BRTA welcomes Government go ahead to reopen the long campaigned for and courted Portishead Rail Link for passenger services (it already has freight). This new modal choice rail-based solution will give people more options and boost inward footfall and spend sustainably.
However, the Midland Main Line electrification was cancelled, which started circa 1975, stopped for East Coast Electrification and has been very, very incremental interim and now another stoppage just outside the City of Leicester!
Lincolnshire has to be the worst county in England, whereby the A16 sits on the former East Lincs railway which served Mablethorpe Resort and the growing town of Louth and would have been well used for freight. Unless there is a new-build plan to put the railway alongside the road, it is a rail deficit. Likewise at the southern end, March-Spalding would have enabled passenger and freight movements quicker across the Fens and freed up capacity between Ely and Peterborough. March-Spalding would have allowed a Lincoln-Cambridge direct service as well as other linkages to and from with Stansted Airport, Norwich and Ipswich. Alas, roads have been built on all old railway courses and the former rail access now has houses over the junction.
Clearly the apprehension, consideration and appreciation of rail route protection has been lacking and no governmental involvement to consider the strategic nature of some of these rail access issues being denied for the foreseeable future 'lost' to the good of the nation as a whole, let alone local population issues.
Meanwhile, even lines which prove viability are not being supported by Government, like Colne-Skipton reopening despite a robust case and campaign and Witney in Oxfordshire likewise, government saying "no money" but then finds £9 billion for Lower Thames Road Crossing, which in BRTA's view should, like Silvertown in London of been a rail-based solution, not roads pumping more congestion, pollution and detrimental quality of life to the areas affected. Government is failing to show moral courage to put people, places, land use and the environment at the centre of its transport and planning policy and delivery plans and that is costing us dear now and going forward. We're getting hotch-potched transport, pluralism transport, not a cohesive rail-based solution to rectify past mistakes of closures, rationalisation and crippling rail's ability to inform adequate trains and lengths to stop overcrowding and stop the negative cycle of price managing demand, rather than re-railing to encourage more demand by rail, bring social, economic, environmental and moral benefits of so doing consistently.
I could go on across the nation, but these examples are what is happening or not (!) in many constituencies and MP's need to consult constituents to discover what more and better local rail solutions might look like and then switch from road spend to rail-spend. Expose vested interests, challenge pollution and fossil fuels and invest spare money in investing in cleaner solutions which can deliver more. Most local rail reopenings have exceeded predictions of use spectacularly.
BRTA's other specific schemes can be found on our website campaigns page: https://brtarail.com/
In Scotland, Dumfries-Kirkcudbright and Stranraer with a direct west to north curve at the Stranraer end for direct running to and from the Ayrshire Coast should be protected, studied and brought forward for delivery to take-on the growing congestion on the accident A75 trunk road which has a desert deficit of rail presence.
In Wales, the struggling Cambrian Coast Railway needs the restoration of the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth and Criccieth-Bangor rail links to inform a modern upgraded through coastal route alias 'West Wales Main Line' far better than letting existing rails struggle and upgrading parallel roads whilst saying "no demand"! It is disingenuous and the funding of roads compared to ease of access for funding rail, is unequal and the need for rebalancing and to change putting people, places, land use and the environment first and that means rail!
Government says it supports and will fund the East-West Rail between Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge and yet despite the rail company putting out pretty pictures, fauna and flora matters, glacial is the delivery progress and it is screamingly putting carts before the proverbial horses! The delivery of the rail should be forefront top focus, emphasis and dated with on-time rewards, out-of-time penalties. Oxford-Milton Keynes is 'there' but still no date on passenger services (see attached about the absence of an Aylesbury link to it) and despite government giving go-ahead to Universal Theme Park anchored south-west of Bedford, there is:
1. no inclusion in even an hourly Oxford service before 2031 (when it opens with 8-million visitors per year).
2. Bedford-Bletchley Railway is perfectly operational now, but has no Sunday service, no upgrades of length of trains or platforms let alone infill electrification; any upgrades could be done by short possessions over that time, not gold-plating in the absence of the line's operational capabilities. It is a service relied on by students and lower income brackets, yet driver absence and 45 year old 'Sprinter Units' failing, means often unreliable performance, cancellations and a bus substitute which gets caught in congestion.
3. Despite the future being a leisure and work line, there is no Sunday Service and really should be a Micro Franchise for full focused development of the local service upwards, than bolted on as a burden to main line operators (London North Western) and Renationalisation, must be line-specific enablement not Whitehall prescribing down blinkered to local conditions and and what actual rail users wish for? Privatisation was botched from the start, renationalisation needs to be capable of pragmatism, not ideologically driven regardless. We have few assurances, look at Open Access seeking Leicester-Bristol via Bedford and First seeking to reopen the Fawley Rail Link - a reopening, could they be encouraged to do track and train and get more lines rebuilt where demand can be found? Very little about that, but raises the spectrum of whether our leaders really care, have diligence or have and are consulting on the ground?
4. Northampton needs more and better radial rail links and with no change, were Thameslink to have a new-build arm to Northampton from Bedford, could access the Universal Theme Park by rail easier than changing at Bletchley and likewise Oxford/Aylesbury would do more passenger and freight business, if the studied and found viable Northampton-Leicester via Market Harborough rail link were rebuilt. See: https://brtarail.com/
Please address these issues!
Any enquiries via ceo@brtarail.com
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