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