Media Link 4th December 2025:
Addition 02-12-25:
This development has been speculated with others for a long time I recall? It will mean a lot more road traffic in the radial road areas it links to and from. Delays on deliveries are nothing new, it costs though and more of the same only exacerbates that. I know some do not challenge or get involved with planning matters but BRTA does sometimes.
Although not on our supported Northampton-Bedford rail route literally, it adds a market demand for a new potential Brackmills area Park and Ride Railway Station on a reopened Northampton-Bedford rail link which could be a considerable benefit on and off the rails. Complications need to be studied, business cases need updating, but with Universal at Bedford, direct 50 minute direct rail access to Luton Airport and those audiences to the Northampton area by sustainable transport, one feels the view strongly that we would be foolish to let the rail aspiration go and bury heads in sands as to the opportunities lost if we do not act now and see the medium term choices now!
Pragmatically in reopening local rail terms, it is an 11th hour, because junctioning and interim routing options, unless defined and studied, will vanish under these kinds of development proliferating on a nationwide basis! It is time to come together and determine a rail future for Northampton please!
Useful web page: https://brtarail.com/
At the Bedford end, ensuring no development blocks access to East-West Rail's northern route from the Northampton direction and that Thameslink trains can enter Bedford en route southwards, does not appear in East-West Rail designs, Northampton will have no quick and direct rail access to Bedford or Cambridge unless a 1.5 hour deviation changing at Bletchley is your ideas of a panacea for travelling to Greater East Anglia, when a B2N direct rail inclusion would cut that time to Bedford down by at least half with Brackmills and a north of Olney Parkway being served on a modern railway?
Northampton is central to the heart of England. It is a major logistics centre. It has many well-attended sporting outlets (Rugby, Cricket, Football) as does Bedford (Rugby, Rowing and Athletics)! Northampton has a population growing upwards of a 250, 000 catchment. It will ultimately have access to the Milton Keynes/Bletchley to Oxford corridor and vice versa.
However 2 aspects need a consistent coalition to be built and take up the baton:
1. Northampton-Bedford/Cambridge synergies. Needs updated studies including business cases, engineering aspects, new route avoiding built-up Olney with a new Park and Ride Station for Brackmills and A428/A509 interfaces and access into existing rails and networks at both Northampton and Bedford ends. East-West Rail proposes a rail route North of Bedford to the East for Cambridge and wider East Anglia and those audiences to Bedford and onwards to Oxford and vice versa. Suitability for freight (revenue) is yet to be determined. Northampton currently will have no direct rail link to this Bedford-Cambridge rail line. It should! Northampton-Bedford would however, plug Northampton and the trajectory to the West Midlands direct to Bedford, Wixams new station for Universal Theme Park (courting 8-million people per year/opens 2031), Luton Airport, London St Pancras Eurostar and the wide South East Thameslink Rail Network and all those audiences to Northampton! What could it do (footfall and spend minus road traffic congestion and pollution?) and much more. It needs an updated study and new routing options determined. Then a coalition to bring key outlets and people together and move it towards both inclusion and delivery within a 10 year time-frame.
2. Northampton-Market Harborough for Leicester, East Midlands and beyond and those audiences to Northampton as well as a Cross Country rail route linking East Midlands say Nottingham, with Northampton, Milton Keynes Central, Bletchley for Oxford, Reading, Bristol and Cardiff and those audiences by rail, to Northampton, lifting congestion on the A43 for example and M1?
There surely must be something in it making it worth a study update and lobbying to get the government to demand designs for a new Bedford-Cambridge railway include a direct link from a Northampton to Bedford new rail link to onwards for Cambridge etc, ideally from day one?
That is what BRTA is seeking and is supporting. We welcome you to join us and help take the vision forward. Leadership and champions are called for please.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
CEO of the British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) For background reading:
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