Ampthill-Flitwick Forum for 10th September 2022

ERTA Ampthill and Flitwick Forum:

Saturday 10^th September 2022, 1pm food* 2-4pm business.

Venue is The Swan Pub, 1 Dunstable Road, Bedford MK45 1HP

​It is adjacent to the Thameslink-served railway station and with ample parking and bus links too. https://www.swaninnflitwick.co.uk/menus/ 

Write in support of a new additional station for Ampthill to:

1. Ampthill Town Council: https://www.ampthilltowncouncil.org.uk/contact

2. Central Beds Council: https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/directory/14/a_to_z/B

3. MP for Mid Beds: Ms Nadine Dorries https://members.parliament.uk/member/1481/contact

All welcome. If coming please email richard.erta@gmail.com

Any offers with reliable leafleting around Ampthill and Flitwick ahead of this event are welcome. Please let us know. All offers to help, assist and lead are also welcome to entertain please. Make it your campaign and endeavour too! It is all voluntary.

*Everyone is responsible to buy and pay for their own food and transport costs.

Apologies were received from a Mr Steve Anderson of Centre Parcs and Nadine Dorries MP for Mid Bedfordshire Constituency which includes Flitwick and Ampthill.

We followed an agenda and there were many questions and discussions. Some ranged from the inadequacy of Flitwick Station in a context of growth and demand for more parking over coming years. Others that Ampthill would be both a relief station and compliment Flitwick as well. 

Bus integration, cycle-pedestrian access, lowering speed and installing either a footbridge or crossing at the junction of Station Road Ampthill and A507 and the station access road which currently serves as an industrial complex. Some relocation packages would need brokering as per protection of lands west side of the Midland Main Line, which we understand is under threat of development in coming years.

It was admitted the population in a 5-mile catchment has and is expanding and Flitwick Station alone cannot cope beit lack of land for expanded parking, the road layout and single bridge over the railway and congestion and parking in local streets all would be partly resolved with the addition of An Ampthill railway station.

Action Stations:

It was explained that ERTA is a stretched voluntary outlet which is in the business of planting ideas. It needs public, elected representatives, all tiers of governance to support those ideas and in turn commission/access funding pots to work up the case and formal credentials with a view to courting Government support and ultimately a permission towards delivery. Landowners, leisure outlets, councils of all tiers, agencies and many more could contribute to a pot with studies in mind to find answers to questions, see what needs to be done and through policy and action, set about moving the agenda towards delivery.

Summary of key points:

1. It needs funding for a study

2. land retention to keep western approaches and other access routes viable

3. Relocation packages

4. May only be a half hourly frequency of Thameslink’s, but given plethora of frequency, it should be perfectly possible to absorb into a timetable.

5. Buses and inter-rail/bus-train ticketing could retain viability of bus networks more.

6. A need to get tiers of governance on board and in particular the Central Bedfordshire Unitary Council to help and work with us and be instrumental in gathering people, resources and round-tabling in a view of a good idea, not dismissing it.

7. The growth means something needs to be done or retained as a viable option.

Next meeting: same venue The Swan Pub, 1 Dunstable Road, Bedford MK45 1HP

T: 01525 754777 E: steph@theswanflitwick.co.uk It is adjacent to the Thameslink served railway station and with ample parking and bus links too. https://www.swaninnflitwick.co.uk/menus/ and will be 1pm food, 2-4pm business on Saturday 10^th September – all welcome to come, meet and join as members and offer to assist or lead accordingly please.

Meeting closed 15.10pm and it was felt as a first post-pandemic, it was a useful exercise and potential still to build on towards getting local people to help more and give the vital support, holding elected representatives to account and take an interest. 

All enquiries and expressions of interest via richard.erta@gmail.com and keep an eye on our website: https://ertarail.co.uk/

Beds on Sunday 22.01.2017 Page 7 Article

Steve Lowe keeps his role as an ad hoc reporter for BoS? Former Labour County Councillor. The reality is that if we had a plan for freight line-born going forward we could say "contaminated soil can be removed by rail when the Bedford-Cambridge line gets rebuilt." 

The Rowing Lake would sever the old trackbed and Sustrans cycle-way. It cannot be bridged due to no island column allowed for a racing and training still water lake. The added on developments are a far cry from earlier days when the lake and it's impact was played down by select supporters. This will be a major traffic generator, more congestion and mayhem on the roads we could do without.

Beds on Sunday 22.01.2017 Page 7 Article

Surely it is time to start putting the rail first and lake second? It and land proposed by Charles Wells for redevelopment is flood plain and I notice the old goods shed and land - which could serve as a western access and car park for Bedford Midland is included in plans to redevelop. 

The path to Kempston gets perennially closed as flood water exceed the path. There are wildlife habitats there currently with rushes and small ponds for spawning, sweep it away with river side development and that habitat is lost and/or compromised. 

Will Charter Walk be restored to the public as a right of way and made up for cycle access too?

I believe that unless Councils and the agency friends they build up start laying down the railway they want, we will not have a route into Bedford by 2030's. 

Just wanted people to be aware, by all means write to Bedford Borough Council, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP and make you views/ask questions. 

The railway will bring volume footfall and spend, ease parking pressures and make development more sustainable, scupper it's reasonable access via the old St John's and you throw away that potential.

The first day of the London Marylebone - Oxford City Station service.

Caption above: Class 168 Unit No. 168106 at Oxford City Station prior to departing for London Marylebone 12^th December 2016. Oxford now has 2 routes to London, Milton Keynes and Witney next?

The first day of the London Marylebone - Oxford City Station service - by Simon Barber.

On the first day of the new timetable for Chiltern Railways(and also for several other Train Operators), three of our members (David Ferguson, Tony Bush and myself) travelled on some of the first through train services running from London Marylebone to Oxford City. David and I travelled on one service, whilst Tony travelled on another. We all distributed recruitment flyers on the trains to some of the other first passengers, and after we arrived at Oxford City both David and I went on to another train to leaflet more passengers prior to that train departing for London Marylebone.

We travelled on a Class 168 unit, which now operate most of the London Marylebone - Oxford City services. However, when we all returned to London Marylebone we travelled on a push-pull set presumably hauled by a Class 68 locomotive. There are now two bay platforms at Oxford City which are now dedicated to the London Marylebone service and also for the future East -West services for whenever these come on stream, and new awnings are now in the process of construction for these platforms.  We then made our way to an Italian restaurant close to Oxford's main bus station where we had a superb meal which also marked ERTA's Xmas celebration.

Caption Above: The ERTA Celebrating Christmas bash and the new rail link on December 12^th 2016 at Gino’s Spaghetti House, adjacent Gloucester Bus Station, Oxford City Centre where the X5 coach to Bedford goes from conveniently!

Join ERTA and be part of the picture! Good progress is being made. Further contacts and details see: Membership Secretary, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com or website: https://ertarail.com/membership/ All supporters welcome.