East-West Rail update and local Beds Transport Matters

Update 28-01-24

Interestingly on East-West Rail there's a discussion group/similar facilitated in early February and we have not even been invited. 

Our focus is Bedford-East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Tempsford. We want East of Bedford via St John's believing it not to be a panacea, but a least costly, mostly flat land and simple to reinstate a railway than Northern Route E or avoiding Bedford altogether at Wixams for example. If you support our stance, please either join BRTA https://ertarail.co.uk/events/  or encourage supporters to join our free email loop via richard.erta@gmail.com We are in transition from ERTA to BRTA but some technical aspects are to take longer than simple name changes, so please bear with us and do not get confused.

Our public transport is under attack and in some disarray and things can either spiral up positively or spiral down to closure or irrelevance. It is a value-priority choice. There is no money, yet HS2 goes on guzzling public money and £27 billion new roads budget was found whereas (environmental alarm bells!) the Rail Reopenings Fund was set at a mere £500 million, is that fair or what the country needs (land take)? Everyone has cars, but we do need more choice. Take A428/A1 Black Cat-Caxton Cambridge dualling for example... where will the traffic go on reaching urban interfaces which are congested a lot of the time? Town and City Centres like Bedford and Cambridge lack the capacity of road space, being a built environment, to cater for the inevitable increases in traffic the wider road-space will engender. So without a rail alternative, it will be pollution and mayhem and that has a cost to it. 

I wish the council was working closer with me as an observer-advisor who has been on East-West Rail since 1986! Oxford-Milton Keynes is reaching end game, Bedford-Cambridge needs sorting to continue the works necessary to get it done in a timely manner. I feel some works could be combined with other rails upgrades as per the 4-tracking at Addenbrookes/Cambridge South Station which East-West Rail services are due to call en-route to Cambridge City and onwards to Norwich and Ipswich respectively and vice versa. That is why to benefit, it must call at Bedford urban interface, not orbit the town. 

Reversal at Bedford Midland with a single through track for more freight from east-north and vice versa and west-north as well, is also needed. Can it be done on existing tracks? That is the question. Can a Northampton-Bedford Thameslink (new-build) arm be done with existing tracks too? That is what should also be being studied alongside new stations north of Bedford beit Oakley, Sharnbrook and a new all stations service Watford-Bedford semi-fast and Bedford-Leicester/Corby all under the wires (yes, Bedford-Bletchley needs infill electrification regardless)! 

Getting started is always the hardest part. However, whilst councils are cash strapped, it costs nothing to round-table and bring the investors to look at an idea and say what about it, form consortia and get the advocacy for Government approval and part-funding underway. That is what BRTA needs and wants, will our leaders extend a hand and work with us inclusively please? Bedford-Northampton would follow more-or-less the old corridor to end of the Stevington Walk area and go north-westerly to tunnel under Lavendon, arc A509 and Yardley Hastings, through or under the Castle Ashby Estate and rejoin old trackbed at Great Houghton into Northampton. 

That is where studies, land protection measures and tailoring of development to ensure a robust corridor can be done now and in the next 10 years. Why 10 years? It is a benchmark of what normally an idea to deliver local rail reopening should take, not 37 years and counting for East - West Rail since campaigners formally organised and advocated it, 1994-5 the professionals via a Consortia got involved and became the mainstay leadership. Government can be instrumental here. Bedford-Northampton, new Parkway Stations at A428/A509 roundabout area and Brackmills Industrial Estate, University/Delapre Abbey - all growth areas, satellite development areas and employment centres needing rail choice to access and decluttering peripheral road networks/avoid rat-runs in rural areas too.

Hope of interest. One study suggested an end-to-end transit by Thameslink Trains between Bedford and Northampton on a modern railway of approximately 35 minutes, which beats anything by road, but could link with local buses and through ticketing to feed each other more as well. Olney area is lost, but A509/A428 roundabout area could be an alternative. It needs studying. It would enable Cambridge-Bedford-Northampton-Rugby through services and freight-by-rail, cutting lorries proliferating on these corridors. So by default, if we want these goodies, Bedford Midland needs reform, redesign and more land-take. There is no getting away from it.

Minimally, the A6 corridor needs stations north of Bedford unless we bury heads-in-sand and go for triple stacking of car parking and endless congestion into and out of Ashburnham Road, cascading back to Prebend Street and Midland Road respectively? 

On Prebend Street going north, I mull over whether making Ford End Road Bridge one way, westwards direction, and that of Hurst Grove one-way north to Winifred Road with inwards via Bromham Road/Ashburnham Road for south, would free-up the mini roundabout at Prebend/Ford End/Midland confluence junction? Worth looking into/maybe a consultation and trial?

Previous input.

ERTA has changed its name from ERTA to British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) to include Wales and Scotland in our fold as well as English Regions and Borders. Our starting place was Bedford and we remain committed to fostering a rail agenda in this location too with public support and interest and that from our elected leaders. https://ertarail.co.uk/ We are therefore updating and in transition whilst continuing to advocate better and integrated public transport.

re: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/mayor-keeping-alternative-southern-east-west-rail-routes-under-wraps/

Please filter anything East-West Rail-wise via me to judge, appropriately disseminate - do not go off on tangents in our name except as private individuals. BRTA wants East of Bedford via St John's. Whichever route has blockages greater or lesser. Lib Dems and some others seem to  want to pounce and trash East of Bedford via St John's and NIMBYs exist everywhere (!) and nothing here about spiralling costs if mileage or whatever versus exact same and more issues with Northern Route D. The reference to Southern Route is vague, if it is 'East of Bedford via St John's' fine, if Wixams-Bypass - is there the land now for a multi-purpose segregated station? As for Tempsford and ECML capacity or not, that should be in the discussion now for both local services now plus growth and any Cambridge-Royston-Arlesey-Biggleswade-Sandy-East-West Rail inclusion.

Please see attached, but if connectivity with Bedford Midland is critical as opposed the Bicester North to Bicester Town (East-West Rail)/Village, then a bus link could fill the gap in orbital route like Spalding town has via bus station and principal outs including High Street and Borough Hall for example.

Please fill in the 2024 Bedford Bus Survey and encourage councils to invest in the No. 2 Bus between Bedford and Flitwick AND interim places - Retail Park (no rail station), interim places and AMPTHILL (no station). Such gaps mean hardship - I use it and it seems busy to me and most buses are subsidised anyway or cut!

https://www.bedford.gov.uk/your-council/have-your-say/consultations/bus-usage-survey-2024