Updated case for supportive actions:
re: https://westnorthants.
BRTA believes things have changed to give a potential new opening of opportunity to revisit the issue of a lack of rails radiating from geographically central Northampton and that this is an 11th hour chance to set the ball rolling for potential rectification of the deficit for the betterment of built Northampton, people and surrounds.
What BRTA wants is
1. Northampton-Bedford - a study to make the business case and look at routing options and bring other councils, agencies and investors together and ask government to consider Northampton's plight too. East-West Rail going east at design stage does not include Northampton with a direct arcing rail link to the Northern Route Bedford-Cambridge trajectory nor does it entertain access from Northampton the the twin slow lines of the Midland Main Line for access to Bedford, Wixams for Universal Theme Park and Luton Airport for example and vice versa to Northampton from all these markets except by road.
2. Northampton-Market Harborough-Leicester for East Midlands and vice versa, putting Northampton on a Nottingham-Bristol trajectory along with Milton Keynes.
3. Northampton Main Station needs more tracks and platform capacity to entertain these rail link potentials and enable more by rail generally to get through the station alias Castle Station vicinity. Development plans therefore need amendment and tailoring to take these rail-growth plans into consideration.
4. Roade should also be studied for a Parkway Station now it has its new A508 Bypass, as it intersects the two lines from Northampton and Rugby in a growing rural 10 mile orbit of population growth (A5-A508/M1 for example).
The study, the route and land protection, the bringing other councils, agencies and interests to a roundtable coalitioning to take these projects forward more step by step.
BRTA is willing to collaborate positively, but needs elected and professional interest and leadership. Government needs to be involved, as if we want net zero, there is a correlation to what happens in our own backyards or not! Please work with us and everyone stands to gain:
1. Northampton, sustainable footfall and spend with urban regeneration and saleable quality of life enhancements.
2. Northern Milton Keynes (North Bucks) with more paths on the main line beit non-time-critical freight looping via Bletchley and Bedford and passenger enhancement/more seats and parking spaces at MK Central Station and Bedford - pivotal interchange with north-south and east-west rail travel arcing East Anglia, South Midlands and the west/Birmingham corridor direct.
If we don't act now; piecemeal development will scupper aspiration and opportunity. If we can move these schemes forward, there's everything to gain respectively. Please do!
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:
No comments:
Post a Comment