ERTA Minutes for June 24th 15.00 hrs Great Central Corridor Rail Projects Hosted by Mr Owen O’Neill *@oweno.info Our meetings are open to all/all welcome.
Present: Owen O’Neill (Host), Richard Pill (Chair), John Harrison, Roger
Landells, Frank Mahon, Ray Sloan and one or two others I did not capture
(Can amend or accept my apologies).
1. Apologies for absence: Cllr Vanessa McPake of Milton Keynes Council and Adrian Carter.
2. Rugby-Lutterworth-Narborough
(linkage for Leicester etc) inclusive of Magna Park:
Owen reported that Warwickshire fairly supporting but Leicester City Council seemed luke warm. Leicestershire County Council more interested, but has a sliding scale of priorities. It was felt West Northants Council, the new Unitary Authority was still finding its feet. Government Integrated Rail Plan was something to engage with. Midlands Connect Organisation another influential outlet we need onboard. Priorities seem to be Leicester-Coventry, Midland Main Line capacity issues and then Rugby-Leicester and Northampton-Market Harborough. It was accepted that we need to declutter our roads, cut congestion and emissions.
3. Rugby
– Calvert/Banbury and vice versa: Concerns were raised over the rate of
development. ERTA is not a forum to debate rights and wrongs of HS2, like so
many outlets, it proves a divisive matter for and against and is being built
like it or not. However, interim areas and areas not served by any rail
facility in ERTA’s view need consideration at very least of how a domestic rail
facilitation can be done and brought closer to where people and development is.
An unrailed corridor is the former Great Central spinal lineage between Calvert
and Rugby and whilst HS2 assumes part of it south of Brackley and Brackley old
GC Station is lost, the HS2 assumes a route east of Brackley and a domestic
line could run alongside or partner in close proximity to it and deviate onto
old GC alignment north of Brackley whilst HS2 veers off to the north-west
towards Solihull. The new domestic line would have a new East Brackley Parkway
Station adjacent to the busy A43 and with either connecting buses or an LRT
system to link with Silverstone, Towcester and Northampton and/or Buckingham
and Milton Keynes in some shape or form. In any case, given development, given
a Milton Keynes-Aylesbury domestic link served by East-West Rail or another
agent operator or combined servicing, it was felt by ERTA that Calvert should
have a new domestic station along with Claydon and that amidst the clamour for
new development, lands at this stage need setting aside for a twin track
domestic railway to deviate off the existing lines and head northwards to East
of Brackley/Station and beyond bestriding the East-West Rail Line somewhere
east of the former Great Central/HS2 corridor but west of Claydon. Objections
to a station as another development have to be counter-balanced with all this
development and no station just fuels calls for upgraded roads and urban
congestion/land use parking demand conflicts when demand equally exists for
housing and employment balances with farming and ecology/quality of life
issues.
a. Route
Survey brief intro and report: This has been done by our volunteer Richard
Cooper in part and would be put on the website over a period of time.
b. Route
Protection – what and where/establishing critical pinch points: This is
vital and we need all hands-on deck to both make the case, protect pro-actively
the corridor and court investors/interest/Government backing in some shape or
form.
c. Making
a case – England’s Economic Heartlands (EEH) Report/any support/next steps:
Owen kindly talked us through some slides and these are available on request
via richard.erta@gmail.com
d. Getting
MP’s and Tiers of Councils/Governance on board: Concerns and the rail plan
we proffer needs to get Buckinghamshire Unitary Council on board and concerns
and support should court Cllr Martin Tett, who has the ear of Government, to
trickle down to get the balances, management and rail foundations sorted
properly.
e. Developers
– what role and how to harness: If funding can be found for making the case/or
volunteers putting credible elements together and bring to a table/meeting
potential investors’, rail makes more sustainable whatever, so in their
interest (or should be) to support our rail calls.
f. Calvert
– new town, land capacity for domestic rails and line alongside HS2 going north
over East West Rail – how feasible is it? What can be done: Calvert was a major
discussion point. What happens or not there will affect everything else. The
pressure is ‘on’ and we need to see the wood from the trees as well. There’s a
threat of a new prison at Grendon Underwood and someone from ERTA needs to find
out and make representations that it should not impinge on the former GC link
between Grendon and Calvert as this re-railed would boost links from High
Wycombe to Milton Keynes as well as Calvert-Rugby via the Great Central
corridor re-railed. In reverse direction, these audiences and more freight by
rail, could link to the Great Western Main Line, Old Oak Common and if a
through connection is provided between Chiltern Main Line and the Southern
Heathrow link, access to Guildford, Portsmouth and Southampton, freeing up
capacity on and off the rails and alleviation residential areas of noise like
Aylesbury.
g. Getting Chiltern Railways on board/wider rail industry: We need someone from ERTA to host either a Skype or Zoom Meeting to discuss and try and coerce them to take an interest in what we are suggesting. If baying is provided at Old Oak Common (OOC), Chiltern could use it as a terminal capacity extension to overcrowded Marylebone, OOC having links to the new Elizabethan Line alias Crossrail for example for accessing the City of London as well as Heathrow. There was relief the proposed Oxbridge Expressway was cancelled, but without a rail framework, roads will become increasingly busy, fuelling demand for upgrades and more of the same without rail to dent that modal lock-in and offer objective choices. Owen talked us through ‘land value capture’ and public transport – we need to capture growth to better public transport, otherwise it is roads mainly who it defaults to. Gone is just a London centric view, we need diverse rails for a more diverse audience, reach and range economy going forward. E.g., modern technology allows more working from home and flexi hours potentially, but equally the leisure, visiting and off-peak market can counter balance peak time losses if handled and catered for appropriately, reliably and attractively.
4. EEH/NR Banbury-Daventry-Northampton Arc/rail idea and can it link/rendezvous with GC somewhere e. g. South of Woodford Halse? Discussion was had on re-railing the Banbury-Brackley-Buckingham-Bletchley line. New build v rebuild both have costs and issues including relocation packages and demolish or new deviations. Blockages exist out of Banbury, west and south of Buckingham esp. south of A421 Bypass/ring-road and Padbury between Buckingham and Verney Junction. The idea of a new line to Northampton from Banbury and inclusive of either Towcester and/or Daventry, was a one-liner indirect reference by EEH Report, but needs more expansion of where, case, how and when. What seemed clear was the Oxbridge East-West Rail, good as it can be, is inadequate and other east-west rails are needed. In all cases who gets there first wins and Bletchley-Northampton via Milton Keynes Central has capacity issues not going away any time soon with Bedford-Bletchley extensions to MK Central and the Southern hourly from West London to MK Central vying for more paths alongside existing West Coast Main Line passenger and freight operations. In 10 years hence HS2 may bring some relief, but if we want more and want to declutter the delays, costs and protractions of the M1 and associated roads, we need more and diverse rail solutions. That is where the ERTA Rugby-Calvert-OOC-South Coast through linkage idea comes into its own including decluttering London and M25 arcs.
5. Any other business: It was flagged up that the 12-mile gap between Bicester and Winslow was a large one given development in-between coming on-stream and any new towns or growth and indeed GC corridor north thereof if un-railed; means access to rail is confined to where stations exist (Winslow/Aylesbury) and that exacerbates demand for parking/distance of traffic and costs. Claydon and Calvert could mop up and service/spread the load more. The meeting seemed nuanced to an extent on what or which way to turn.
6. Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting: August 26th 15.00 hrs Great Central Rail Corridor Projects Hosted by Mr Owen O’Neill *@oweno.info Please send requests for inclusion to the Zoom meeting to Owen at the email provided in a timely manner. For agenda items to richard.erta@gmail.com, likewise to join our email loop. Keep an eye on this page: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ Meeting closed circa 16.00 hrs.
Please note: ERTA welcomes offers for new willing hosts for meetings and as a
result bring people together. Please encourage any interested people or
organisations to email Mr Owen O’Neill to register for these specific Zoom
Meetings and ideally join ERTA. Every member helps us help others. https://ertarail.co.uk/become-a-member/ and perusal of our Blogspot can
also be helpful/scroll down: https://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/
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