Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,
This is the latest story on East-West Rail. Key question is why? Why go to such lengths, why build a route requiring 50' viaducts and up-hill and down-hill and maybe even tunnels with 50 houses and whatever else needed to plough through the Ravensden area? This, when using the old route via St John's with reversals of passenger services at Bedford Midland or even a segregated 'local' Oxford-Bedford interchange at Bedford Midland with 'local' Bedford-Cambridge is not beyond realms of work-ability. Afterall, one call from the Bedford Committee of the 1960's was to run trains into Bedford Midland for better connectivity and boost the cross-country services as a result. X5/905 buses truncate at Bedford now. Whether immediate lag or 10 minutes, it gives people choices whether to break journeys or not. What opportunities could that kind of planning present, especially if the bays were next to existing Platform 1A Bedford-Bletchley line and a new booking hall was built facing down Midland Road pointing towards the town centre? Then modifying the current station layout off Ashburnham Road, more parking demand is likely and so an extra twin-tracks through that compound, seems at odds with that goal?
What of freight services? That is why reinstating the triangle at St Johns could enable these to go straight by without recourse to Bedford Midland. The only freight needing recourse to Bedford Midland would be north MML-East West tracks and vice versa, considerably less if you adopt the old St John's route instead.
Likewise at Tempsford, we call for physical tracks linking outer slows of East Coast Main Line for wider market reach and range to and from those destinations like Peterborough, Stevenage and East Bedfordshire DIRECT to Bedford and beyond. Likewise a north-east rail link for direct running from St Neots to Cambridge South Addenbrookes - driving is a nightmare, public transport likewise due to congestion, so rail could offer a real choice. Not so if segregation and changing trains in a bleak landscape is the name of the game as is current in designs!
The battle continues, but at least this time, we are offering a painless relief whilst improving on east-west rail connectivity, than losing it to new roads, A428 dualling and Black Cat Roundabout going on now without regards to the railway... Roxton Garden Centre in the frame? There are few panaceas, but our suggestion may be cheaper, may do a better job and do justice to all concerned. Surely it is worth studying? Please make your views known to the consultation: https://
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
ERTA Chairman
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