Please write to the minister and give support to this initiative. Thanks. We need a nationwide programme, not mere fragments, we need a change of direction from road-based priority to re-railing Britain. Please tell your local MP you want this.
Other Northern Lines ERTA wants are Colne-Skipton, Matlock-Buxton/Chinley, Leeds-Northallerton via a rebuilt alignment via Ripon, Scarborough-Whitby, a new Woodhead Tunnel for Trains-Pennine capacity, the Burscough Curves near Preston and the Minsters Line (York-Beverley) and also Keswick and the Don Valley Rail Project - don't give up, keep asking, keep making the case and be resolved to working by all means possible to delivery because it matters.
These are examples. Any willing to act as an Area Rep or regular advocate for us, please get in touch. It needs a northern vision, northern coming together and acceptance that intermediate places and rail access counts as well as orbitals for Manchester and Sheffield to enable via Parkway Stations (we think of Bristol Templemeads) to enable more trains on more tracks and routing more freight by rail too. Yes, lots to work out, but you could probably have all this and change from whatever end-to-end High Speed does, which does not handle the fine detail per se. If lines don't exist, the traffic, greater or lesser, must default to roads. That adds up, taking a toll on well being, clean air, urban congestion, time-cost issues and many inefficiencies.
Goods need to be kept moving, not stuck in traffic! Everyone can make a difference. We need political people and parties of whatever shade to sign up and commit to a new pro-rail transport agenda which considers the balancing of benefits and costs and to quote a saying 'the many not just the few!
The problem x nationwide is that areas who have a common vision, a degree of unity, get organised and make hay, are trending towards more schemes being considered, those areas where disunity, diversive visions and mixed agendas 'have cake and eat it' without clear definitions tend to get long-grassed. The method of long-grassing can vary, but chucking an issue to quangos, trading reports, much conferencing and photogenic career building courting top salaries but no spades on the ground is how it has been and is for many regions. Devon and Somerset are making progress and we can learn where reopening campaigns succeed, and reapply to our own situation. The sad reality is for many politicians rail reopenings are a fancy or peripheral matter, whereas environmentally and land-use-wise, they are nationally foundational from many angles if but realised and acted upon. So much pluralism, we need discernment!
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
CEO ERTA
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