Request for your support please - Bring back our tracks and trains campaign!

Dear All,

re: https://consult.communities.gov.uk/special-development-orders/consultation-entertainment-resort-complex-bedford/

Please write in as individuals or in a corporate/external fashion is welcome too.

My check list for support is:

1. Bedford-Bletchley railway local shuttle to be fully retained and improved with

a. half hourly frequency at am/lunch and pm peak times

b. Sunday services

c. halt lengthening

d. Kempston Town and Retail Park to get a new station/put on the corridor rail map

e. infill electrification with semi-fast Oxford-Bedford trains now and 2031

f. semi fast Watford-Corby trains exploiting semi fast end-to-end criss-cross synergies.

2. Rail links east of Bedford via St John's plus physical linkages with ECML/main north-south main line at Tempsford

3. Study and support for a new-build Bedford-Northampton Rail Link, to enable Thameslink extension from Bedford to Northampton, Rugby and possibly Birmingham without a need to change trains and those audiences vice versa to Bedford and Wixams Main Line Station for Universal Theme Park.

4. Stations North of Bedford (SNOB): Oakley and Sharnbrook with a new electric shuttle between Bletchley/Bedford to Leicester on slow lines with new stations at Oakley, Sharnbrook, Irchester, Finedon, Burton Latimer, Desborough, Kibworth Harcourt and Wigston - same design as pre-Universal for Wixams, 2 platforms on slow lines with modest booking halls and parking capacity for 100 cars each. That will create capacity at existing principal stations, feed into them and enable closer access to wider rail services and network/less congested roads/emissions and delays. The A6 into Bedford Midland is a key beneficiary artery if these stations are progressed/sites found.

I would welcome support individually and corporately for these to be studied, supported and progressed by dint and stint and championing/real policy determination.

The idea East West Rail Company does not see that Cambridge-Bedford-Northampton direct has merit NOW let alone their Northern Route cater for such, shows how blinkered their approach has been and remains until they are willing to repent, realign and incorporate with humility a more inclusive and diverse approach.

In such a context, Bedford Midland Station Reform needs to be a top priority NOW by all, ideally coalition, working it through together please.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarail.com/our-campaigns/