More freight by rail - small can be beautiful and a railway can always be upgraded!

24-10-2022

Below is an attempt to map out key areas we at ERTA would welcome more rail investment/go-aheads and progression towards delivery. 

1. Liverpool-Tees/Humber certainly for my money Woodhead and Harrogate-Northallerton could help

2. East Midlands: Northampton-Market Harborough key link for Southampton-Bristol-Oxford 'triangle' to/from Milton Keynes/Bedford via East-West Rail for East Midlands and back. Bletchley-MK-Northampton a WCML pinch point requires a certain speed for capacity. HS2 may ease and create more paths, but some way off, we need it now. Also East Midlands, Derby-Manchester via Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton/Chinley has to be hands-down a winner if allowed.

3. Thames/London: growth by rail in my view depends on capacity - loads going on beit in, across and out of London as well as London centric freight and deporting and that of Channel Tunnel, across London and circumvention. Northampton-MH frees more via Peterborough-Leicester to serve potentially Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton Depot (from the north 'not via London'); from East Coast or anywhere else and Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal/DIRFT via a new north-west curve. 

4. A key issue is the government refusal to grant the Ely Rail Bypass currently, which like Bristol-Portishead is being held up and that is incurring cost (Bristol) and delay (Ely) to increase what capacity and rail can offer. That in turn puts pressure to go by road (A14/A45/A43/A34 = Felixstowe-Northampton-Oxford-Southampton arcing with continuums from each of these roads to places like West Midlands (A14/Lutterworth to M1/M6) and/or London (M25 and radials) which cascades.

5. In Scotland, long overdue is Dumfries - Kirkcudbright/Stranraer - does it make any sense for A75 to be upgraded continually while there's zero rail alternative? Kirkcudbight has Deep Sea Portal, mainly dominated by the Royal Navy, but maybe some access/shared facility or new could be negotiated to bring freight into Northern areas from the North more than long-haul Southampton?

6. I would add that we need a more diverse freight by rail mix and match such as parcels - pallets - post and in France we see wagonload remergent and we used to have Speedlink which although judged unviable, was building smaller flows to larger trainloads incrementally. Charterail had curtain sided wagons for pallet loads to be forklifted and loaded for example.

7. I hear also that connecting to the railway is tedious, expensive and laborious such as to make lorry loading easier, more versatile and well, life is too short! So we used to have a Section 108 Sidings Grant which assisted with connecting costs, unsure status or translation now if any, but maybe such a thing could be revived and broadened with a credit attached in grant terms for environmental contribution for sending more by rail than road for example. 

https://www.railfreight.com/policy/2022/10/18/commission-injects-nearly-half-a-billion-into-french-single-wagonload-transport/

17-10-2022

Laudable to have more freight by rail! However, it is ERTA's view that we need to a. grow the local rail network, examples like Northampton-Market Harborough for example, would create significant capacity, open new flow by rail opportunities currently lost to road and compliment the current east-west rail Oxford-Milton Keynes. b. Government could tip the balance or level up from £40 billion new roads to make Rail Reopenings equitable, not a mere £500 million. c. Things like restoring the Section 108 freight sidings grant with a modern and pragmatic flexibility and slimming down proceedures to aquire rail network connectivity. d. a more flexible and versatile approach to 'what fits' in landscape design and whether tunnel, bridge, duck-under or a level crossing with a community education programme? Straight jacket fixations, when public abuse is more the issue of level crossings, must take into account urban landscapes for example do not lend to new bridges or whatever per se. Why should reopenings or connectivity by rail for speed, efficieincy and the environment be held back? Sadly, this is a problem and we think not only of Brackmills Industrial Park, Magna Park and Forders Sidings on the A421 A1-M1 paralell where there's loads of capacity, but zero rail-based use of assets. It has idled for decades and could inform part of a recycling and waste in/out depot for example - cars, glass, other recylables to rail, processing and finished products by rail. In addition, post, parcels and pallets by rail, not just block train containers. I suspect not looking for new money, but costs could be saved by slimming down bureaucracy and switching priority from roads to local rail recovery and growth - people and goods, a line-plan for every railway, not just whim and winds of market expediency. Bring back Speedlink for example!

https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/135533/the-gbrtt-launch-call-for-evidence-to-increase-rail-freight/

18-08-22

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/161-million-to-transform-oxford-station-bringing-faster-journeys-to-thousands Still leaves the Basingstoke-Reading-Oxford bottleneck and the need for more alternative routes radial to and from Southampton. If we consider majority of freight going beyond West Midlands to the North, orbital routes to core route is exactly what we need to be studying, not building more roads?

11-07-2022:

https://www.railfreight.com/railfreight/2022/07/11/uk-government-freight-strategy-questioned/

Worth a read, get inspired and join ERTA/donate: https://ertarail.co.uk/

Northampton-Market Harborough would bring freight by rail to Brackmills, Northampton Depot and with a north-west curve, direct running into DIRFT. 

The scope is East Midlands, traffic off the M1 and A508 respectively and arcing to Oxford via Milton Keynes and beyond - Southampton and Bristol and all in between. So we need support going forward and a perusal of our Blogspot can help bring everyone up-to-date.

We hope to have a meeting at Market Harborough and inform a steering committee to focus on taking the Harborough link forward as well as the Rugby-Narborough flank bringing Lutterworth and Magna Park back on track!

04-07-2022

re: https://www.railfreight.com/policy/2022/07/04/uk-government-sets-out-a-future-of-freight/

The government sets out a rail freight strategy. However, what we need is:

1. Grants not loans for pieces of rail infrastructure to boost rail-connectivity to the wider rail network, like the Brackmills Industrial Estate to the main line at Northampton Castle Station.

2. To see strategic missing links and inform policy, planning and tailoring of development to keep a rail re-connection 'open', not built on and blocked? Northampton-Market Harborough to enable East Midlands-Oxford and Felixstowe to DIRFT, Northampton Depot and more by rail aggregately than can happen without it.

3. To have a triple pronged approach to Rail and volumes, shapes and sizes more by rail:

a. give incentives and legal requirements for all freight over 50 miles to explore using rail and incentives for all carriers like DPD and others including DHL, The Post Office/Royal Mail, UPS, FedEx,

to all consider rail more. Many images of the 10% freight by rail are of containers, bulky materials like aggregates and long trains, when small can be beautiful like parcels, pallets and post by rail more. Perishables another. Amazon also. Without government carrot and stick frameworks, incentives, development for rails, depots, access and joined-up-networks, this cannot begin to be realistic. Extol the benefits of rail, equip operators to do more and incentivise. The savings is less road wear and tear, lowering congestion blight and delays (cost), less emissions x whatever rail haulage is used aggregately and freeing up of land otherwise used for road vehicles and parking, for other things like housing, employment, conservation and farming. 

b. Does rolling stock design, availability, price, stewardship and access inform a versatility and flexibility and availability needed for customer demand balanced with what rail can offer now and going forward. 

c. Government needs to be working with partners for putting tracks back (rebuilds/reinstatements/new select pieces of versatile local, conventional railways for people and goods to use and access - a post office for every station upwards of 20, 000 population within 10 miles and where that population exists like Louth in Lincolnshire, for those tracks to be put back or rebuilt alongside the A16 or equivalent roads as may be the case.

d. On larger block train consignments - pallets to containers, why not look at a rebuild of Woodhead for capacity, relief to the A628 trunk road - through a National Park being upgraded is outrageous, when rail could, if put back, take a lion's share of people and goods over the Pennines and using Hull and Liverpool more for ship to shore freight, Woodhead is just the ticket for such endeavours and should be seen in the round, ditto Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton to enable more by rail and declutter the York/ECML bottlenecks. Government needs to join these things up more and have a block replication system which can go anywhere, fund anywhere and enable anywhere with savings in such wakes. The problem of loans is they have to be paid back, being a nation of debtors is a bad thing on a number of fronts and with uncertainty as an underlying platform of engagement, if environmental, social and economic meet and say 'yes' to rail more, then the moral thing is to do, lead and enable rail. New money may not be so incumbent, as per top-slicing the £30 billion new roads budget for rail more and cascading policy and grants from road schemes to rail schemes as a step in the right direction.

Please engage positively for rail. 2050 is too little, too late for modal choice for modal shift in a climate emergency. 2030 is the cut off date for irreversible climate change. We need plans hitting the ground now, not laying up cushy numbers for an uncertain future.

Failure of the current system and the love affair with roads whilst highlighting costs and problems of rail relative to perceived or actual 'demand' results in this being played out in Lincolnshire, where road building is rife, land lost for rail like March-Spalding is lost and locks-in an unsustainable scenario which if repeated nationwide, leaves us in an untidy mess, which Government must lead us out of.

https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/news/article/1125/traffic-management-details-for-spalding-relief-road-works-announced

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Elected Representatives,

See also: https://www.railway-technology.com/news/siemens-mobility-mireo-plus-h-trains-to-neb/

Above: Siemens’ first hydrogen trains ordered for Berlin-Brandenburg region, reopenings need this sort of innovation in UK as well.

Is it so hard to imagine such a service linking Northampton Castle Station with University/Delapre, Brackmills and Great Houghton? Translation is the challenge, but think and weigh benefits with problems and cons? I believe it can be done and traffic and growth means must be done? Please help us get there and give support to ERTA, its events and offer to come aboard via membership and help us practically. 

https://ertarail.co.uk/become-a-member/

Interestingly enough, now some logistics companies have bases at Brackmills, will have at Northampton Depot emergent, DIRFT operational inputs and that of East Midlands Depots, the missing link to enable more and some joined-up rail-based thinking is:

a. the re-railing of the Brackmills Branch and

b. the rebuilding of a Northampton-Market Harborough Rail Link.

These offer optimal flexibility, congestion reduction, time efficiencies, choice and much more. Weigh that of the cons. 

There is a trade-off to be done. Bigger organisations can help and loosely work with us to help push it through and save the day on a joined-up rail network fit for 21st C modal shift back to rail for reducing emissions and keeping the wheels turning sustainably more?

We need nationwide policy, plans, agendas, but that feed, can also come from local aspiration upwards as well. Realism is where they can meet and put in context, be moved towards delivery. We can only plant ideas, we need other players to work together and nurture towards that goal. See and respond to this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-freight-plan

Offers for speakers at future events, welcome to entertain. As long as it is all voluntary, you bring your own equipment and can also include hand-outs/brochures, we welcome sponsors and collaboration towards more success. A web link can be provided as a thank you for willing speakers at future events, informing more public viewing and interest. Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

Please support the reopening/new build of a March-Spalding local and regional rail link

The old has gone, the new has come... well not quite yet! But the railway, closed approx. 1983 should be considered for rebuilding. This could be done now, if the will and way can be found. It does not mean using every inch of the former railway, some of which has been severely blocked or compromised but the old route could form a basis of a new railway surely with realignments and deviations where blockages now exist? That is an area where a study could look. 

Why reopen? Linking the two distinct towns and also regional links means that this missing rail link corridor would provide handy communications linking key areas with differing needs to mutual benefit.

I attach a basic introductory report I have compiled to explain a bit more and wish to state that our desire is to carry people with us and inform a ground swell of support for the rail link to be restored. Given 4000 more houses going in around the area, the question of 2.5 cars per household - there being little other choice - raises the question of where will that traffic all go? Roads are congestion, parking and land use allocation is at a premium and given these trends have bedded in since the closure over 35 years ago, we need to think where do we wish to be heading 5, 10 or indeed the next 30 years time? Clearly trends cannot go on as they are left to a laissez-fare market solves everything outcome. We plan for housing, can we plan for the consequences which could and should include restored public transport infrastructure as the rail link could inform?

We wish to see fostered a dialogue with local authorities and MP's at all tiers of representation and by agreeing a new railway is a good idea, we agree the principle and if the principle is correct, then to form consortia and pool resources and invest in a robust case making study or studies to make the case and inform a platform to take it to the next stage - the consortium would include rail industry as well - to the Network Rail GRIP processes and Department for Transport/Whitehall backing as a regional and local investment.

Taking Cowbit as an example, if we deviate around the location now, lands need to be protected to keep a railway option open and a new station on the edge of the 'now' town could be provided for local and longer distance commutes in and out. In 10 years time, the current cordon will expand and so deciding the principle of intent for a railway now, means we can plan to include lands for realignment and thus a railway going forward.

Deeping St Nicholas has been called for to have a new station. Whilst the proposed rail depot seems to have gone quiet, the upsurge of freight using current lines would indicate sidings at some location for waitover trains and stabling will be required and the new under pass north of Peterborough at £100 million, preludes growth and a more direct line could save a lot of time and adds to the case for the railway. At the March end, maybe if Whitemoor Prison cannot be amended to make way for a restored railway, you could look at a new spur off the old Wisbech line (another reopening) from which a new link to the Spalding line could be established and share station access together? These finer details need to be examined. 

On Deeping St Nicholas, the point of some rail access there is because the original junction west of built Spalding is blocked with housing, so a new junction to the west an new build accordingly is required. Should be do-able now, but needs planning support for future fostering alongside the effort needed to bring a new railway about. We at ERTA are about planting ideas and helping promote them, we need local councils and MP's to help form consortium to pool resources and help take the project forward. We are not resourced to do it ourselves. We commit to facilitate Forums to help bring people together. We have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ReopenMarch2Spalding/?ref=bookmarks or Twitter @March2Spalding 

I welcome your further kind interest and hope the report indicates the merit of what we are about. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Officer

https://ertarail.com/campaigns/  

March-Spalding 11th hour appeal

Dear Colleagues,

A recent housing application at Cowbit threatens to obliterate the trackbed of the former March-Spalding rail corridor which survived all closures of the 1960's until 1981. This rail link, with over 30 years of growth is needed now as never before with the benefits it would offer of:

1. Commuting/employment to/from Cambridge and Stansted Airport from South Lincolnshire

2. Inward visitorship, footfall and spend on the back of diverse access being improved

3. More passengers and freight by rail, de-cluttering local roads, cutting waste and costs which congestion without alternatives locks in.

For these reasons and more the English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) believes that we must tailor development around not on top of trackbeds. That a study should be commissioned to look at the benefits for the areas it would serve of railway reopening albeit with modest deviations where blockages have been allowed to encroach the old route. For example at the Spalding end, could a new freight depot at Deepening St Nicholas also double up as a spur access to and from the Doncaster-Spalding-Peterborough line given the old junction nearer Spalding is now under housing? Likewise at Whitemoor, the existing and campaigned for reopening March-Wisbech line could have a twin track set of points off of it onto the Spalding lines clearing the Prison which was built soon after closure on the old trackbed. 

The new duck and up flyover plan at Peterborough North is laudable but for freight to and from East Anglia to Doncaster and further afield it is a great way round, timely and uncompetitive surely contrast the option to restore the direct rail route for boosted benefits on and off the railway including more employment and sustainable jobs?

I would, on behalf of ERTA like to ask for your support for forming a consortium to pool resources and bid for funds for a full blown feasibility study and to ensure planning authorities tailor development and inform a new policy of trackbed and deviation space protection. That does not have to be dormancy amidst rising demand, rather could be green spaces, linear park, cycle-walk-way spaces which could be slewed or redesigned in the event of the railway being restored. With Brexit informing a context of uncertainty, surely it is prudent to keep our local, strategic options open in a competitive world?

I welcome your further kind interest. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Officer.

https://ertarail.com/english-regions/

Spalding Voice newspaper coverage 17-01-2019 - unsure where they get 'John' from when they knew it was 'Richard' likewise we stressed March-Spalding via Cowbit, so why throw in Wisbech on this occiaision?! Apart from that, good piece.

If people support this rail link you can do the following:
a. Join ERTA - see our website
b. write to South Holland District Council, South Holland District Council
Council Offices, Priory Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
PE11 2XE
c. Write to local MP Sir John Hayes MP, Office 1, Broad Street Business Centre, 10 Broad Street, Spalding, PE11 1TB

Tel: 01775 711534, Fax: 01775 713905, Email: davieshm@parliament.uk

d. Write to letters page in support see Spalding Voice Newspaper www.spaldingvoice.co.uk
You may want a purist approach of every dot of old route, you may support a pragmatic stance of deviations to avoid conflict or you may just support the idea and principle and agree any railway is better than none and leave the detail to a study - which needs to be campaigned for:
- route protection
- deviation space like at Cowbit
- study
- pooling resources
- forming a consortium
- getting councils on board and other agencies/organisations
All needs a growing and dedicated team, ERTA is acting to bridge the gaps and forge that team, delegate and appoint area reps anbd get the show on the rails! Please join us and give it your support without qualification until is it happening, not being built on and then being academic even as roads clog up, land is lost and swathes of people are being socio-economically disenfranchised. Let's retain choice objectively for all.

We applaud this letter and thank the local MP for taking an interest.