New-build rail route capacity creator, serving areas not served by rail

09-12-24 Notice:

I attach notification of our BRTA Rugby Forum in January 2025. Please do give us your interest and support with a view 'not what we can do, but what you can offer' to find solutions to challenges and problems which cater for more people and goods by rail, not more traffic congestion, air pollution, land loss and mayhem as a daily given.

Identifying a new rail route (background):

We at BRTA are given to believe that as Quainton Road-Verney is being touted but with a easterly curve for Aylesbury - Milton Keynes integrated with emergent East-West Rail (Oxford-Milton Keynes/Bedford) and the old Claydon GC-Bletchley curve is being abandoned for HS2, a westerly curve also to serve Verney (with development) and onwards new-build to Buckingham and deviation south of Brackley/east of HS2/urban development to a new A43 area Parkway Station, could, with buses, serve Silverstone orbits and Brackley before going on towards Woodford area, A425 Southam-Daventry trunk road/Parkway Station halfway between two expanding urban areas without a railway and onwards via Willoughby area, old GC into Rugby and onwards via new-build with maybe a loop line serving both Magna Park and Lutterworth and entering Leicester via Narborough area of some other route, but old Midland is severely built on, akin to old Varsity Line east of Willington. We ask people to buy Ordnance Survey Maps (new) and study these/take it to the forum covering Verney and Rugby and Leicester (x3). 

On Catesby Tunnel:

1. How much do they need it as a wind tunnel? Could they relocate/build another if rail demand is high?

2. bore a new tunnel adjacent to it

3. Maybe a cutting adjacent to the tunnel and use removed earth for embankment shoring up elsewhere as part of the new-build rail resource?

A study is needed. Local Parish Clerk dislikes the idea of the railway being rebuilt. But from our stance we see these things:

1. West Coast Main Line (WCML) and Midland Main Line (MML) are congested with demand for more trains and inadequate places for them to call at/London Terminal capacity issues.

2. HS2 may sort out more capacity by creaming off Birmingham-London audiences, but refuses to provide intermediate stations like to the expanding Brackley area as an example. That leaves a rail desert and throws new development - people and goods - to the roads, which are congested, main informants of air pollution (tyres and/or exhausts/both) and upgraded roads take more land, which is needed for other things/a scarce resource, seriously undervalued by development demand, creation of brownfield and less room for wildlife, recreation and local food production.

3. Given these dynamics (there's always more!); and given the mooted Quainton-Verney old route new-build for including Aylesbury into East-West Rail, we start with the new proposed by BRTA of a western curve into Verney and then onwards to the Buckingham area, Brackley/Silverstone area and onwards northwards GC old route more or less and/or new-build with realignments or whatever needs to be done, gives/takes.

4. Leicester is a problem. We need transport planners to step back and see the whole gamut which needs addressing principally:

a. Fuller finish of electrification into Leicester from Market Harborough/Wigston to Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds for one-joined-up network but also

b. Full electrification of Felixstowe-Birmingham lines which also use tracks into and through Leicester.

c. More platforms capacity to receive and entertain more trains including reopened Leicester-Burton-upon-Trent line (Ivanhoe Line), Northampton-Market Harborough - Leicester (Gateway to/from the East Midlands and vice versa).

d. Restoration of the through twin tracks to enable freight to get through the station without delay, as freight by rail is a growth sector and good for getting vehicles off roads and decluttering main roads. If we care about the environment, these are essential to understand.

So, our rail link feeds more trains into Leicester, piecemeal is inadequate, it needs a holistic and cohesive plan, consultation and enable the gamult to be delivered giving more rail-based options and better public transport. 

BRTA Rugby Forum – All Welcome

Saturday 25^th January 2025

2pm lunch – 3-5pm business
Venue: Rupert Brooke, 8-10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 2TP
Venue Website: www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/the-rupert-brooke-rugby
Venue Phone: 01788-576759

Please let Simon Barber know in advance if you wish to come via email address: simon4barber@gmail.com

Phone (landline): 020-8940-4399
Phone (mobile): 07522-374740

Agenda:

1.    Appointment of someone to chair the meeting and someone to take notes

2.    Apologies for absence

3.    Introduction to who/what BRTA is/aspires to

4.    Rugby-Leicester via old GC route, old Midland route or new build. Accommodating both Lutterworth (growth town) and Magna Park (one of Europe’s largest industrial parks)

5.    BRTA’s goal of a brand- new corridoric railway for passenger and goods from a Rugby Central Parkway Station with disabled access to the East-West Railway (Oxford-Bletchley) and associated links to and from Leicester/East Midlands via Rugby, Willoughby, Southam/Daventry arc, Woodford Halse, Brackley/Silverstone orbits and maybe serving Buckingham – Verney with realignments/new-build like at Padbury. East and West curves for optimum feed. West gives Oxford, Reading, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, South West and South Wales links and vice versa – footfall and spend, more rail choices and environmental benefits. Alongside HS2, a conventional railway for passenger and freight capacity with local stations for connectivity. Switch £27 billion new roads funding to fund more rail capacity and links?

6.    Current Rugby Bus and Rail matters

7.    Recruitment for BRTA membership and offers to help with this project

8.    Email MP’s and councils/email local news outlets supporting studying, route protection and finding solutions to problems and cutting congestion/air pollution.

9.    Any Other Business

10.                       Date, Time, Place, of next meeting (Summer or Autumn 2025) or interim Zoom – can agenda it.

https://brtarail.com/events/ For relevant meetings.

Great Central Railway - then, now and new-build hopes for a new railway along similar corridor.

South of Rugby

The GCR passed through Rugby from the South via the old Rugby Central station East of the junction of Hilmorton Road and Timber Court. While the station buildings, which were on the road that passed over the railway, have long since been demolished, the platforms are still largely intact. The closest parking to the old station belongs to the Rugby Railway club, which was originally established as a social space for workers on the railway line, and is now a private members club.

Crossing the West Coast Mainline (WCML)

The GCR did not connect with the existing Rugby Central Station and passed over the WCML, Oxford canal, and river Avon via a viaduct, which ran from the bottom of Abbey Street, to the South, to what is now Staveley way to the North. While the viaduct has been largely demolished, a section of it to the north still exists, ending in an elevated view of Rugby.

If the GCR route was to be re-railed, the viaduct would need to be rebuilt between Abbey Street and the remaining section near Staveley Way. The land under the old viaduct has largely been redeveloped as a light industrial estate (Butlers Leap).

GCR Today

The GCR route through Rugby is now a nature reserve known as the Great Central Walk. Rugby Borough Council looks after 95 acres of the reserve, which it acquired in 1970 for £5,500 (and another £5 in 1980). 

The reserve runs from The M6 in the north, via Newton Picnic Site to the Oxford Canal to the East side of Brownsover near staveley way where it stops at the part demolished viaduct. The route starts again from the Abbey Street and South Street junction, and continues on to Onley Lane to the South of Rugby.  Ramped access onto the old track bed can now be found at the old railway bridges, including the remains of the old station on Hillmorton Road.

The 4.5 mile pathway is used for walking and cycling. The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust does a lot of work to maintain this wildlife habitat and notre that many different species of rare and endangered wildlife can be seen on the walk.

North of Rugby:

Development of the Brownsover estate in the north of Rugby has lead to significant housing development adjoining the GCR route to the East side of Crowthorns road. The bridge over Newton Manor lane has also been demolished.

Re-railing the old Midland Line from Rugby Central Station north out of Rugby is an alternative option as the midland line viaduct over the Avon, Oxford canal and Leicester Road (A426) is still in place but is currently a cycle path. The midland route heads out of Rugby main line station in a north westerly direction and skirts around an industrial estate.

The main obstacle to the north of Rugby for both the GCR and Midland routes is the M6. Further north, the GCR line has been built over in part by the expansion of Lutterworth and also by the M1. The Midland Line is still largely clear west of Rugby and continuing north towards Leicester.

By Eddie Blackburn 13-10-24

See also: 

https://www.facebook.com/GreatCentralCorridorReRailing