West Northampton Window of Opportunity?
#re: https://westnorthants.
Better late than never! We need a new study updated for a Northampton-Bedford rail link (part of Thameslink extension?) to ensure Northampton 40 minute transit times to Universal (Wixams new station) to a Theme Park estimated to offer 26, 000 jobs and court 8-million visitors per year.
Likewise, we need that new rail link with new routing options (consult us!) to bolt on/have an arm direct to the new east-west rail link design going east for direct Northampton-Cambridge transits (passenger and freight) to be included, not disenfranchised!
Please email your local MP:
in support of our calls, respond to the consultation and help BRTA usher the agenda along. Join BRTA: https://brtarail.com/
Some BRTA representatives may be having a meeting with the council on how we can respectively work collaboratively together. Our priorities are:
1. Updated studies as to business case and feasibility with routing options and how to overcome engineering and routing considerations like a new route north of Olney (A509/A428 corridors) - previous studies showed potential.
2. Pooling time, talent and resources in coalition/statement of common agreement with other councils and agencies to take the project forward. Not 2050 retro-thought, but start now in earnest as we mean to go on to catch up and engage to the full to ensure the Northampton area gets its full share with the strategic local and inter-regional rail benefits which informs regeneration and benefits off the rails too! Modal choices, modal shift, lower emissions, better health, quality of life and speeding up end-to-end timings on and off the rails, cutting congestion through what rail can offer.
3. Ensuring land north of Bromham enables a railway, not developed over and also land for a flyover from the west to enable Thameslink/other trains into Bedford Midland from the north onto the slow lines. A second bridge across the River Great Ouse may also be needed for these purposes as well.
BRTA follows the utilisation theory, which is 'if it is provided, people and goods can opt for rail more, if it isn't they can't and so are disenfranchised.'
It would also inform a Bletchley-Bedford-Northampton loop for non time critical operations off main lines. That should incentivise Milton Keynes Central to collaborate as it would create a few more paths on the West Coast Main Line between Northampton and Bletchley.
The above is part of the BRTA feedback-response, but Professor Andrew N. Williams and his Northampton Team will surely do more and lead on it at the grassroots level for the specifics regarding Northampton aspirations and aspirations. Things have moved on in the last 10 years with development growth, new rail-linked depots, DIRFT expansion, more people and goods demanding rail access and the legacy of past mistakes 'building new towns bolted onto old ones doubling size, but removing the rail links at one and the same time' for example.
Happy New Year btw. Pray it is a year of hope, realism and re-railing!
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
BRTA CEO
