Great Central Corridor New Rail Appeal

Notes from 09-07-2022 Meeting:

ERTA Notes of Rugby Forum – Saturday 9 July 2pm food, 3pm -5pm business Rupert Brooke, 8-10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warks. CV21 2TP https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/warwickshire/rupert-brooke-rugby

Present: Cllr Peter James, David Ferguson, Simon Barber, Richard Pill

Apologies: Cllr Tim Douglas, Cllr David Bill, Adrian Carter, Richard Cooper

Preamble: We had a loose interpretation of the agenda, to discuss the way forward and the issues and plan accordingly. It was agreed that the two schemes of Northampton-Market Harborough (MH) and that of the Great Central (GC) should be dealt with under one meeting, especially as North of Northampton and Rugby are concerned as are both glaring gaps linking two principal main lines. If we are serious about modal shift, we need these lines back in some form and order to enable that rails to take more of the lion’s share of what business is on offer. ERTA and colleagues would seek to do both under one meeting.

 

1.                 The two schemes are:

a.                 Northampton-Market Harborough and

b.                 Great Central corridor new build from Old Oak Common-Narborough (where it would link to the existing Nuneaton-Leicester lines. ’b’ can be broken down to a Phase 1 focus of Rugby-Leicester/Nuneaton and the re-railing of Lutterworth and Magna Park – one of the largest industrial depot complexes in Europe with no rail connection (a planning oversight!). and ‘c’ south of Rugby to Calvert for connectivity to east-west rail (Oxford, Bristol and Southampton arcingly) and those audiences – people and goods to Leicester/East Midlands. That is more capacity (road and rail). Bletchley-Northampton on West Coast Main Line (WCML) is premium and with extra traffic from Oxford-Milton Keynes – East Croydon-MK Central has been scaled back to Watford due to capacity constraints and Bedford-Bletchley also is vying for access – then the GC re-railing idea makes more sense and is more direct.

2.                 Northampton-Market Harborough (MH) is shorter, has a road scheme being placed slap bang on it by West Northants Unitary Council, which is a huge problem and set back. Likewise, a new deviation south of MH is needed to link physically with the Midland Main Line (MML). This link could:

a.                 Bring freight in by rail to Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton new rail-linked depot and with a north-west curve, link direct into DIRFT.

b.                 Enable Southampton, Bristol and Oxford arc and all in between to Milton Keynes, Northampton and Leicester/East Midlands and Felixstowe by rail and all in between

c.                  Boost both locations and have an intermediate station to serve Brixworth on the A508, it would also provide rail-based competition to M1 and associated traffic relief both ends and intermediate places.

3.                 ERTA: we are still relatively small, have upwards of 40 members scattered across the English Regions and have many projects of a similar nature at varying stages to deal with and are meagrely resourced. That means at best we can:

a.                 Plant ideas

b.                 Work with others to develop flyers and feed into meetings

c.                  Need able-others to lead, help head up and make contacts who can invest in these ideas and take them further, growing in such wake, a consortium for delivery.

 

4.                 Action Stations and taking these projects forward:

It was decided that Cllr Peter James from Harborough District Council would set up a meeting at MH to bring people together and inform a regular meeting to:

a.                 Appoint a head-up advocate team or set of individuals

b.                 Aim to get councils and agencies of Midlands Connect and England’s Economic Heartlands (EEH) on board

c.                  Invite a speaker of relevance for first 20 minutes with Q&A to draw them in for support like Gazeleys, Maritime and others who may be willing to invest in the projects, studies, enablement.

d.                 ERTA can help promote these meetings as ‘open to all’ but with a clear message, we expect people to offer to help and be useful to advancing these projects.

e.                 Richard to draft potential diagrams and send to Cllr James for him to help find a willing volunteer to work them up for possible deployment on a flyer. Likewise, the flyer, once notified of the details of date, time, place of meeting in MH, would provide a flyer using what is available and Cllr James would help inform distributor volunteers. Every meeting could have a donations bucket and that could help fund printing costs and hall hire. Light refreshments would be provided. The meeting may concentrate to volunteers only committee style and lay foundations as a consortium.

5.                 Other Actions:

a.                 David to carry on leafleting on a regular basis whilst weather clement of Brackley, Woodford and Hinton, Willoughby, Hillmorton and Braunston and Barby and finally Rugby.

b.                 Richard to notify Lutterworth T.C. of the future Methodist Hall Meeting when Cllr James notifies him of said details.

 

There being no other business, the forum ended at 15.25pm

 

Notes: Please encourage any interested people or organisations to email richard.erta@gmail.com to join our loop and/or see our website for joining details/fill in a flyer. Membership and considering what people are reliably willing to do is welcome.

The Executive Committee cannot be responsible to do it majoritively, to work, it must come from local people. EEH Website is: https://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/

I attach the Rugby Forum Agenda. Simon to please bring spare copies. Please encourage others if you can to attend and make common cause with us/help take a lead.

ERTA is not about reinstating a literal old GC corridor railway, but a new railway along a similar corridor with new build where old has gone to link London, Southampton and Bristol with West Coast Main Line/WCML, Leicester and East Midlands and vice versa and all in between. 

We, as a small association of upwards 40 members, are in the business of planting ideas. Pushing all traffic through the Bletchley-Northampton WCML portal is not going to work with Oxford-Bletchley, as the WCML is congested and so more capacity is required. 

Northampton-WCML-Leicester via Market Harborough is under attack from a roundabout junction being placed on it by West Northants Unitary Authority as a scheme over from the County Council days. It is a setback, but we need an authority to hold it to account to ensure a railway can be rebuilt.

Similarly, Rugby-Lutterworth-Narborough needs route option identification and moves towards advancing and making the case in delivery candidacy terms.

ERTA does not have the resources, so we need to court with our ideas, bigger professional bodies from councils, agencies and developers, who may be interested and willing to invest to see what is in it for them. Any help with sending contacts, ideas, suggestions, people and helpers to us, would be gratefully appreciated. 

Our website: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ lists opportunities to meet and engage with us and if we get demand, a zoom meeting can be arranged. But we need others to take an interest please.

Any questions feel free to ask, but we look towards you to help inform the upwards of £50k for commissioning studies to look at 'how to...' and 'business case' and 'environmental impact' and 'demand' etc. Local Councils could do more to protect remaining route and infrastructure and ask HS2 to support a domestic line and new alignment from Calvert-Claydon-Brackley East-northwards to Rugby Central (possible Parkway Station) and options for onwards to Lutterworth via new viaducts and/or via  a new construction to the Northampton Loop Line for accessing WCML into existing Rugby and/or arcing around with connection to DIRFT and onwards to Lutterworth-Narborough etc. These things need to be looked at, but if we want a modal shift, planning them, determining them and courting investors, is exactly what we need now please.

Join our free loop via requests to richard.erta@gmail.com

Notes from ERTA Northampton Area Meeting

 Notes from ERTA Northampton Area Meeting

30-04-21 15.00 hrs Hosted by Ms Sara Homer

Present: Ms Sara Homer, Owen O’Neill, Cllr Phil Larratt, Colin Crawford, John Harrison and Richard Pill (Chair).

1. Apologies for absence: None had been received.

2. Brackmills Branch Re-Railing: A statement from Sara was issued as follows:

“Brackmills industrial Estate Branch Re railing Project.

All is quiet at the moment with town Elections and Unitary happening.

I have recently had a meeting with Delapre Abbey, Jonathan Nunn, leader of the Council, the university and a gentleman that works on setting up BIDS across the country. The difference being with this is we are looking to set up a Green Improvement District which incorporates the whole of Brackmills, Delapre Abbey, the university, A new leisure facility which is under wraps at the moment. If this status happens for the area, it will incorporate the Railway line and it may well give us some avenues of funding that we can tap into.

I have sent out the electronic version of our Brochure to all of the businesses on the estate and I have been giving it out to interested parties on and around the surrounding villages around the estate.”

This was welcome news and we wish it success. It was discussed the coming together of interested people and organisation. Special Status and Green Improvement District may leverage special funding which otherwise may not have been available. Key issue is the growth of traffic on the main road feeds to/from the area A45-A43, M1 and A428 which serves Brackmills. A bid for the Railway Study Fund for Bedford-Northampton had been received by the DfT and Bedford Borough may be interested. Some new route between Castle Ashby Estate and Stevington area needs construction anew as old route via Olney is obliterated now. Likewise, the route could be added to the Oxbridge East-West Rail route and be useful for passenger and freight connectivity. Brackmills is a local scheme, serving local need, Bedford-Northampton is an inter-regional scale and amalgamating the two may be a challenge in the future. However, examples of where local services and regional services coexist can be looked at and applied surely. Keeping the corridor clear of obstruction, overcoming the issue of London Road access and elsewhere also needs to be looked at and what special dispensations may be available.

We postponed item 3 until later so someone could join us.

4. Northampton-Leicester via Market Harborough. Some support. Network Rail had done a study a couple of years ago. However, project seems to have stalled and issues like North Westbury Road link lands on the old route near Boughton Level Crossing. The preserved group interest also has a claim as well as utility leisure use like walking and cycling. Maybe a wider definition of the trackbed could accommodate more. New development along the route, without the railway, will exacerbate traffic on A508 and M1 respectively commuting into Northampton and northwards. Freight could also use the line as well as passenger links with Leicester and south of Leicester/East Midlands to Northampton, Milton Keynes and the Oxford links. A new ½ mile section south of Market Harborough would need constructing to link to the Midland Main Line as old route is blocked at the Market Harborough end. However, support from councils and rail industry as well as carrying public with us is required. It offers significant connectivity* (see notes below)

3. Northampton-Leicester via Rugby: Owen O’Neill has pioneered this project and has both received good media coverage and courted MP support. However more Local Council support is wanted and being courted. Owen has met various councils. John Harrison raised the issue of better connectivity and freight as well as Blaby Council potential interest. He flagged up a Nuneaton – Midland Main Line via the Wigston/Leicester direct south curve being utilised. Other discussion was a direct line under the West Coast Main Line for freight and passenger use to avoid Nuneaton and enable faster Coventry-Leicester and vice versa end to end competitiveness with roads for example. * (see notes below)

Richard raised the idea of a direct curve from south of Kenilworth to run direct to Stratford upon Avon from the Coventry direction and vice versa celebrating the regional Shakespeare links and heritage.

5. Northampton-Wellingborough: It was felt challenges were formidable but would link in with MML and Welland schemes. However, priorities it was felt should be Brackmills, Bedford-Northampton and Northampton-Market Harborough. If extra all well and good, but these priorities need our support and interest to keep options alive more.

6. Welland Valley Railway: The project has courted successfully local council interest and support. It would link Kettering with Peterborough via Corby. Peterborough-Leicester and the Melton Mowbray-Nottingham scheme all tie in extra passenger operations and demand feed to each other potentially.

7. Remodelling Northampton Station for trains off the Brackmills Branch. It was felt restoring the bays on what is currently a car park just south of the road bridge south of the station would be one solution and reconnecting the junction with twin tracks to link with the Northampton Loop Lines for further afield business should be looked at and taken into design consideration. Bridges may need renewal and possibly some remodelling.

8. AOB et al: Brackmills Report (above in quotes) downloaded to add to notes. Thanks.

9. Day, Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting is June 25th 15.00 hrs

Contact host: Ms Sara Homer: sara.homer@brackmillsindustrialestate.co.uk

All welcome/open to all. Please encourage interested and supportive to attend. Richard Thanked all present and meeting finished 16.06

cc. Simon Barber/David Ferguson.

Notes:

1. A north-west curve could run into DIRFT to/from the Leicester direction

2. Leicester A46 road upgrade and bypass scheme has stalled, but other schemes and development are in the pipeline. We must keep an eye on such threats where they may impinge on rail reopenings like St James’-London Road Northampton road link which assumed old railway land/Brackmills Branch and scuppering access off GC/new build railway to link with Leicester-Nuneaton lines in the west of Narborough area for example.

https://ertarail.co.uk/events/

Great Central Main Line Recovery Map of Intent 28-04-2018

Join us and help be the answer as to whether it could happen and give the chance the benefit of the doubt. Join ERTA: https://ertarail.com/membership/, join our free no obligation email loop richard.erta@gmail.com or contact Mr Simon Barber and tap into one of our networking Forums: 

Chief Officer and Coordinator responsible for (Finance, Delegated Meetings, Recruitment and Administration): Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com