham-Shoreham Rail Link Needs Saving as an integral corridor!

Bad News on Guildford-Horsham: 

On the week of 11^th October the Waverley District Council met and decided by one vote after over 2 hours deliberation, to support a canal over the old railway formation. This will scupper the rail hope. ERTA worked tirelessly to alert the public within our means and limited resources. Locally, we felt some sympathy for the railway idea, but the competing interests, the longevity of the closure and the fact the councils seemed at sixes and sevens on what the case was for such a rail link, shows the area had moved on and like so many other places, car is king now with roads as the main transport option, locked-in but loved even as a mirage of freedom and iconic individualism statement. ERTA had pencilled a date for a Horsham Meeting post-pandemic in 2022, but now we need our members to tell us whether to proceed or not. It will be a case of water, water everywhere! 

The canal is not a panacea and their motors do make noise. However, experience elsewhere has taught us that many applications get passed off, then cost, timescales and delivery dates slip for a host of reasons. Obviously we wish the rail was being put first than a canal/other interests, but we are not giving up as the corridor lends itself to expansion and new interpretation and so accommodating a railway, a canal and cycleway/walkway means expansion is to be played for surely? This is a strategic missing link and deserves more strategic support and recognition. It should not be down to us to realise that or the general public, rather this is where leadership, apprehension and direction/action commensurate to filling gaps in the existing rail network comes into its own. Climate Emergency, better links and access, relief to existing lines like the jam packed Brighton Main Line should all indicate a relief link to Reading, Heathrow and Brighton triangulation makes a whole lot of sense if we wish to save land use, cut emissions, reduce traffic congestion and improve greener-cleaner public transport/make it more relevant to more audiences/inform modal shift. Our politics seems very parochial currently with a head-in-sand view of parish pump does it and the rest of the world can go sing a song! We need people with local, regional and nationwide interest and to export best practise and learn from our mistakes to the rest of the world by all means.

ERTA is toying with a meeting committee style in Horsham next year 2022. If you agree with that idea, let us know so we can have some indication of interest. Likewise our events page on our website including our conference this Saturday (23rd) October is free, open to all and all welcome. 

https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ and https://ertarail.co.uk/conference-2021/

I attach our pdf of Guildford flyer currently being distributed. Thanks for your interest and support. Let's pray our nation turns a corner and realises more and better rails can make a positive contribution and that status quo is woefully inadequate. Our website home page has a donations facility now, all contributions welcome to help us fund our activities in the wider public and nationwide interest please. We welcome people to join/affiliate and welcome people to offer to help assist with our work to make it better quality and quantity. We are only as good as our supporters make/enable us. Thank you.

Midland Main Line, Leicestershire and Easing Capacity + Leicester Forum

Leicester Forum 2023:

Leicester Forum

The High Cross, Leicester

Saturday 25th February 1pm food, 2-4pm business Leicester agenda and getting it underway.

The High Cross, 0116 251 9218 103–105 High Street, Leicester Leicestershire, LE1 4JB  https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/leicestershire/the-high-cross-leicester

https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ 

Clearly most of us want the electrification from Bedford-Corby/Market Harborough extended to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield and inclusive of Leeds as a logical part of the Midland Main Line. More passenger and freight needs to go by rail for good reasons including, of course, cutting emissions more through choice and access/affordability and thence reducing overall contributions to CO2. Moreover, by improving our rail network, we free up road space for those who have to drive. 

ERTA sees Leicester as strategic. Roads are congestion into and around it, whilst existing rails are at capacity with demand for more by rail growing to a welter which on current lines cannot be serviced and HS2, love it or loathe it, will take another 10 years of growth before any relief claim can be substantiated. 

Our interim agenda is as follows:

1. Reopen a Northampton-Market Harborough rail link which would link East Midlands with the West Coast Main Line more and enable Oxford-Milton Keynes-Northampton - Leicester/East Midlands flows by rail. M1 plies MK-Northampton-Leicester and beyond, yet we don't have a direct rail alternative.

2. Stations for park and ride access to the rail network in growing locations like Desborough and Kibworth, need studies and case-making/grant applications and land use tailoring to ensure the growth does not scupper identification of sites. Remember, a location today, unless protected, could be lost.

3. Great Central access at Narborough for Old Oak Common-Calvert-Rugby-Lutterworth-Leicester-Nuneaton line makes sense as well for direct access which HS2, as High Speed, does not give access to interim places. They are growing along the corridor including Magna Park and elsewhere and so keeping re-railing options open is again where planning can be useful if not essential. For example, a blockage today could be relocated and land used for a rail purpose may not lend itself today, but what about 20 years of planning? The Climate Emergency won't wait, the system gets clogged up and too slow and a trading of reports and systems needs counter-balancing with pragmatism and some basic common sense. Traffic is flowing thus, no rail alternative parallel to, so we work to nurture that rail opportunity more.

4. Leicester-Burton commuter Ivanhoe Link: Surely we do need a direct curve from Leicester to run directly onto that line to fulfill the optimum market? So relocation should be being planned and negotiated now, to enable that access to be regained going forward. But interim, the line offers a bypass to Leicester for some freight like MML-Knighton-Burton-Derby and beyond and vice versa, so Leicester as well as Leicester centric freight, can also entertain joined-up passenger services. Does it make any sense to have to change at Kettering to access East Midlands by rail from Bedford, which is due to be on a principal East-West Rail within 10 years? People need better and cost-effective access to public transport for work, commuting and searching for jobs and locations where needs lend themselves for entertaining opportunities beit work, education or business.

This list is not exhaustive, but we need to and welcome talking with Government, agencies and local MP's and bringing people together to get these critical agendas progressed. Otherwise the status quo is unsatisfactory and pollution from exhausts and tyres makes people ill, which again is avoidable if we get our nation re-railed appropriately.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rail-investment-cut-levelling-up-tories-b1766132.html

English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) Diary Dates 2021-2022

Bedford Area Forum: Tuesday 9^th November 2pm food, 3-5pm business at The Pilgrims Progress Wetherspoons: 42 Midland Rd, Bedford MK40 1QB, T. 01234 363751 https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/hotels/england/bedfordshire/pilgrims-progress We sit at the back under the stairs and can but 2 tables together if need be. Let us know if you wish to join us. There is no cost, but obviously we like people to join ERTA as a member and come on board and help us fulfil our goals.

 

2. AGM will be on ZOOM ONLY: Contact Mr Colin Crawford colin.crawford1@btconnect.com or T. 07836 693977 to register for looping in.

 

3. Horsham Public Meeting Committee Style: Date is Saturday 26^th March 2pm-5pm Further detail to be announced. To be looped in, join our loop via requests to richard.erta@gmail.com

 

4. Leafleting in the Calvert area 27^th October from 12.30pm Any offers to help contact Mr David Ferguson 0208 977 4181 E. daferguson1212@gmail.com or contact Mr Richard Pill for offers elsewhere – you must have own transport, be reliable and sign our declaration form for safety. Dates are 11-10-21-30-10-21 and from 01-03-22 onwards.

 

5. Brackmills and Northampton Area Zoom Meeting ‘open to all’ hosted by Sara Homer, CEO of Brackmills Industrial Estate: sara.homer@brackmillsindustrialestate.co.uk to register and richard.erta@gmail.com for related email looping. Date is Friday 22^nd October 3pm-5pm

 

6. Public Meeting, Saturday 26^th February 3-5pm at the Northampton Quakers Auditorium Quaker Meeting House, Wellington St, Northampton NN1 3AS https://www.quaker.org.uk/meetings/northampton Guest Speaker is Cllr Phil Larratt. Contact sara.homer@brackmillsindustrialestate.co.uk for further details. ERTA hopes to have a small stall at the meeting. All welcome/open to all.

 

7. Station Stalls 2021-2022 Email Simon Barber for details and offers to assist: simon4barber@gmail.com

 

8. ERTA Christmas Bash 1pm Thursday 9^th December at MK Wetherspoons: https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/buckinghamshire/wetherspoons-milton-keynes 

Further information or wish to join us: 

email richard.erta@gmail.com

 

General Note: on all occasions, everyone is responsible for their own transport and for paying for their own food and drink.

Grant Shapps Pledges for Rail Reopenings - we need it applied now!

Make of this what you will: https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1500522/railway-lines-cuts-reversed-train-travel?fbclid=IwAR13c9KTCUYmQFnvlJZ4qo_amMCvnznvFAEiGmkmmFX4k5kgiys9U0EC_HA 

However, by now, 2.5 years into Government and given Cop 26 and a Climate Emergency, a practical need for modal shift from road to rail and rail filling gaps in haulage and logistics more, we should be seeing the PLAN now, with a timescale and costing mechanism going forward. Alas it is talk at a Party Conference, so could again be wishful thinking or opportunism with random 'stuff happens' whereby it is claimed x or y is a result of Government will, but may be per chance. As some of you may have seen, the letter from Chris Heaton-Harris MP held little if any support for Guilford-Horsham-Shoreham and many other lines not mentioned. 

Due to many urban sites, junctions and other pieces of infrastructure being lost, redeveloped over and so forth, critical decision beyond government, i.e. delegated to third party agencies as we see with HS2 and East-West Rail to tackle thorny issues of routing where there is not route and the upheavals involved, remains the hard railroad ahead. It is essential for national well-being, but does the Government have the grit, determination and coherence to push it through or be faithful to former routes and move what is in the way or find deviations to reduce impacts? 

Yes, we need more detail and in what timescale will we get it? It should be top priority, electrify as you go by all means, but we need a line plan for every railway line to generate and contribute to logistical modalshift now. Bedford-Bletchley is bus substituted lion's share, getting through Bedford Midland 'box' is another deterrent to running traffic along the branch and onwards and the long wait for joined up rails between Bletchley and Calvert means HS2 stone trains - about 18+ per day from Derbyshire, are going on existing lines to London Willesden and up the Chiltern Line contrast saving 50 miles extra journey is they went via Bedford-Bletchley-Calvert. This is but one example, lines not there, roads are both lead and default context we operate in. Please give ERTA your support to help inform a sea-change to the current theatre pro affirma for better and more local-conventional rail links. Thanks.

Bedford like many places has chronic congestion and has had for over 2 decades in parts. Bypasses come and go and the road building agenda is a political and media sop to be seen to do something, whereas the historical root is the closures of local rail links of the 1960's which locked-in road dependency. We need choice. ERTA does not support the northern route E for a variety of reasons, but crucially you get more for the £1 by going on the old route to the Willington area, then north of Blunham to the Tempsford Plains and thence physical rail connections with the principal north-south main line the East Coast Main Line (ECML). Instead we have Network Rail Reports espousing this connectivity for Southampton-Midlands Multi Modal Studies and 2019 consultations onwards advocating segregation where the east-west and north-south lines cross with a station complex. 

Route E may seem logical on a map, but is not a straight line, rather a camel's back shape! It would be a steep gradient contrast the flat old route along the River Great Ouse Valley basin and is longer and more intrusive. Suffice to say, were the spend on studies to examine how to push the line north of Bedford on or off existing tracks been committed to solutions to Cardington Road and Priory entrance, we may be seeing the old route in a more happier context. Instead housing on the old St John's is in the ings, destroying and locking in either no rail service Bedford (east of) or bypassing Bedford with a load more upheaval. I feel some campaigners are in denial and we have a political fix, which whilst a need for delivery is urgent, if not fit for purpose, will again be a 'wrong type of railway'. A steady speed of 25 mph - 60 mph with no obstruction gets you to Cambridge quicker than anything roads, parking and bus riding can offer, so why do we need 100 mph plus? It must cater for freight as well as passenger needs. But here is the rub, if you come through Bedford Midland from Route E, you push all passenger and freight through the platforms interfaces and given capacity issues now with passenger services held up outside the station 'box' and Bedford-Bletchley suppressed to be optimized to full pelt operations due to pathing through Bedford, our route suggestion offers east-west to avoid Bedford Midland freight-wise whilst also pointing east-north freight in the right direction. Route E does not offer this and that should be taken back to Whitehall to 'think again'/what are we trying to achieve?

Please peruse and tap into our meetings and network with us: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ We are pro rail, not anti, but where savings and a better job can be done, we welcome that to be considered as was for 23 years from 1997, albeit we accept part of the original would need revised route specification now due to developments north of Sandy which just keep going in, without the critical support infrastructure to go with ever more housing.

ERTA News and Views - Please give us your support and join in with us

Greetings. The recent panic buying at petrol stations, whatever the fears or risks of to do or not to do, underscores that as a nation we are hopelessly dependent on fossil fuels and road-based transport for EVERYTHING! This must change for fairness, balance, choice, freedom as well as good environmental well being. Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport talked much in the early days of this government of 'Reversing Beeching' Agendas and yet, unlike Dr Beeching, we see no plan nationwide. We have at best dribs and drabs, a smattering here alongside making the existing network work-able; but no grand scale reopenings, rebuilds and select new-build of a local-conventional passenger and freight capable rail link network to fill gaps. Borders Railway carried over 3 million people in its first years and has proven a success - a long siding serving mainly rural areas with scant stations - bucked many models and predictions! It need to be block replicated elsewhere across the nations and regions, but alas, whilst Government finds money for carbon dioxide and £27 billion for new roads, the reopenings agenda is absent from debate in many cases, when in practical terms it needs moving from icing on the cake to capstone absolute foundational necessity. Some may find this article interesting: https://www.newstatesman.com/uncategorized/2017/08/new-age-train

On other fronts as follows:

1. If any are willing to assist in working up diagrams from rough to look pretty and be ascetically coherent for our use, please let me know. Every diagram must include a key, our current website, a date and my email for further information. The programme we use is Microsoft Visio If interested in trialling, please let me know as we seek to build our support teams.

2. ERTA Zoom Conference: Details via our web page: https://ertarail.co.uk/conference-2021/ Please encourage others to take an interest. We have a good line up of speakers and a good networking opportunity.

3. All other events are on our events page: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/

4. ERTA has invested in some leaflets and is progressively doing from Calvert to Rugby along the old Great Central corridor as well as urban Guildford. Bedford will be done at a later stage, beit October or 1st March 2022 when weather starts to pick up again! Any offers to help, please let us know. Reliability is key. Door-2-door is what we seek for consistency of targeted area cover. Flexibility and ability to negotiate, always valuable qualities.

5. We want to build our Westminster Team, if interested, please contact Mr Simon Barber: Simon Barber <simon4barber@gmail.com> You may wish to write to your own MP/email: Look them up on this site: https://members.parliament.uk/members/Commons If we can get MP's supportive, they in turn can help bridge and get councils and Government interested and then chances to progress are that bit better. No panacea, but way to go from a small band such as we. We have about 35 members, and ERTA is only as effective as our members enable/inform. In crude terms, it could be this: Work for a living? Donate, Unemployed? Volunteer Time! Somewhere between the two and retired younger people, there's probably something for everyone to assist, be part of a team and work towards leadership by example of what you can do/offer rather than opt outs or excuses.

6. I believe ERTA is making progress. We campaign grassroots upwards and that top-down is even talking about these agendas as a reality possibly, is credit and kudos to ours and select others' labours over the years. Like it or loathe it, East-West Rail is winding its way from Bicester to Bletchley and Bedford and discussions remain on routes for East of Bedford. You may find this consultation of interest: https://placebuilder.io/futureofthearc Question is, are there similar consultations going on in your area which you could flag our causes and case more? Please do and again copy us in and/or write/email your council and MP and if such still exists, local media outlets/newspapers!

7. We have long supported a rebuilt Matlock-Buxton/Chinley rebuild of a railway for Derby-Manchester direct rail access and give more rail-based access to the southern Peak District. Please give your moral support at least: https://www.matlockmercury.co.uk/news/transport/plans-to-reopen-train-line-between-buxton-and-matlock-gain-traction-3395854