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.
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