As we emerge from the Pandemic ERTA continues to forge ahead with our agenda. Yes, we want local, conventional rail more for more people and goods to access and use nationwide. But ERTA has sometimes been mistaken for just focusing on rail, when our foundations are also inclusive of integrational agendas. That means buses which link with principal railway stations inclusive of bus stations, cycle lanes which join up for an inclusive access to principal bus and rail stations and pedestrian access being transparent, of good standard and inclusive whereby disabled people don't have to search for a disabled ramp around a corner or access 'normality' via a back entrance exit which could potentially be a muggers paradise!
I was interviewed about a launch by the Government of investment in buses and gave it as I saw it and sadly was edited out, come the news bulletin! They only wanted smiles and good news, not talk about the impact of privatisation, affordability and cuts!
On the principal east-west Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge former X5 coach link, whether it is cuts, whether it is Covid or political, the changes I feel are detrimental. X5 does only Oxford-Bedford now and is being increasingly substituted by double-decker buses. Some blue coaches do run, but despite a duration of 2.5 hours between Oxford and Bedford each way, the toilets are locked out of use. The double-deckers have no toilet at all and can neither carry bikes nor luggage space. This a service for everyone, but was also courting students who tend to have 'baggage' for all sorts of practical reasons.
Yes, during Covid usage has taken a tumble, economies have to be made, but will there be a day when we see light at the end of the tunnel and a full bodied coach consistency is restored fully? There is no rail alternative, 2028 for the rail alternative is too long to wait, we need it joined-up now. Therein is the gap and we feel the pinch. It is dysfunctional for disabled people, not all disabilities are visible. The Bedford-Cambridge 'gap' now the Oxbridge service is severed at Bedford, is another double-decker, is a new route taking longer 1.5 hours each way contrast 1 hour formerly as X5. It is now called the 905 route and really reverts back to a 'all round Will's mother's' configuration. Good for Cambridge commuters, poor for cross-country travel and rewarded for doing such by public transport. Owing to the complications of Northern Route E, a Bedford-Cambridge Rail Link could well take until the mid 2030's. The design is unsatisfactory and polemical stances means you may win some, but lose others depending on your viewpoint. We should not have been here. For decades Councils allowed old routes to be systematically targeted, blocked and lost. Now we have a political fix, but expensive, higgledy-piggledy in nature and no direct linkage to a Northampton or Leicester South Curve direction for freight to go on to West Midlands for example and challenge the A14 trunk road. How much freight contrast that approach really wants to go Felixstowe-Cambridge-Bedford-Oxford with no access to the north and west, but veer south to places like Southampton and/or Bristol? Not as much as if via the old route (with pieces of new build) which via St John's would face north and west. Northampton is a strategic place (1.5 hours each way for just 21.5 miles from Bedford); but you would not know it based on radial rail links and poor bus services from Bedford which link to the previously much promoted Oxbridge principal coach service, now in fragments and downgraded.
We are not just confined to North Wessex and Mercia! We continue to take interest in London, South East, increasingly the West Country and North of Northamptonshire into Leicester and the East Midlands. A lone voice sometimes, but as a membership based association open to all, we also seek to tell it as it is, use what we purport to espouse and feed-back truth to power sometimes. Enjoy your Autumn and if inclined, please work with us where possible.
For pdf copies of our newsletter please email richard.erta@gmail.com and join our list. For past newsletters, see how the story unfolds, see our Newsletter page on our website: https://ertarail.co.uk/newsletter-archive/
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