Great Central Corridor New Rail Appeal

Notes from 09-07-2022 Meeting:

ERTA Notes of Rugby Forum – Saturday 9 July 2pm food, 3pm -5pm business Rupert Brooke, 8-10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warks. CV21 2TP https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/warwickshire/rupert-brooke-rugby

Present: Cllr Peter James, David Ferguson, Simon Barber, Richard Pill

Apologies: Cllr Tim Douglas, Cllr David Bill, Adrian Carter, Richard Cooper

Preamble: We had a loose interpretation of the agenda, to discuss the way forward and the issues and plan accordingly. It was agreed that the two schemes of Northampton-Market Harborough (MH) and that of the Great Central (GC) should be dealt with under one meeting, especially as North of Northampton and Rugby are concerned as are both glaring gaps linking two principal main lines. If we are serious about modal shift, we need these lines back in some form and order to enable that rails to take more of the lion’s share of what business is on offer. ERTA and colleagues would seek to do both under one meeting.

 

1.                 The two schemes are:

a.                 Northampton-Market Harborough and

b.                 Great Central corridor new build from Old Oak Common-Narborough (where it would link to the existing Nuneaton-Leicester lines. ’b’ can be broken down to a Phase 1 focus of Rugby-Leicester/Nuneaton and the re-railing of Lutterworth and Magna Park – one of the largest industrial depot complexes in Europe with no rail connection (a planning oversight!). and ‘c’ south of Rugby to Calvert for connectivity to east-west rail (Oxford, Bristol and Southampton arcingly) and those audiences – people and goods to Leicester/East Midlands. That is more capacity (road and rail). Bletchley-Northampton on West Coast Main Line (WCML) is premium and with extra traffic from Oxford-Milton Keynes – East Croydon-MK Central has been scaled back to Watford due to capacity constraints and Bedford-Bletchley also is vying for access – then the GC re-railing idea makes more sense and is more direct.

2.                 Northampton-Market Harborough (MH) is shorter, has a road scheme being placed slap bang on it by West Northants Unitary Council, which is a huge problem and set back. Likewise, a new deviation south of MH is needed to link physically with the Midland Main Line (MML). This link could:

a.                 Bring freight in by rail to Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton new rail-linked depot and with a north-west curve, link direct into DIRFT.

b.                 Enable Southampton, Bristol and Oxford arc and all in between to Milton Keynes, Northampton and Leicester/East Midlands and Felixstowe by rail and all in between

c.                  Boost both locations and have an intermediate station to serve Brixworth on the A508, it would also provide rail-based competition to M1 and associated traffic relief both ends and intermediate places.

3.                 ERTA: we are still relatively small, have upwards of 40 members scattered across the English Regions and have many projects of a similar nature at varying stages to deal with and are meagrely resourced. That means at best we can:

a.                 Plant ideas

b.                 Work with others to develop flyers and feed into meetings

c.                  Need able-others to lead, help head up and make contacts who can invest in these ideas and take them further, growing in such wake, a consortium for delivery.

 

4.                 Action Stations and taking these projects forward:

It was decided that Cllr Peter James from Harborough District Council would set up a meeting at MH to bring people together and inform a regular meeting to:

a.                 Appoint a head-up advocate team or set of individuals

b.                 Aim to get councils and agencies of Midlands Connect and England’s Economic Heartlands (EEH) on board

c.                  Invite a speaker of relevance for first 20 minutes with Q&A to draw them in for support like Gazeleys, Maritime and others who may be willing to invest in the projects, studies, enablement.

d.                 ERTA can help promote these meetings as ‘open to all’ but with a clear message, we expect people to offer to help and be useful to advancing these projects.

e.                 Richard to draft potential diagrams and send to Cllr James for him to help find a willing volunteer to work them up for possible deployment on a flyer. Likewise, the flyer, once notified of the details of date, time, place of meeting in MH, would provide a flyer using what is available and Cllr James would help inform distributor volunteers. Every meeting could have a donations bucket and that could help fund printing costs and hall hire. Light refreshments would be provided. The meeting may concentrate to volunteers only committee style and lay foundations as a consortium.

5.                 Other Actions:

a.                 David to carry on leafleting on a regular basis whilst weather clement of Brackley, Woodford and Hinton, Willoughby, Hillmorton and Braunston and Barby and finally Rugby.

b.                 Richard to notify Lutterworth T.C. of the future Methodist Hall Meeting when Cllr James notifies him of said details.

 

There being no other business, the forum ended at 15.25pm

 

Notes: Please encourage any interested people or organisations to email richard.erta@gmail.com to join our loop and/or see our website for joining details/fill in a flyer. Membership and considering what people are reliably willing to do is welcome.

The Executive Committee cannot be responsible to do it majoritively, to work, it must come from local people. EEH Website is: https://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/

I attach the Rugby Forum Agenda. Simon to please bring spare copies. Please encourage others if you can to attend and make common cause with us/help take a lead.

ERTA is not about reinstating a literal old GC corridor railway, but a new railway along a similar corridor with new build where old has gone to link London, Southampton and Bristol with West Coast Main Line/WCML, Leicester and East Midlands and vice versa and all in between. 

We, as a small association of upwards 40 members, are in the business of planting ideas. Pushing all traffic through the Bletchley-Northampton WCML portal is not going to work with Oxford-Bletchley, as the WCML is congested and so more capacity is required. 

Northampton-WCML-Leicester via Market Harborough is under attack from a roundabout junction being placed on it by West Northants Unitary Authority as a scheme over from the County Council days. It is a setback, but we need an authority to hold it to account to ensure a railway can be rebuilt.

Similarly, Rugby-Lutterworth-Narborough needs route option identification and moves towards advancing and making the case in delivery candidacy terms.

ERTA does not have the resources, so we need to court with our ideas, bigger professional bodies from councils, agencies and developers, who may be interested and willing to invest to see what is in it for them. Any help with sending contacts, ideas, suggestions, people and helpers to us, would be gratefully appreciated. 

Our website: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ lists opportunities to meet and engage with us and if we get demand, a zoom meeting can be arranged. But we need others to take an interest please.

Any questions feel free to ask, but we look towards you to help inform the upwards of £50k for commissioning studies to look at 'how to...' and 'business case' and 'environmental impact' and 'demand' etc. Local Councils could do more to protect remaining route and infrastructure and ask HS2 to support a domestic line and new alignment from Calvert-Claydon-Brackley East-northwards to Rugby Central (possible Parkway Station) and options for onwards to Lutterworth via new viaducts and/or via  a new construction to the Northampton Loop Line for accessing WCML into existing Rugby and/or arcing around with connection to DIRFT and onwards to Lutterworth-Narborough etc. These things need to be looked at, but if we want a modal shift, planning them, determining them and courting investors, is exactly what we need now please.

Join our free loop via requests to richard.erta@gmail.com