If we are to mitigate the impact of large scale developments like and principally Universal Theme Park at 55, 000 people per month coming to the area from 2031 (5 years away) and associated developments like more hotels, infill business and residencies, unless we think rail now going forward, it all defaults to roads. There has been much made of the emergent A421-A428 Bedford-Black Cat Roundabout/A1-Cambridge dualling and associated works and the concept of free highway access being enhanced (no more delays) at great land take and carving up of countryside (farming land and wildlife habitats) - the fact remains that more road capacity will fill up with yet more volumes of traffic and when it turns up at Cambridge and Bedford urban areas, will just gridlock, as pints into quarts, there's nowhere for it to go/park etc?
That is why we need an east-west rail between Bedford and Cambridge. It gives modal choice and dilutes the pressure on local-regional roads. The cuts emissions and checks and balances of negative spin-off impacts. Then we come to rail routing:
1. BRTA wants a railway going east of Bedford via the St John's area through Willington and a new-build adjacent to the River Great Ouse south of Great Barford and via the pains of Tempsford north or south of Station Road, to have a physical connection with the main north-south main line (Peterborough/Stevenage/East Bedfordshire to Bedford and the Oxford corridor and vice versa - sustainable footfall and spend) and thence via the East-West Rail Company's route to Cambridge. Ideas of a new-build through Sandy and onward to link somewhere the Hitchin-Cambridge railway is an option and the EWRCos own route links to that very railway. The old railway went and junctioned at Trumpington Cambridge, but that is built on and the new Cambridge South (Addenbrooks) Station sits on that same land too, but has taken 110, 000 people using rail in the first month of opening, (so add Oxford-Cambridge and a new rail link to Haverhill, that would be a lot more people using rail).
2. Development is pressing in and potentially blocking all these routes, where and what options without compulsory purchase and relocation will be in 10 years time (2036) one shudders to think; but if gridlock and traffic management proves impossible and Climate Change is ever taken seriously; these blocking tactics are the wrong way to go; you get the rail choice planned and implemented and tailor development around it.
3. Government talks about Regional Mayors, Government restructuring and localism; but without the conceptual structural infrastructures necessary to make even a modicum of sustainability, land use stewardship and balance cross-county and all tiers need to realise the railway is essential.
4. Added to this, Northampton wants to have a new direct rail link with Bedford, Universal and the expanding Luton Airport and vice versa - town centre regeneration needs more rail links to make High Streets vibrant, but sorting the competitive free parking in out of town developments, so parism with town centre parking is more equitable is required. Kempston Retail Park is landlocked by roads, it is congested with confined spaces for parking, but a new station on the Bedford to Bletchley railway would bring new footfall and spend, as well as boosting the local shuttle service on the rails. It needs an updated study and push at this stage.
5. BRTA opposes withdrawal of the local Bedford-Bletchley shuttle railway service and wants all stations/halts to remain, be lengthened. The shuttle serves students, minimum wage workers, end-to-end users and more. East-West Rail will serve select stations and semi-fast services. We need both, as the corridor becomes ever more important and growing in population, businesses and people mobility terms.
6. Northampton should be welcomed for a direct link to Bedford and BRTA wants the elected representatives for the area to work congenitally and embrace it. It needs updated studies and one benefit would be integrated direct Thameslink style services between Bedford and Birmingham/the West Midlands and them to us. The A428 corridor between Bedford-Northampton has poor bus services, piecemeal developments and queues of commuter traffic at both ends. Without the railway, these trends will exacerbate. Please get involved and advocate policies and support for it in your own political colours. Stop the 93 dwellings at Lower Farm Road, Bromham which will need amending as they will block access to the Midland Main Line (MML) from the West. Ideally
7. Northampton-Bedford-Cambridge would be a South Midlands-East Anglia rail link as well, for passenger and more freight by rail as Northampton is a principal 'Golden Triangle' logistics and transport hub, but as it has no east-west rails and most lorry traffic comes from the Eastern area and vice versa, is constrained currently. We need councils, agencies, government and all tinkering of 'reforms' to be aware of these crucial rail corridors, protect, tailor and build up the importance and case for the rail to return and bear the brunt of sustainable growth, rather than road networks, rat runs and blighting people's lives.
8. Please give them and BRTA your support. Thank you. Speak up for more rail and as per last Fridays BBC Radio 4 Any Questions Programme Panel - be able to differentiate between a pudding and a tart! The programme came from Bakewell! The point is, grasping the local situation, not being helicopter views and if you do get it, rail is key to turn challenges to more inclusive opportunities!
Happy to engage with any Zoom/Teams meetings, not to argue, but to welcome support and actions to nurture a better deal for rail in the Bedford and shire areas, pivotally central to rest-of-region interests too.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
BRTA CEO
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