East-West Rail Matters and associated issues

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Greetings! As we enter the Festive Season, some of us may wish to take five minutes to have a read of the attached said pamphlet. It is not aiming to be an exercise in fact and figure gathering nor a final word, but our contribution to an on-going debate. It aims to give new-comers - yes they exist! - a basic introduction and add a flavour of the ERTA take on the matters pertaining. We do stalls and it is aimed to give out to people as often we get questions and demands for updates on matters around East-West and whilst there can be the straight through Bedford or website address references, we feel it is more complicated than that. 

Our take is that we do need more-than one east-west rail link. There's currently the North London Line, the Peterborough-Leicester-Nuneaton line and virtually nothing in between, some 100 miles without any rail challenge/competition. Freight from the East Coast Ports goes a great way round to get to and from the West Midlands and a large haul of lorries plies the A14 for example.

It is ironic that the A421 and A428 have and are being progressively dualled and bypasses installed, but no equivalent railway has been progressed in a similar fashion. This despite growing volumes of traffic, filling urban roads to gridlock, the pollution from static exhausts and waste in time, cost and energy when we have much ado around COP26 and respective environmental, efficiency and cost productive ratio matters. Getting rail-based transport right is crucial, giving things like modal shift, choice and traffic reduction a chance to happen whilst keeping the economic wheels turning. 

Our view is simple, by reinstating the St John's triangle and going east of Bedford via the old line, studying challenges and blockages with a view to overcome until east of Willington and thence north of built Blunham to approach the Tempsford Plains from the south-west with physical rail connections for Peterborough and south, Stevenage and East Bedfordshire as well as a Cambridge/East Anglia link to have full and direct access to Bedford County Town and beyond beit north or west of Bedford. Route E and the current tabled suggestions does not offer that even as it is cross-referenced in some other documentation for example. Passenger trains could come into and reverse out of Bedford Midland if extra bays are provided on where the old Focus DIY Warehouse used to be, now extra parking. Bedford is long overdue for a new station concourse and complex on the site; nothing new hardly since around 1977, whereas Oxford has had about 2 or 3 refurbishments since that.

The 1960's Bedford Committee recommended linkage with Bedford Midland via reversal and with an upgraded line between Bedford St Johns and Bedford Midland, the timings could be negligible overall, compared to anything road-based offers. 

Happy to discuss further and a perusal of our Facebook Page is recommended: 

https://www.facebook.com/Bedford2CambridgeRail

Seasons Greetings to all and thanks for listening!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

For copied (pdf colour) please send email requets to richard.erta@gmail.com or scroll down our Publicity Page: https://ertarail.co.uk/publicity/

Relief Lines needed for more by rail

Dear All

I attach a diagram which shows the 'relief' a new build Bedford-Northampton-Market Harborough Rail inclusive of Owen's Rugby-Magna-Narborough link could offer relief off existing main lines as well as key connectives. Please feel free to use it for regional connectivity purposes/illustration. The Bedford-Northampton-MH are new builds, but would enable more by rail - people and goods and give capacity relief to existing main lines. Please give support. 

Although I am not aware of any formal measure, my experience is that population catchments can be immediate, 3-5 miles and up to 10 miles in some cases. Grade by putting a compass on a map and doing a circle proportionately and the catchment size and potential can be a surprise. Do it along a line and a lot of demand potential can be realised. Even if only say 10% of 100, 000 use a line from both ends (say Bedford and Northampton) that can be 20, 000 a day plus coincidental and new flows/unexpected demand. We have to believe in ourselves and communities and environmentally as well as practically, re-railing seems the best investment for multiple rewards. That is why keeping options open is critical in terms of corridor widening and route protection. Olney may be lost requring a new build for 10 miles north from Castle Ashby Estate - Stevington Walk (or alongside) but a Parkway Station near where the A428 and A509 intercepts each other, could tap into flows of traffic for wider commuting and a 3 mile drive north of Olney for east-west connectivity is still 7 miles less than driving to MIlton Keynes Central and trying to find a parking slot. So all to play for if planners keep options open and craft/tailor development demand to keep the critical access spaces for junctioning open. 

That is where Cambridge got it wrong and now the default is complex and less-than a straight line! We can learn from these mistakes. What we need to tell Government and Whitehall, is the nation needs an on-going programme of every region inclusive rebuilds, reopenings and select pieces of new build. Great Central Corridor could play a role, but Government needs to act to protect the remains of the corridor and infrastructure and realign development to ensure a viable corridor. If not, development goes in, locks-in a roads based only impact and solution and existing infrastructure, road and rail, gets over-demand/crowded with associated exhaust pollution. We can act now, we are not helpless, but alas, we need the plan and commitment for the long haul. ERTA is ready to play its part respectively. ERTA has supported calls for the Aylesbury-Milton Keynes leg to be included in East-West Rail with new stations to spread the load at Calvert, Claydon and West Bletchley/Newton Longville. At the Bedford end, a new station on the Bedford-Bletchley Railway at Kempston Town/Retail Park with a connecting footbridge. Kempston commands upwards of 18, 000 population and is an area with a lot of industrial warehouse development along the A421 corridor. All that goes by road, unless we have a local plan to switch and invest and grow rail usage. The pattern repeats. Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

E. richard.erta@gmail.com

Let’s cut road congestion and train overcrowding through choice.

Ø Leicester has been an over-looked city, but is increasingly a place people wish to go to, visit, shop, work and live in.
Ø Leicester is both a gateway to and from the wider East Midlands, getting the rail access and capacity right for the city is crucial for more trains to and from other places and offering a comprehensive rail alternative.
Ø Roads alone cannot cope. In the 1960’s closures of local rails and building motorways seemed a good idea, but it eroded choice, locked-in dependency on roads and vehicles with air pollution, over-demand and congestion delaying everyone.
Ø English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary membership association and we welcome your interest, help and support to seek improvements. Join us today and help make a difference. We table forums for people to attend and make common cause with us. It is voluntary and ‘open to all’.

Ø We need inclusive, accessible and affordable public transport bus and rail. Walking and cycling only take us so far. We need modal shift from road to rail for a variety of good social, economic and environmental reasons. It should be common sense, yet we have a system which is hugely complicated, elitist and expensive. Things drastically need to change and delivery of rail choice ratcheted up as a local, regional and nationwide priority. Help us with this cause.

For further reading, please see our website Publicity Page and scroll down to find more around East-West Rail matters: https://ertarail.co.uk/publicity/

Northern Rail Debacles and Press Release

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Re: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/purpose-of-hs2-destroyed-if-yorkshire-leg-scrapped-warns-top-rail-expert-3362965

Greetings! We observe news reports of culling part of HS2 and associated Northern Powerhouse HS3 with some concern, as to what any Plan B if at all will look like? COP 26 showed a dire need to cut emissions and transport is a key sector to get right, granted home and abroad, but leadership blinks first in any case and so must we as a nation surely? 

Therefore re-railing communities with station accessibility, inclusion and affordability at the point of use comes to the fore. Likewise as per attached press release, you cannot default when thanks to the closures, rail no longer exists or glaring gaps exist, which can only mean locked-in default to roads and more roads is bad for pollution, emissions, congestion, time delay and cost to name but a few. 

Government and Opposition of all tiers and shades need to be held accountable to come up with what they would do and not promise the earth, which is not necessarily honest given the short-termism of political government tenures. I also attach a press rlease from our colleagues calling for an alternative to HS2 and/or HS3 and putting their own oar in to the discussion. Add to this the ERTA and others have mentioned finishing Midland Main Line electrification and asociated matters would again add positively to the jigsaw cum mosaic pattern of what we need for a better spread of rail and give rail a better deal contrast a need to transfer the £41 billion the Chancellor found for new roads, which again, needs challenging, not silence by opposition armed with their own Reversing Beeching Master Plans. 

If Government were leading on these matters, they would call-in the turning of an old trackbed to a canal between Guildford and Horsham and demand/provide funding for studying reviving a rail link for Reading-Brighton direct 'not via London'. Instead, added to which their Highways blocking bridges and demolishing railway structures plan, all seems to fly in the face of environment, levelling up and pragmatic 'keeping options open'. 

Again, many proposals to use trackbeds for other things to keep reopening alive, have in themselves turned to become objectors to rebuilding or new railways, so few panaceas but a dire need for Government and other tiers to nurture modal shift from road to rail again as a staple people and goods carriage facility and infrastructure. ERTA will play its role with your continued support. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

richard.erta@gmail.com 

ERTA Bedford Area Forum - open to all so all welcome!

As I get older and less-able to do some things, I am determined to continue to flag up the Bedford agenda where I live. It is hoped others will do the same for where they are based by becoming area reps for ERTA and recruiting more support for our causes via membership and setting forth agendas consistent with what we are about like:

a. local rail and station reopenings/rebuilds/select new builds

b. better and integrated bus-rail transport, affordability and experiences

c. pedestrian and cycle access in all planning, improved layouts and safety.

d. end product, less reliant on roads, vehicles, fossil fuel and pollution, congestion and mayhem impacting stress on people's lives.

I can't do nationwide cover except strategically in setting frameworks which enable others to take responsibility on their local scene, but what I can do is strive to model best practices within realistic means-ways and export any exemplification to others. 

Our Bedford approach has 3 strands to it:

a. tabling a regular forum open to all

b. doing the St Paul's monthly stall and others where logistics lend themselves

c. regular leafleting, starting again 1st February 2022. 

Of course new members and recruited volunteers can assist with these things and take-on project work and/or filter into the national scene and find their place in forwarding more of what we wish for.

In short, it is the adage of 'think global, act local', as someone else said "if I can't find what I am looking for in my own back yard, I may not find it at all" (I paraphrase). Change starts with us, not necessarily COP26 and variations thereof. At the end of the day, it is the translation to local policies, practises and actions which inform whether we make given goals or fail. Small things add up, doing small things well and consistently makes a contribution we can recommend to others born of our own walk, within our means, greater or lesser. What is clear is that business as usual, is not acceptable, even as we all have to do the dailies. I attach our minutes,  agenda and flyer and welcome your further kind interest. Please do feel free to pass on to potentially interested others. If interested in being an area rep where you live, please do let me know and we can discuss further by email. ERTA is an association which works grassroots upwards, rather than assuming a national position and preaching top-down i.e. "do as I say, not as I do!". Our method sends signals upwards which informs a base-note pointing to things which we believe could make a significant contribution to the quality of all lives locally, then to the regions and ultimately nationwide and beyond. We rely on growing membership and volunteers to enable that to be effective, to put meat on the bones to coin a phrase. Like it or loathe it, East-West Rail's case is made many times over via studies coming in at £millions with a budget of delivery of £4.5 billion or thereof.... We could never have achieved that, but the groundswell of awareness and support grassroots upwards has inspired and informed and carried through the gloom of 30 wasted years, the idea persists, albeit the fine-tuning and route definition - we want one route, the promoters are tasked with another; but the principles of aspiration and directing professional focus are sound ones. Could it be done elsewhere? That is the challenge not for us or me per se, but principles courting local support and advocacy. Arlesey Station opened in 1988 took 3 years by top campaigners and public support. Wixams now over a decade, Ampthill can be done if Wixams can be done, two platforms, bus shelters and access overbridges and adequate land. Likewise stations north of Bedford, the 20 mile gap between Bedford and Wellingborough commands a station around halfway, as villages grow and more cars hit the roads, Bedford Midland and local roads will not sustain that growth based on 2.5 cars per average household. So what can give, what can take? It needs a vision, a plan, a consensus and advocacy. Will you step into that brief? This is what ERTA is about finding, and every position filled and done well, is gained for next ones to be done as well, nationwide! Meanwhile these 3 things stand in tension:

1. Time is running out

2. Seize the day

3. Together we are stronger

For details of what is happening, please join our email loop via richard.erta@gmail.com Thank you.

ERTA Newsletter and COP26 Glasgow Reflections

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

Greetings! I attach ERTA's latest newsletter this sunny November day. These are exciting times but also ones of some apprehension and uncertainty. Which way will the wind blow?! Is it the case of 'gone with the wind' or 'wind in the willows' in what to expect with COP26 and outcomes and indeed, the environmental conditions we may face in weeks and years to come?

On the one hand, to put it bluntly, there are elephants in the room. For example the most recent budget was not particularly 'green' with subsidies to road and aviation outstripping that given to rail expansion (I don't include HS2 in this assessment) of local, conventional, mixed use rail links as part of a nationwide plan to fill glaring gaps in the rail network and encourage through choice modal shift more for people and goods. Yes, there's a trickle of reopenings, but nowhere near the rhetoric of 'Reversing Beeching'! 

On the other hand, opposition parties of whatever shade have a moral obligation to show what would they do/offer if in power and to produce their own templates for modal shift with definitions of where, what and how reopenings, rebuilds and select pieces of new builds will be done under their support and governorship. Waffle and bland prescriptions, saying walking and cycling sounds good, but rail deals with bulk and in cases like the A14 (Felixstowe-West Midlands) there is no parallel rail with the capacity, speed and eruditeness to offer a real switch. There are other examples elsewhere too. So this is a time to put up, stand up or accept that things time out, things move on and so must we in some shape or form.

ERTA continues to work with the people and fiscal resources it has to champion rail alternatives and integrated better public transport. Affordability is a critical part of any modal shift plan and equation. Work these days often informs a need to pursue transport, prescriptions of walking 3 miles either way for warehouse work is to pit the bar high if many cannot do that physically and need better public transport, relevant and affordable on Living or Minimum Wages. Handing out Under 65's more combined bus-rail passes especially for local commutes like Bedford-Milton Keynes, St Albans or Cambridge for example could be a perk to enable more and fill empty capacity. Alas, we meet ideological objections and translates to contracting buses which can run empty in some cases whilst others remain disenfranchised. How long can such a stand-off continue? 

Like everything, it is a work in progress, but time is running out and Covid is yet another factor disrupting any straight lines fathomed amidst the spaghetti of pluralism and multi-tasked focuses. ERTA will continue to play its role feeding helpful solutions rail-wise grassroots upwards. This is no time for broken systems and an opportunity to apply common sense and that if something is right, delivery is what counts not £million pontificating around endless reports, studies and spiralling costs defeating delivery in circular motions often as well. East-West Rail Oxford-Milton Keynes-Bedford could have been reopened decades ago and incrementally upgraded as it earned its keep. Instead it has dragged on and still we await a train between Bedford or Milton Keynes to Aylesbury or Oxford. That is where the politics and system, not for want of many efforts, has failed to deliver in a timely manner. We must foster a new way of getting things done surely? As ever, who will blink first and yes, the Government does have a pivotal role!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

Ps. If you are not on our free email loop and wish to be, please send requests to richard.erta@gmail.com Thank you.