At a time of austerity and shortage purportedly of spend availability, government launches a discussion for more infrastructure! Yes, £9 billion found for Lower Thames Road Crossing, which BRTA believes would have better been spent on a rail-based solution even spawning an inland roll-on, roll-off option using rail as a main carrier and also revisiting a modern-day motor-rail train service for longer hauls. Instead our railways seem second or third in line for packing order of spend.
Put £80+ billion for HS2 apart, it is to all intents and purposes a dedicated, segregated railway which avoids freight and only offers default capacity and won't get done for around 10 years hence. A great hypothecation!
Rail is made to be qualified with costly business cases which are out-of-pocket to many lay advocates of rail and industry is siloed so focuses rather than wider picture standing back of what we are trying to address and achieve beyond singular focuses, is lost to swathes of the industry and public alike?
Good to talk, but Government should provide leadership and direction and put all planning on a rail-based infrastructure from day one, with principle concerns and care for people, places, land use and the environment central to all departments and the National Infrastructure Commission - remember the water grid it touted, how much progress in the last 10 years and our recent long, dry, hot summer reminds us of how near we came to no water in some places? Can we afford to ignore it and likewise ignore the health costs of emissions and rubber tyres on hard surfaces infusing harmful particulates and of course polluted water going into water courses and land?
At a fish and chip supper recently, I spoke with a leader who agreed we need Leadership and Direction for a number of rail-based solutions.
1. East-West Rail - lacks 'known' faced people heading it, a lack of hands-on, grassroots upwards connectivity and identifiable to key lay people; who is in charge and where the project is going. Drift rather than Dirft! Bedford-Cambridge, Northern Route deeply unpopular, our route lacks a champion muddied by ORR ruling against level crossings and special dispensations for reopenings where no other facility can be done e.g. Priory Marina entrance in Bedford. Outer routes are floated without much research or longevity of commitment translating to viable routes and comparatively our route 'east of Bedford via St John's' wins hands-down, but the Elected Mayor of Bedford is not exactly coming across as in favour of it per se and so a leadership and champion deficit exists. The inability to get Unions and Management to ACAS and resolve amicably the Driver Only Operation (DOO) contract cost of a conductor delaying passenger services between Oxford and Milton Keynes and that of Bedford avoided until 2031 and where to bay trains from Oxford at Bedford not resolved until 2031, leaves a 6 year gap of disenfranchisement for rail users. https://brtarail.com/
2. Northampton, excess of 200, 000 population, central to the heart of England and yet lacks radial rail routes from the principal county town! Northampton-Leicester via Market Harborough, Northampton to Bedford via new-build for Thameslink/Universal Theme Park courting 8 million visitors from day one in 2031, and a sluggish approach at glacial speed to address even a redesign of Bedford Midland Railway Station. Old station had 7 tracks, new will have about the same, but the old did not require half of Ashburnham Road to be knocked down, the new one does, so has come unstuck again. Local and National Politicians are looking at their seats, new-comers bang drums on single issue agendas and public need to dare to scrutinise and ask difficult questions around policy, what would you do if... and what have you done about x, y or z even with the 'powers' you have as a would-be, wanna-be member of the public first and politician if elected second?
Let the government start here, then nationwide of similar patterning. Cut away bureaucracy tieing us in knotts and putting costs through the roof for political and planning correctness, when pragmatism and a Victorian pioneering sense of imperative is required. https://brtarail.
Colne-Skipton, Plymouth-Tavistock, Seaside Resorts, Criss-Cross country links including Stratford-upon-Avon - Cheltenham and the small piece of rail new-build for Stratford-upon-Avon-Long Marston for a more direct route between top tourist centre Oxford and top tourist centre Stratford-upon-Avon - small rudder style projects like that, but can free up capacity, enable rail to do more and sustainably get the wheels turning based on a humane and environmentally prudent platforming?
BRTA needs more public support beit join, donate, offer to help and email your local MP all can make a huge difference. Thank you. But as Danny Owen once sang, this is not the time for talking, it is the "time for action"!
Let's work together for best results for all we care about and hopefully, collectively hold dear together - love, life, people, places, environment and land use for all sustainably for example?
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