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.