Rails for Guildford and surrounding areas a must-have to control development impact and congestion!

24-04-2023 Casual Notes:

Notes from Guildford Public Meeting at St Nicholas Church Hall Saturday 15^th April 2023. Disclaimer: These are notes taken to assimilate the main points raised rather than who said what exactly.

 

Present: About 30 present in the audience.

 

Richard Pill opened the meeting and Zoe Franklin then addressed it for about 35 minutes followed by extensive questions and comments. An agenda and attendance list were circulated at the start of the meeting.

 

Zoe Franklin, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate raised the following points amongst what she said:

1.             Transport of choice, creating emissions, air quality and the health impact of it. We need a shift to environmentally friendly transport.

2.             Buses and trains deal with volume and distance issues.

3.             33 million cars and 2-3 cars per household adds up.

4.             Car ownership surely is about convenience or perceptions of?

5.             Train versus Car access and convenience. The example of the local Guildford railway station – if we are to get more journeys by rail and fewer to/from stations by car, we need diverse modal access beit walking, cycling, bus and less road usage?

6.             Modal Shift needs to be practical; how do we integrate our public transport?

7.             London, Nottingham, Cambridge, Portsmouth are further ahead than some other places including Guildford.  Can Guildford learn and get a better integrated transport system?

8.             Cycling and rail use. How good is cycle access in and around Guildford? The one-way system on a bike does not feel safe. A key concern is safe accessing Guildford main and other smaller stations by cycle.

9.             A call for new stations at Bairn and Merrow. These are tied to major development.  Park Barn for University, hospital and research park.

10.        Electrification: rail travel needs majoritively electrification beit North Downs Railway, but we have no firm plan, but would cut diesel train operations and thus emissions.

11.        Rail Network falls short on disabled and sensory access accommodation and service. Needs new stations to have such things built into the design. Trains need better signage, simplified fares, ticketing, and lower costs generally.  We must make rail usage as attractive as possible. We must empower people to choose and use rail.

 

Question and Answer Session:

1.      Renationalisation as an answer? Is it not a quick and easy option? Longer term maybe plus enable local authorities to have more of a say to invest as well in local rail schemes and services.

2.      Cycle infrastructure – 15-minute towns and cities solution.

3.      Parking – a place called ‘Austin House’ in Guildford was mentioned. Underground parking useful idea.

4.      Better bus-rail integration and whether recent redevelopments have enhanced this or not?

5.      Guildford Bus and Rail Stations, need better clearer transit route by foot between the two.

6.      Shalford/Cranleigh Rail Link and onwards for Horsham/Shoreham/South Coastal links and vice versa. Hamble and Parrish Council was represented. The advantages of reopening were flagged up and the need to pro-actively protect the corridor.

7.      Matters around Dunsfold Park and an airfield and impact of more development without a rail-based infrastructure.

8.      There has been a post-pandemic shift from mere commuting to more leisure travel.

9.      Cranleigh-Guildford and modal shift balances. Some think a bus improvement needed, but rail offers more on numerous fronts. A281 is congested and upgrades just accommodate more traffic, we must have the rail back, it was a short-sighted closure in the 1960’s anyway.

10.  A Liz Townsend apparently voted in favour of the Canal over old trackbed, whereas we need canals and cycleways slewed to make way for the railway to take its rightful course. We are not calling for cancellation of non-rail leisure pursuits. The Downs-link is under threat from the aspirations of the Wey and Arun Canal Link.

11. Office for Road and Rail (ORR) don’t want electrification on the Southern e.g., East Croydon-Uckfield an example. They need lobbying to think again.

12. There on complexities on moving the Guildford-Horsham rail link et al forward but we need a can-do approach by all in leadership for it.

13. Waverley area: Alistair Smith Chairman of Guildford Society cited in Liverpool Battery and electric powered trains but called for electrification in the medium term.

14. Tram-Trains were flagged up, unsure on cost and versatility comparatives to a conventional rail, especially if one throws in more freight by rail adding to the case for rebuilding the railway?

15. Someone flagged up Wisley needing better rail access.

16.  Trevor Jones said new stations must meet certain conditions like not putting them on curvatures on railways.

17. Capital costs were flagged up.

18. Barry Williams of Guildford Society Transport Group cited 1500-5000 Dunsfold Housing Development and local impact if we do not have the railway. Remembering the 2.5 cars average per household – all adds to congestion and pollution if we have no rail infrastructure. It has a traffic impact on Guildford and elsewhere and this is an example to bear in mind.

19. It was pointed out the local authorities work within the bounds of Central Government stipulations and frameworks and constraints.

20. It was raised if extra platforms and services at Guildford can be done or not. An extra platform west side may be feasible.

Meeting closed just before 4pm and we thank all who came and gave so generously.

Subsequently: There is a push to form a small nucleus of people to focus and push for the local rail link via Cranleigh to be restored. All interested should contact Mr Eric Brough: eric.brough@bluevalley.co.uk or join ERTA and help us inform area reps and a team and work through us. Every little helps! We can all liaise and work together. Thank you.

R.B. Pill

24-04-2023

 

16-04-2023 Update (photos to follow):

Guildford Meeting Success! On Saturday 15^th April some 30 people gathered at St. Nicholas Church Hall, Bury Street, Guildford to hear Zoe Franklin, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate speak about transport related matters in and around Guildford, a major centre in Surrey bordering between urban and rural balances with a plethora of rail links and transport issues including congested roads blighting town and rural areas. Traffic management and addressing pedestrian priority, integrated bus and rail and cycle-ability safely in and around Guildford, including getting safely to local railway stations. Zoe gave a lively talk followed by questions, answers, and discussion. The matter of reopening the rail link to Cranleigh, Horsham and beyond was raised by several people. 

Protecting the route, studying the prospect with a ‘how to’ not ‘if but…’ approach is required. Through journey choice both to and from Guildford, decluttering trunk roads and urban blight as well as more freight by rail were raised. Dunsfold and elsewhere development is going in but the infrastructure is less-than what is required. Richard Pill, ERTA Secretary also spoke after Zoe and stressed that local MPs are more likely to take an interest and act if local people get galvanised and write to them encouraging support for reopening the rail link. Likewise, local councillors and councils. It needs a concerted effort and membership of ERTA acting as a bridge to bring people together is recommended.  Join ERTA and give support! Enquiries via richard.erta@gmail.com

Our limited photos from saturday: If you can do more and better as a volunteer, join ERTA and offer to be our photographic officer. Reliable, good and flexible are the key requirements. Thank you. Please email richard.erta@gmail.com for enquiries.

12-04-2023 Agenda and diagrams for Saturday's 'open to all' Public Meeting in Guildford - pray for good weather too!

Not the final word, but gives a flavour, a vision of intent. Join ERTA or donate and give us your support: https://ertarail.co.uk/become-a-member/

Just a reminder of our forth-coming Public Meeting with Guest Speaker Zoe Franklin coming up. If a new rail link between Guildford and Horsham, Shoreham, Chichester and Brighton is to be opened up with outwards journey opportunities and inward footfall and spend, then the drive, vision and commitment to nurturing such relies with local people to determine and their elected representatives to be told that is what they, the people, wish for. 

ERTA can only do so much. We have limited human and financial resources and rely on people to join and get involved with us to progress the initiative. Reading/Heathrow-Brighton/Chichester arcingly is what is on offer potentially with traffic reduction, more rail-based capacity and benefits thereof. Having to go into London and out again is a cost-time-chore and opening up the Guildford area for more by rail means it makes sense to save land around the station and plan development for rail tracks and platforms and station facility expansion with integrated bus links. Instead, the temptation and danger is we do other-than rail expansion development and think of land as a commodity and dispose of it for non rail purposes and then when we have a chance even to re-rail to Cranleigh, getting the volume of trains through platform interfaces is restricted? If trains have somewhere to run on to, it clears tracks and platforms for other train operations. 

ERTA especially wants the councils to come and work together and we need the public to write to them and their MP's as well. Please join us for the meeting and join us as a member to help us.

Many thanks for your interest.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Secretary

richard.erta@gmail.com

27-02-2023

The Transport for the South East recently communicated is full of stuff, but they, like other similar quangos, don't pick up on our suggested pro-rail choices to a roads only agenda.

Whilst all the South East matters and needs east-west rails to save time and cost going into London and out again (default is driving) and capacity issues on main lines like the Brighton Main Line and gaps in the network beit Polegate-Stone Cross or variants thereof, Guildford-Horsham/Shoreham for Reading-Brighton 'not via London' arc and all in between. Likewise a rail link to Heathrow and Old Oak Common (OOC) interchange with numerous other lines and ultimately HS2, third-rail electrification of the North Downs Line for enabling semi-fast Thameslinks to include Guildford on their network e.g. Luton Airport, Eurostar St Pancras and East Croydon and vice versa footfall, spend, flow and regeneration as well as revitalising the North Downs Line itself.

We need your support for making our meeting a success and enabling us to do more. If not a member, please join. If you are an elected representative, to make it in your interest to advocate and speak up for our rail agendas to give local people more choice, save land, and enhance the environment in the broadest sense. Otherwise it is more roads, more congestion, pollution, emissions and 24x7 noise intrusions.

Any offers to help us are welcome to entertain. We are not resourced to do it all ourselves, rather we float ideas and encourage and welcome councils and other agencies (often paid by public funds) to do the public bidding, to come off the fence and invest in nurturing re-railing and better rail-based transport options.

Any enquiries via richard.erta@gmail.com please.

https://ertarail.co.uk/events/

Join our free email loop: richard.erta@gmail.com

Tel: 01234 330090 or 0208 940 4399

re: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21122800/rishi-sunak-railyway-bus-row/?

We don't need to play off between bus and rail, rather, put people, places and environment (back door to good public health) first! 

ERTA is planning an 'open to all' meeting in a hall in Guildford for April to try and bring people together to discuss what they want and what they would wish for in relation to rails for the Guildford area. 

We can only be as good as collaboration with local people, more members and volunteers may inform. 

We are mindful however, that there seems to be tension on what is happening in the Guildford area.

1. More lines and platform capacity is needed; rebuilding to Cranleigh and beyond to Horsham would enable more trains to depart the station and move on to elsewhere.

2. Development off the rails must take into consideration the needs for a growing railway station and facilities on and off the rail and the close proximity of the bus station should not be lost either, as they feed each other.

3. A rail corridor can and must assume the old railway course of way with realignments where blockages exist. Cycleways can be relocated easier than railway lines and this flexibility can still retain off-road usage of cycles and walking, but the rail handles bulk movement of people and goods with the associated masse benefits that may inform.

4. Our suggested new-build rail link would enable an arc of Reading-Brighton direct (not via changing in London) and save time, create capacity and inform more footfall and spend in town centres minus the congestion, land-use parking demand and associated ills.

5. Studies on the railway have centred on Cranleigh, but as a through rail link, it could do a lot more. There's a need for policy to support the rail nurture, there is also a need for numerous studies to a. make the case creatively, b. examine how engineering can be done to satisfy all mostly, c. see a local and regional picture of a more sustainable transport corridor for all.

6. Cranleigh is a growing place, the old route seems compromised. A study to look at new routing options would be required. 

7. Route protection and tailoring development to avoid Cranleigh problems elsewhere, is vital to retain this option for re-railing. If lost, it locks in dysfunction on and off the rails and responsible powers at any level must work with us to avoid it.

I attach 2 diagrams, which are not the last word, but give a flavour of what could be achieved. We would welcome your support for it please. Our meetings are open to all and we aim to grow to service a nationwide landscape. Please offer to help and fill gaps for leadership, move towards delivery of the rail projects. The date we are looking at is 15th April, but this will be confirmed nearer the time. Thank you.

Email richard.erta@gmail.com to be on our loop.