Better Rail Links for Northampton

Re: Northampton-Bedford rail link restoration

Northampton’s strategic position means it gets a lot of north-south and east-west traffic. A key logistics and population centre it reaches gridlock congestion and a high content of juggernaut lorries on both M1 and the east-west A14-A45-A43 and vice versa cross roads based on urban Northampton. This cannot continue to grow without some rebalancing between road and rail. For that to happen we need Northamptonshire County Council to see the strategic need and case for reopening the rail link, the benefits for Northampton and wider county and table a cross border consortium to vie in the market of calls for reopenings nationwide for this specific reopening regardless of other projects, agendas or happenings. In short it needs a sustained, incremental nurturing which softly-softly delivers a realisation that it is a strategic missing link with a new revitalised role to play and robust market to serve in the 21^st century.

There need be few costs. Tabling the Consortium and gathering support from private and public sectors, realising funds for commissioning a proper feasibility study (Bucks County Council allocated £100, 000 for one looking at rebuilding a new High Wycombe-Bourne End link for Thames Valley – East-West feeder arc).

Northampton-Bedford has many attributes as to why reopen passenger and freight and some of these are detailed in my booklet published earlier this year priced £4.50 + £2.00 postage. But integrated Thameslink (Luton Airport/Northampton link via Bedford) and Northampton-Bedford-Cambridge East-West Rail integration. If Bedford-Cambridge has an east-north axis rail link, then Felixstowe-West Midlands freights can go that way via the Leicester south curves. However, Bedford-Northampton enables access to Brackmills, Northampton, DIRFT AND the West Midlands. Side benefit is the freeing up of many paths on the West Coast Main Line (capacity) to enable more passenger and freight services, all taking traffic and wear and tear off our roads, cutting pollution and contributing to better public health and ambiance (sell-able asset!). We must not throw this away, we must nurture support – University of Northampton and stewardship of the trackbed bordering their Waterside Campus an early winnable port of call, getting Olney Town Council to believe reopening is do-able and to protect a route around the town – a new route or recovery of a route is required is a study in itself. But the key gain for Milton Keynes is more trains serving Central Station, without Bedford-Northampton West Coast paths are premium and restricted, informing over-crowding, pricing management and more traffic on local roads than otherwise could be the case. Nice as letters saying “I/we support…” are what we need is for you to:

·        Work at forming a consortium

·        Gather support

·        Work with us/liaise

·        Keep it as informal as possible until we get a break through of all on board end to end of the line.

·        Encourage business to be involved – less congestion helps them, therefore it is in their interest to lend support, acumen and leadership

·        Win over the East-West Consortium to give it credence by making the case of what a ground changer this project could be for all its projects and interests.

ERTA holds events and tables an informal forum in Northampton and we welcome people to meet with us, offer support and work with us to move things forward, which is the only way chances for success can be realised. You can see our diary on: https://ertarail.com/events/

The reality is that development goes on regardless, to make development sustainable we need the rail link restored. It has been on the Secretary of State’s desk twice in the 20 years I’ve been involved with the campaign, one of which was 2004 with the London South Midlands Multi Modal Study (LSMMMS). Network Rail’s GRIP process escalators projects towards recognition and potential adoption. We must not think of the branch line steamy past, but of a robust passenger and freight by rail opportunity, save the countryside and cut urban squalor and blight congestion informs. The railway would boost footfall and spend to both our ancient town centres and restore local sense of underpinning and a sense of well-being whatever the future throws up. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

Could people respond to this consultation and suggest that a Northampton-Bedford rebuild rail link should also be integral to Oxford-Cambridge railway renaissance for inclusion and to ensure the freight by rail shift aspect is not compromised? http://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/Pages/engagement.aspx

Speed up delivery of local rail links not speed up speed!

Rail Magazine has both a Heathrow rail link from the south article and extension of Borders Rail to Carlisle = good = rail/less road reliance. However it seems we have a media blackout beyond local letters pages and that every rail scheme except what we want is being pursued the length of the country. I will write in to the Bedford Local Plan as an individual, the central issue is loads of houses urban and rural, throwing loads of cars onto existing roads, urban congestion/sky high parking demand/cost and trade offs and didley rail agenda - the railway needs to be done and dusted by 2035 and it will only, if done, be started by then, let me spell out:

1. Oxford-Bedford 2024, that's 40 miles ish of wire brushed relaid track on an existing rail course with stations and some form of rolling stock = 2 trains per hour hardly intensive - X5 timetable should be the normative template from day one - contrast HS2 120 OOC-B'ham 2026 - just 2 years after opens. In short Oxford-Bedford should be do-able much earlier especially now we have a bypass of Network Rail to do the works - so why the delay? Technicals and legals must be pitted with HS2 the same but more and yet it is to be done and dusted asap in relative terms. Plus we're getting a new £3.5 billion road - not needed - the aim should be to take volume-capacity via the rail corridor incrementally to X5 + x8 X5's to a train-load x 4 per hour = modal shift (passenger and freight). Something is deeply wrong I feel, but am on the outside looking in and even a planner said at the Harpur Centre "some of our questions are not being answered".

2. Bedford-Cambridge. My view is Bedford-Sandy is enough minimally and the Ickleford curve for a start to be opened same time as 2024 Oxford-Bedford for a basic through route/relieve into, across and out of London freight + passenger services:

a. Stevenage - Bedford (Thameslink integration/stock use)

b. Bedford-Cambridge (new)

c. Peterborough-Bedford (Thameslink/stock use)

Then 2024 do across to Shepreth to relieve Hitchin-Royston

Then look at options for bypassing Cambridge (freight). Having visited Trumpington Meadows and seen the curtain of housing across the trackbed going in, compulsory purchase and returning to rail looks a bridge too far!

3. Oakley and Sharnbrook and Wymington are needed MML/electrification which should also have a plan for making consistent 9'6 freight clearance for London-Bedford-Northampton-DIRFT container relief to West Coast = more trains for MK Central.

4. Ampthill and Wixams needed - they serve different catchments and demand centres. Flitwick has poor road system, overload from Olney, MK, M1 and Marston growth areas and south of Wixams infill - Ampthill with western Steppingley access could mop up these wider commuter/growth catchments. Bedford-Olney-Northampton would stem it further out.

5. Retail Interchange Kempston - 19, 000 population Kempston, 000's of cars to Retail Park/parking demand and long queues per day - the station informs more footfall and spend, alternate access and town centre may also benefit indirectly.

6. New Bedford Midland with Midland Road pedestrian isle for town gateway access 'clean and green' Bedford, not congestion, fumes, smoking on narrow pavements and high volume everything 'harmogenised' without cohesion = relative chaos in growth context.

7. Tracks into and through Bedford from St John's need sorting with 3rd under A428 Bromham Road which needs widened bridge span or third span inserting, can be done I believe.

In sum, Olney is easier than Cambridge now for recovery/reopening purposes. We do need a Cambridge rail link but ideas of going via Twinwoods, St Neots, Cambourne and new towns to Chesterton seem daft as you still need - at great cost and upheaval to get to the Newmarket lines for the East and you are entering Cambridge from the north and West?

I feel Bedford is the junior to Milton Keynes is it all, the Consortium seem MK centric than shared coexistence focus inclusive? It should all be done by 2026 if HS2 can, so should these. Otherwise it is going to be gridlock, congestion, fumes and parking issues galore. Bad for business and the environment but where does the supreme buck stop to address? Dft, Parliament, The Monarch?!

Tailbacks down St Cuthberts from Lurke Street Lidls are becoming more common-place. Could a Lidals be allocated to Goldington/Brickhill to spread the load and give more options off the radial road system and/or bypass? There is a plot of land on corner of Caxton Road/Goldington Road corner - near Hatters, likewise field off Cleat Hill/Woodlands with a through bus lane for Grant Palmer to serve? Personally I know many middle class people prefer Lidls to some other supermarket chains and as many new houses will be semi's more Lidls seems logical to avoid town centre proliferation of tailbacks? Plus safer walking and cycling options.

Finally, the path from Newnham Rail Bridge - Beach Pool-Tesco needs drop down kerbs, widening for cycle-pedestrian access share, more litter bins and cycle racks. Path to Tesco is a dumping ground for fly tipping and rats are in the bushes having regular food deposited. Is it time to ask Mr Tesco to work on a joint improvement plan?

Northampton town centre and Bedford have common issues and only the rail link can properly address them going forward.

With all the housing promoted in the new Bedford Local Plan 2035, it will all be heading to urban areas for work, education and commuting, will demand land take for more parking and put pressure on families as travelling to and from venues takes longer and commuting ever more for the £'s to make the costs-incomes meet.

We need an inquiry as to:

1. Why is East-West Rail taking so long to deliver

2. Why the defined route to Cambridge is not being done with more haste and land protected amidst development growth

3. Why Bedford-Cambridge via Shepreth is not being done at one and the same time as Oxford-Bedford so 2024 is a 'finishing date' than 'start up date'?

4. There is no excuse not to speed up as we have a mechanism from Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for bypassing Network Rail schedules.

Likewise Bedford-Northampton should be being pursued alongside East-West as integral to it and also the benefits in cutting emissions of a Luton/Airport-Coventry arc via Bedford and Northampton spinal core missing link agenda. 

Everyone is seemingly sworn to silence including local media and that is not in the public interest. The public want the railways restored and our elected representatives must put grist to the mill to find means and ways for delivery sooner than later - our town centre economies depend on such for sustainability. To just crest of the wave 'let the market decide' is akin to putting a bet on the horses - flimsy prospects - only sustained effort and push can inform delivery vehicles are found to deliver what we need in a timely manner. There seems no excuse.

Hope of interest,

Richard Pill

Northampton Depots and the Roads Agenda v Rail

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Another rail depot, measuring five million square feet, planned near Northampton... metres from original eight million square feet scheme

Another rail depot, measuring five million square feet, planned near Northa... A second rail depot plan that would place five million square feet of warehouses in countryside just outside Nor...

These new developments face the conundrum of what capacity there is on the West Coast Main Line. Facing media blackout in Northampton currently. However Northampton-Bedford-Bletchley loop would offer capacity for non-time-critical and empty movements for example and that would free some paths through Milton Keynes and Northampton. NIMBYS don't want these depots citing loss of countryside, but more road expansion is not opposed - strange coincidence! Likewise the Government reigns over austerity but has loads of money to splash on big projects like Hinckley, HS2, Trident, road schemes and Heathrow.

More road widening and yet 30 year old units on Marston Vale keep breaking down and a new generation needs to be commissioned - yet we are told no money, take recycled underground stock instead or go bust. There is a role for campaigning on these things and one way or other, it is indispensable albeit we need new blood to come forward to take on front line and active parts to foster a new wave of support. So rare, per chance between a hard rock and hot place with pushes to work, lack of slack with welfare cuts and workaholism being lauded as morally right when balance is more nearer to what wisdom would counsel, not least if you lose your health through over work and tarrying, you're in a worse state than a steady pace. Meanwhile Northampton is worth us working on and directing new team players to wade into. New buildings at the Olney Industrial Estate I observe. 

It is a fragile stay of execution, but if frivolously thrown away or dismissed or not pursued with equal vigor to Oxford-Bedford, Bedford-Cambridge, it must be pursued now not as some later addendum 2050! Yet that is the fob off we're getting one way or another. My report will be published in March and will put down a marker that opportunity to move the railway forward exists now, 5 years hence, may not be the case. By that time we'll be reaching gridlock saturate in our town centres and politicians need to realise you can't build your way out of it, rather re-balance the logistical apparatus to give people a fighting chance. Clean Air is not just about what sort of engine one has in ones car, but on fostering the rail alternative. Chicken and egg, no wagons equals can't do when someone asks about freight by rail, to have wagons a demand is required and so it goes on, lorry is cheaper, more versatile and easier to get hold of. But even that is reaching saturation point, so containers stack up, the system slows down and costs rise - enter inflation pittied on diminutives. ERTA may fold, but I as an individual will keep on with producing reports as a rader until we lose our route, then all is lost but for a turning off of the oil supply and making people pick up their bags and walk more. 

That is not fantasy but we should plan to prevent it by nurturing the sensible rail choices. It is cynical devils who bemoan and yet won't hire/pay me by the hour to work on this and then say "hey, we're volunteers who work, we don't have any spare time" - so nothing happens x generations relative to the road lobby who have an all encompassing in-built system whereby everyone has cars, everyone wants roads, every user demands cheap fuel and the politics and votes work their way out to lock-in recycling of the pattern. Rail has no mechanism to do likewise as it is fragmented to introverted parts caged by the contract/franchise and reps do not speak freely, they represent the particular interests of their members which is a fix point for xtown and a new pipe for ybox. Cracking the Northampton nut is pivotal to whether we grasp the nettle or concede defeat. Feedback: e. erta.rails6@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/another-rail-depot-measuring-five-million-square-feet-planned-near-northampton-metres-from-original-eight-million-square-feet-scheme-1-7655713