24-10-2022
Below is an attempt to map out key areas we at ERTA would welcome more rail investment/go-aheads and progression towards delivery.
1. Liverpool-Tees/Humber certainly for my money Woodhead and Harrogate-Northallerton could help
2. East Midlands: Northampton-Market Harborough key link for Southampton-Bristol-Oxford 'triangle' to/from Milton Keynes/Bedford via East-West Rail for East Midlands and back. Bletchley-MK-Northampton a WCML pinch point requires a certain speed for capacity. HS2 may ease and create more paths, but some way off, we need it now. Also East Midlands, Derby-Manchester via Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton/Chinley has to be hands-down a winner if allowed.
3. Thames/London: growth by rail in my view depends on capacity - loads going on beit in, across and out of London as well as London centric freight and deporting and that of Channel Tunnel, across London and circumvention. Northampton-MH frees more via Peterborough-Leicester to serve potentially Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton Depot (from the north 'not via London'); from East Coast or anywhere else and Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal/DIRFT via a new north-west curve.
4. A key issue is the government refusal to grant the Ely Rail Bypass currently, which like Bristol-Portishead is being held up and that is incurring cost (Bristol) and delay (Ely) to increase what capacity and rail can offer. That in turn puts pressure to go by road (A14/A45/A43/A34 = Felixstowe-Northampton-Oxford-Southampton arcing with continuums from each of these roads to places like West Midlands (A14/Lutterworth to M1/M6) and/or London (M25 and radials) which cascades.
5. In Scotland, long overdue is Dumfries - Kirkcudbright/Stranraer - does it make any sense for A75 to be upgraded continually while there's zero rail alternative? Kirkcudbight has Deep Sea Portal, mainly dominated by the Royal Navy, but maybe some access/shared facility or new could be negotiated to bring freight into Northern areas from the North more than long-haul Southampton?
6. I would add that we need a more diverse freight by rail mix and match such as parcels - pallets - post and in France we see wagonload remergent and we used to have Speedlink which although judged unviable, was building smaller flows to larger trainloads incrementally. Charterail had curtain sided wagons for pallet loads to be forklifted and loaded for example.
7. I hear also that connecting to the railway is tedious, expensive and laborious such as to make lorry loading easier, more versatile and well, life is too short! So we used to have a Section 108 Sidings Grant which assisted with connecting costs, unsure status or translation now if any, but maybe such a thing could be revived and broadened with a credit attached in grant terms for environmental contribution for sending more by rail than road for example.
https://www.railfreight.com/policy/2022/10/18/commission-injects-nearly-half-a-billion-into-french-single-wagonload-transport/
17-10-2022
Laudable to have more freight by rail! However, it is ERTA's view that we need to a. grow the local rail network, examples like Northampton-Market Harborough for example, would create significant capacity, open new flow by rail opportunities currently lost to road and compliment the current east-west rail Oxford-Milton Keynes. b. Government could tip the balance or level up from £40 billion new roads to make Rail Reopenings equitable, not a mere £500 million. c. Things like restoring the Section 108 freight sidings grant with a modern and pragmatic flexibility and slimming down proceedures to aquire rail network connectivity. d. a more flexible and versatile approach to 'what fits' in landscape design and whether tunnel, bridge, duck-under or a level crossing with a community education programme? Straight jacket fixations, when public abuse is more the issue of level crossings, must take into account urban landscapes for example do not lend to new bridges or whatever per se. Why should reopenings or connectivity by rail for speed, efficieincy and the environment be held back? Sadly, this is a problem and we think not only of Brackmills Industrial Park, Magna Park and Forders Sidings on the A421 A1-M1 paralell where there's loads of capacity, but zero rail-based use of assets. It has idled for decades and could inform part of a recycling and waste in/out depot for example - cars, glass, other recylables to rail, processing and finished products by rail. In addition, post, parcels and pallets by rail, not just block train containers. I suspect not looking for new money, but costs could be saved by slimming down bureaucracy and switching priority from roads to local rail recovery and growth - people and goods, a line-plan for every railway, not just whim and winds of market expediency. Bring back Speedlink for example!
https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/135533/the-gbrtt-launch-call-for-evidence-to-increase-rail-freight/
18-08-22
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/161-million-to-transform-oxford-station-bringing-faster-journeys-to-thousands Still leaves the Basingstoke-Reading-Oxford bottleneck and the need for more alternative routes radial to and from Southampton. If we consider majority of freight going beyond West Midlands to the North, orbital routes to core route is exactly what we need to be studying, not building more roads?
11-07-2022:
https://www.railfreight.com/railfreight/2022/07/11/uk-government-freight-strategy-questioned/
Worth a read, get inspired and join ERTA/donate: https://ertarail.co.uk/
Northampton-Market Harborough would bring freight by rail to Brackmills, Northampton Depot and with a north-west curve, direct running into DIRFT.
The scope is East Midlands, traffic off the M1 and A508 respectively and arcing to Oxford via Milton Keynes and beyond - Southampton and Bristol and all in between. So we need support going forward and a perusal of our Blogspot can help bring everyone up-to-date.
We hope to have a meeting at Market Harborough and inform a steering committee to focus on taking the Harborough link forward as well as the Rugby-Narborough flank bringing Lutterworth and Magna Park back on track!
04-07-2022
The government sets out a rail freight strategy. However, what we need is:
1. Grants not loans for pieces of rail infrastructure to boost rail-connectivity to the wider rail network, like the Brackmills Industrial Estate to the main line at Northampton Castle Station.
2. To see strategic missing links and inform policy, planning and tailoring of development to keep a rail re-connection 'open', not built on and blocked? Northampton-Market Harborough to enable East Midlands-Oxford and Felixstowe to DIRFT, Northampton Depot and more by rail aggregately than can happen without it.
3. To have a triple pronged approach to Rail and volumes, shapes and sizes more by rail:
a. give incentives and legal requirements for all freight over 50 miles to explore using rail and incentives for all carriers like DPD and others including DHL, The Post Office/Royal Mail, UPS, FedEx,
to all consider rail more. Many images of the 10% freight by rail are of containers, bulky materials like aggregates and long trains, when small can be beautiful like parcels, pallets and post by rail more. Perishables another. Amazon also. Without government carrot and stick frameworks, incentives, development for rails, depots, access and joined-up-networks, this cannot begin to be realistic. Extol the benefits of rail, equip operators to do more and incentivise. The savings is less road wear and tear, lowering congestion blight and delays (cost), less emissions x whatever rail haulage is used aggregately and freeing up of land otherwise used for road vehicles and parking, for other things like housing, employment, conservation and farming.
b. Does rolling stock design, availability, price, stewardship and access inform a versatility and flexibility and availability needed for customer demand balanced with what rail can offer now and going forward.
c. Government needs to be working with partners for putting tracks back (rebuilds/reinstatements/new select pieces of versatile local, conventional railways for people and goods to use and access - a post office for every station upwards of 20, 000 population within 10 miles and where that population exists like Louth in Lincolnshire, for those tracks to be put back or rebuilt alongside the A16 or equivalent roads as may be the case.
d. On larger block train consignments - pallets to containers, why not look at a rebuild of Woodhead for capacity, relief to the A628 trunk road - through a National Park being upgraded is outrageous, when rail could, if put back, take a lion's share of people and goods over the Pennines and using Hull and Liverpool more for ship to shore freight, Woodhead is just the ticket for such endeavours and should be seen in the round, ditto Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton to enable more by rail and declutter the York/ECML bottlenecks. Government needs to join these things up more and have a block replication system which can go anywhere, fund anywhere and enable anywhere with savings in such wakes. The problem of loans is they have to be paid back, being a nation of debtors is a bad thing on a number of fronts and with uncertainty as an underlying platform of engagement, if environmental, social and economic meet and say 'yes' to rail more, then the moral thing is to do, lead and enable rail. New money may not be so incumbent, as per top-slicing the £30 billion new roads budget for rail more and cascading policy and grants from road schemes to rail schemes as a step in the right direction.
Please engage positively for rail. 2050 is too little, too late for modal choice for modal shift in a climate emergency. 2030 is the cut off date for irreversible climate change. We need plans hitting the ground now, not laying up cushy numbers for an uncertain future.
Failure of the current system and the love affair with roads whilst highlighting costs and problems of rail relative to perceived or actual 'demand' results in this being played out in Lincolnshire, where road building is rife, land lost for rail like March-Spalding is lost and locks-in an unsustainable scenario which if repeated nationwide, leaves us in an untidy mess, which Government must lead us out of.
Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,
See also: https://www.railway-technology.com/news/siemens-mobility-mireo-plus-h-trains-to-neb/
Above: Siemens’ first hydrogen trains ordered for Berlin-Brandenburg region, reopenings need this sort of innovation in UK as well.
Is it so hard to imagine such a service linking Northampton Castle Station with University/Delapre, Brackmills and Great Houghton? Translation is the challenge, but think and weigh benefits with problems and cons? I believe it can be done and traffic and growth means must be done? Please help us get there and give support to ERTA, its events and offer to come aboard via membership and help us practically.
Interestingly enough, now some logistics companies have bases at Brackmills, will have at Northampton Depot emergent, DIRFT operational inputs and that of East Midlands Depots, the missing link to enable more and some joined-up rail-based thinking is:
a. the re-railing of the Brackmills Branch and
b. the rebuilding of a Northampton-Market Harborough Rail Link.
These offer optimal flexibility, congestion reduction, time efficiencies, choice and much more. Weigh that of the cons.
There is a trade-off to be done. Bigger organisations can help and loosely work with us to help push it through and save the day on a joined-up rail network fit for 21st C modal shift back to rail for reducing emissions and keeping the wheels turning sustainably more?
We need nationwide policy, plans, agendas, but that feed, can also come from local aspiration upwards as well. Realism is where they can meet and put in context, be moved towards delivery. We can only plant ideas, we need other players to work together and nurture towards that goal. See and respond to this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-freight-plan
Offers for speakers at future events, welcome to entertain. As long as it is all voluntary, you bring your own equipment and can also include hand-outs/brochures, we welcome sponsors and collaboration towards more success. A web link can be provided as a thank you for willing speakers at future events, informing more public viewing and interest. Thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
ERTA Chairman
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