Wednesday 18th June Bedford Midland Station Stall 10am-4pm - all welcome!

Photo of the day! Bedford Midland, Richard Pill, BRTA CEO!

Dear All,

Please come and find us if you wish and maybe visit Bedford - the river embankment is best.

Please bring cash and/or donate.

I attach a updated price list. 

Loads of old newsletters to give away, old magazines and select small run of second hand books and other literature to browse. Town Centre is a 5-10 minute walk from the railway station, but a good chip shop is in Bromham Road!

Meanwhile maybe take some photos and copy us in and inspect the lie of the land around Bedford Midland and see what 'reforms' are needed. Our own views are on the website and increasingly so: https://brtarail.com/ewrail/ and https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/

In sum:

1. The corner and road sweep from Midland Road to Ashburnham Road needs taming

2. The drivers' mess rooms need to return to an island with walking off Platform 1 only.

3. Negotiate a one-way in and out either via sharing entrances with Postal Sorting Office and out via Commercial Road cul-de-sac which used to be used by vans years ago.

4. Put a new booking hall from the road-side on the current car park, so facing down Midland Road - the quickest route to the heart of the town centre/make visible.

5. Triple stack parking northern side of booking hall and bus/taxi access

6. Triple twin bays making 1a for Bedford-Bletchley shuttles (open the line for Sunday services and workings); and 1b and 1c as additional bays which if Northern Route tracks can be extended / bolted on or if our route and passenger reversals to Oxford and Cambridge (via St John's area) respectively, okay, but need 8-coach length in any case, 1a does not have that as MVR (Bedford-Bletchley shuttle trains) are much shorter, but with Universal, will need upgrading and ideally infill electrification and 4-coach units minimally.

7. It needs studying, design work and Ford End Road Bridge possibly needs 'reform' or replacement with greater clearances and versatility built-in.

2031 is Universal 8 million visitors to Bedford per year start, as per we hope, Oxford-Bedford services. Those bays will be needed as per two track linkages to existing slows for freight south of the road bridge. Then consider Bedford-Cambridge may take another 10 years to be operational (built) and walla, baying is essential. Step back and you can see surely that given Bedford-Bletchley is fully operational now and has loads of spare capacity, fitting an hourly Oxford-Bedford service in would not be prohibited or operationally problematic, so our leaders should be calling this out and asking for incremental engineering weekend possessions to do any upgrades like doubling tracks both ends, sorting any level crossing issues if necessary and ideally infill electrification for Watford-Corby freight for example and vice versa.

Our local media and councils need to get the government to engage more around these issues and consult BRTA and include us in such discussion surely? Please help us by joining and donating as we are only as good as a growing membership informs. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarail.com/events/

Sales List 2025

 

Ø  Old Newsletters free! Donations welcome.

 

Ø  Second Hand Magazines £50p each, x3 for £1

 

Ø  Second Hand Books £2 each, x3 for £5

 

Ø  ~ We aim to provide a carrier bag if it helps ~

 

Ø  https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/

 

Ø  If uncertain about anything we do or sell, please ask.

 

Ø  Join as a member and be part of a growing movement for more and better public transport, bucking the trend and enabling greener choices and lifestyles.

 

Ø  

Our association is voluntary and has many opportunities for volunteers and assistants to help us do more and better. CV fillers, experience and pioneering can be done with us where suitable. Please offer/ask and be willing to work as part of a team spirited organisation. Reliability is a key quality we value.  https://brtarail.com/get-involved-volunteering/

 

Ø  Enquiries via Richard Pill, BRTA CEO

01234 225068 or ceo@brtarail.com

 

~ Please bring cash to all stalls and events!

The stall hopefully, will be repeated. See: https://brtarail.com/events/ for other opportunities.