Let's have it for Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham-Brighton reopening railway please!

Dear Councillors and MP's,

The long established trend of commuting into and out of Central London and the issues of over-crowding, price managing supply and demand and the lifestyle patterns it creates in daily drive-time and parking/accessing rail means in a context of growth we need more capacity at every stage. The downside of the equation is that the London commute for a 100 mile radius of the M25 tends to dominate most other considerations and beshadow non London centric aspirations, informing more choice and diversity. 

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a small voluntary association seeking the progressive and systematic re-railing of the English Regions - Celtic fringes like Scotland are forging ahead with reopening the Borders line and Wales with the West Wales lines, but the English Regions have been lagging behind in delivery terms. Where are the queues of entrepreneurs and railway building companies to gag for reconstruction? Private or Public or combinations these elements need a glue to bring them together and focus them on tangible results - delivery being a key plank surely?

The current proposal of a direct conventional rail link into Heathrow is a laudable aim, giving direct rail access from the Guildford-Woking lines into Heathrow with obvious public transport off road benefits and freeing up parking for other users. https://heathrowrail.com/ However this rail link should serve a sub-surface station under Heathrow with through tracks to link with Old Oak Common (OOC) and the Chiltern Main Line informing an arc. This would allow Guildford-Heathrow-Milton Keynes direct rail services and all inbetween with the new EastWestRail initiative http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/ The Brighton Main Line is overcrowded and only reguaging with Dutch proven technology style double decker trains https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Dutch+double-decker+trains&safe=active&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPvfrDxITZAhXLAsAKHW29DecQsAQIJw&biw=1600&bih=1116 can solve the volume-capacity demand, pricing people off the rails is not acceptable and Lewes-Uckfield has had 30 years, has not been delivered and whilst we hold on in hope, there is a view that the Western flank namely Guildford-Brighton via Horsham and Shoreham has a lot to offer including a Park and Ride Station with the A24 for example.

Likewise, we support the new build of the Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham line which would enable direct trains to link round to Gatwick from the South. A deviation would be required at Cranleigh, but better that than a road bypass! Likewise from Christ's Hospital to Shoreham informing a joined up Guildford-Brighton direct railway which could relieve the Brighton Main Line, offer more journey by rail opportunities and declutter urban areas, rural roads and free up parking capacity through more choice and options. As attached map indicates, Oxford and Heathrow-Brighton via Guildford would draw in significant footfall and spend minus the volumes of traffic places without rail choices suffer beit daily movements or seasonal booms and slumps. 

We are hoping to have a Forum and welcome any support to advocate these ideas, invest in studies and case making and advance them with potential interests once the business case is made and it seems full of potential if only delivery vehicles can be forthcoming/sourced and found to be partners with a commitment from consortia orchestrated by Local Government and LEPs and such agencies as may wish to be involved please.

REOPENINGS FORUM – SATURDAY 26 MAY, 1.00pm food and social, 2.00-4.00pm business,The Lynd Cross Weatherspoons,St John’s House,1 Springfield Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2PG, 01403 272393. If you would like to receive a delegated meeting to discuss working together further please contact my colleagues Messrs Simon Barber and David Ferguson who I am sure will gladly work with any pro-affirma interest in advancing these ideas and getting others on board. Mr Simon Barber: T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com Mr David Ferguson: T. 020 8977 4181 E. daferguson1212@gmail.com

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Campaigns Coordinator
Note too: RHS Wiseley will and does attract huge visitors and is close to the Woking line - so capturing market share for rail makes environmental sense, ditto a joined up through track from Woking-Heathrow - Old Oak Common and the Chiltern Main Line - not just chaging and using Crossrail which is London centric. We must foster diversity and choice options more: https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley

Local News Article worthy of a perusal - Re-Railing Mr Grayling please! https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-horsham-railway-line-reopen-13970405

The Milton Keynes Strategic Position and Transport Dilemma

Dear Councillors and Colleagues,

The 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes, the advent of the English Economic Heartlands, the SEMLEP, East-West Rail on-coming and the growth of footfall, reach, range and diversity should indicate we need to have a robust rail system to cater for all this socio-economic activity and the weight on the landscape and environment which affects us all sooner or later. The reality is that there is little spare capacity between Rugby and Watford on the West Coast Main Line and so we have a queue of trains seeking more access to Milton Keynes Central but which cannot e.g.

1. West London Southern's restricted to 1 per hour rather than half hourly frequency due to no spare paths. Surely given the popularity of contra commuting to Milton Keynes via the Central Station should put it at the front of the queue for and were any spare paths available for a half hourly frequency? Yet it has been waiting for years! MK Central lacks baying facilities commensurate to the number of trains seeking access to it and sitting on the through tracks of Platform 2 blocks access by other trains. 

2. Others seeking paths to MK Central are the Bedford-Bletchley out of Platform 5 at Bletchley to MK Central for Virgin connections. Ideas of the Holyhead express trains stopping at Bletchley to give the area back some express services which have inevitably led to decline in status and connectivity remain just ideas unless there's a tabling of such at meetings and explorations of what can give or take to spread the wealth, the load and opportunities more, without robbing Peter to pay Paul so to speak. East-West Rail will want to access MK Central via the flyover at Bletchley from Aylesbury. Northampton Councils now table the idea of a Northampton-MK-Old Oak Common/Crossrail north-south service over East-West Tracks.

In short if these goals are to be achieved you have to create more capacity on the West Coast Main Line, you have to support alternative route options and loops commensurate to creating the slack required alongside port-London freight and so on. Something has got to give.

3. On freight, there was a view that with the East-West Rail Central Section (Bedford-Sandy-Cambridge) you could send Felixstowe - West Midlands freight via that route to the Midland Main Line through Bedford via St John's and via a curve south at Leicester to West Midlands and other destinations and vice versa. That would take a considerable amount of freight trains which currently go into, across and out of London, through MK Central to elsewhere, paths and capacity which could be used by other passenger and freight by rail services. 

The reality is that apart from a need to install a road bridge over the railway corridor at Cardington Road, Bedford, the trackbed for a rail link east of Bedford is distinguishable for 4.5 out of 10 miles east of Bedford St John's. 20 years ago Steer Davis Gleave looked at all the routes and options and little has changed since then except what nature and man does incrementally if nothing is happening. Fallow is not a static situation, whims and winds of developer eye and aspiration fuel the drive to develop and that can impact on landscapes. In 1993 the Inspector at Side Roads Order 199 Bedford Southern A421 Bypass said that in the event of pursuit of reopening the railway the DfT/Highways Authority would give favourable consideration to providing rail access over or under the said bypass. It is time to call their bluff and demand that this is the time to do so as now, unlike then, there's a consensus for reopening the railway.

4. Bedford-Olney-Northampton would benefit Milton Keynes by:

a. providing a loop between Northampton-Bedford-Bletchley/EWRL

b. By offerring seats to commuters at Olney/A509/A428 areas, freeing up parking and seats at MK Central and Bedford respectively

c. allowing some non-time critical trains to traverse the loop created, freeing up more paths at MK Central.

If you allow piecemeal housing or other development to encroach the Handley Alignment or block as to be beyond recovery the two sides of the railway east and west of Olney Northern Perimeter, you throw away and lock in a set of dysfunctional aspects which in a context of growth will compound rather than cure. The railway would enable more options on east-west freight, feed East-West Rail with more business and cut unnecessary road driving milages making commuting and drive time closer to home. We need your support and action to save the day on this one which includes:

a. stopping current and future development

b. studying a recoverable railway route and station access and parking site and protecting it as a greenbelt

c. getting Bedford and Northampton to a table and agreeing a common route policy of protection and support to the principle of reopening sooner or later

d. investing via English Economic Heartlands or other collective agency contributions to studying the case and credentials for example to go from Northampton-Bedford by rail via Bletchley takes 1.5 hours and costs about £20, No. 41 bus takes same amount of time but costs about £6. The railway would transit Northampton-Bedford in just 30 minutes, Olney commuting options with more visitors, footfall and spend reviving the ailing town economy on a sustainable basis. It is therefore much in Milton Keynes' interest to support Bedford-Northampton strategically please and grow a coalition of support to take it onwards akin to how the East-West Rail Consortium has done. Even if an afterthought, unless we crack the Olney conundrum, and act now, it will be lost.

More information about ERTA can be found on our Blogspot: https://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.co.uk/

I attach a flyer which explains some more and a map showing what is where in basic conceptual terms. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA

Bedford Borough Councillors Notebook

Dear Councillors,

The charm and psychological break on a sunny day by walking along the river or in a park lends itself to untainted and unspoilt landscapes and development must be in-keeping with such.

Bedford is well positioned on the edge of 3 regions and must command the transport to nurture a diversity of nodic access and radial commutes not just London fixations.

1. Bedford-Northampton: the debate on the Save Our Trains Campaign rumbles on but what Midland Main Line needs is a plan and means and ways to nurture it. Secretary of State for Transport seems to have run out of money and hence a hard sell on bi-modes rather than a comprehensive electrification. So some lobbying of the Treasury is needed to secure our place in the queue whilst at the same time councils and other bodies of influence would do well to work together to nurture diversity. Bedford-Northampton if rebuilt would remove 2 Thameslinks off the rails per hour to Northampton, freeing up access paths otherwise blocked at Bedford by trains idling. We lack capacity and need to reconfigure the tracks for more platform space, more baying, and to ensure trains from East and West come and link with Bedford Midland (passenger-wise) and Midland Main Line (freight-wise). Bedford-Northampton would give local people more work-commute and less cost options both ways and lend more footfall and spend to both town centres - both of which are ailing - minus the traffic, congestion, land use parking demand and cost management. Free for all with inadequate capacity sends a wrong signal for polluted air pedestrians have to breathe and hazards of rat runs pedestrians and cyclists have to endure currently. It may only be peak time but are we making the most of what the bypass lends to?

ERTA is tabling a committee and welcomes councillors to get involved or set their own up and invite us to have a say, rather than ignore or marginalise us when getting these things sorted is critical for the well being of the town we all take an interest in.

2. No. 7 Bus. Today I waited from ten to 13.00 until 13.30 - one bus had broken down and driver or manager never turned up to tell us. Moreover the Optare Buses are 20 years old, are clapped out and need bigger buses and replacing. Lots of people use the No. 7 during daytime and peak time and we need more seating as many are elderly, women with buggies or a wheelchair and walla 3 seats are gone and another 8 including the pick up at St Paul's and everyone else has to sit at the back or stand. Likewise substituting the X5 coach with double deckers is a regular occurrence and the coaches need the inside windows to be cleaned as they get smeared with breathe patches meaning people cannot see out much. Grant Palmer Buses are a mixed bag experience. Nil RTI screen at the town stop opposite the St Michael's Road/Kimbolton Road shelter, means unlike for example Morrisons coming into town, people do not know when they are coming. Punctuality is patchy, cleanliness could be better. It needs someone getting out of the office, usuing them and identifiying these sorts of issues making for a more joined up, comprehensive and accessible bus experience across the whole town, not just pockets. Could for example the Grant Palmer Tesco Shopper service not return via Longholme Way, serve the Aspects Centre en route to town centre either via the Embankment giving it a service or Castle Road, giving them more options? We need to also consider the return of buses to Tavistock Street, a stop outside the Tavistock Arms Carvery/Sainsbury's would be useful and the potted bushes outside Sainbury's which double up as litter and drunken urine pots, could be replaced with cycle racks and maybe just one proper tree planted? Likewise the path from Chandos Street to the Roff Avenue Zebra Crossing should be made up to a proper consistent pathway for pedestrians and cyclists. It is a popular thoroughfare but a mud track only in places, paths go east-west, but not joined up north-south. For about 20 yards of tarmac, it could boost the area.

Please work with us for small but incremental improvements. There's always more, but are we improving what we have and making it more inclusive, accessible and comprehensive for a town-wide choice more to just car-legs and travel. CPZ and a one way system for St Michael's Road would ease the parking issues and stand-off crisis especially day and evenings. We need stimulous to elected representatives to do something, beit opposition or just consulting people meaningfully. If we can do CPZ on a case by case basis for Pemberley and Oaklands roads, we surely could do St Michael's whether surrounding streets or cheque-book influence disagrees.

Finally, as China isn't willing to take our recycling, could we consider a recycling centre served by rail at Forders Sidings near Stewartby on the Marston Vale Railway? It could serve both Bedford and Central areas and create a load of sustainable jobs. Currently it is sitting disused awaiting destruction, what a waste of an asset? Hitchin has a glass collection scheme which is mounted up and goes by rail to a glass recycling centre. Forders could do the same on a regional receive, sort and send basis as well as on-site processing from paper to cars, fridges to bottles and all in between. 

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Area Rep.

If having read this you agree and wish to reinforce it, please politely email or contact via this link: http://www.councillorsupport.bedford.gov.uk/mgCommitteeMailingList.aspx?ID=0

LRT Solutions - or think again?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-42719544?SThisFB

And yet we have the dichotomy of on the one hand everyone prescribing LRT as a panacea to urban rapit transit needs - cutting traffic and pollution - and the fact that we do not see a rolling programme of cheaper solutions like Parry People Mover - which does not need Overhead Power Lines - being stifled from being rolled out as part of a national programme - Weymouth Quay would be a good start to demonstrate versatility. Cost is mooted as a prohibitive factor and austerity another/no money, but continentals seem to do it and Manchester seems to be doing well - what and where is the role of Governments to set standards and regulate whilst ensuring a rolling programme/learning lessons? The rail lobby seems diversified on these matters with hot and cold but few tangible schemes. Milton Keynes, Oxford, Cambridge and Northampton all seem worthy candidates and if Nottingham, why not Leicester too, alas hard to know why if no rail magazine journalist does the groundwork!

Support the Leicester-Heathrow-Brighton 'not via London' project

Basically we want a through semi fast service from Leicester - Brighton via a new Heathrow sub-surface station 'not via London' freeing up loads of seats, saving time and giving rail users a pleasurable experience travelling by rail. For this project to proceed we need big backers to be sourced and enticed to take an interest. Rebuilding Great Central south of the Leicester-Nuneaton line to Calvert and Calvert - Grendon - is one phase. Seconly but not necessarily after but ideally alongside is rebuilding Guildford-Brighton via Horsham. Horsham for access to Gatwick from the south, minimising path take duration on the Brighton Main Line. Linking Gatwick with Heathrow direct by rail would be a good thing regardless of your views or poltics over Heathrow itself or not. A third phase is that bodies have called for Guildford-Woking-Heathrow but stop short of advocating a through route to link without changing trains to Old Oak Common and the Chiltern Main Line for onwards to a variety of destinations. Guildford has direct links with Reading and Oxford for example, Heathrow - the corridor - Brighton and Calvert is to be made into another new town of some size - will want better links and journey routing than just access to London or Milton Keynes for example. We have to offer seamless journeys and the Great Central would be handy for passenger and freight capacity creation, end to end via core route utilisation and bring back to the rail network Brackley, Daventry/Southam and Lutterworth. Fine detail needs working out but our strong belief is that the diverse market dynamic makes it a worthy countender for more studies and business case making and once that is forth coming by potential investors, firmer commitments to see it as a project maybe in alliance with TOCs and the company charged with building East-West Rail - they could all feed each other. Accommodation into the tracks at Calvert is critical to find a way and let's hope HS2 and the East-West Rail can include provision for a flyover / grade separated access to/from GCML and Calvert-Grendon for example. If you support or are interested please join ERTA and swell our ranks as we need teams of volunteers to help us on a number of fronts. Enquiries to T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com

Free PDF available on Transport Plan

If anyone wishes to recieve a free pdf of our response to Northamptonshire County Council's hollow Rail Strategy 'Fit for Purpose' Report of 2013 please email richard.erta@gmail.com.

Re-Rail Northamptonshire! Wasting Money on Whitewash Reports which fail to grasp the nettle of what's needed - re-railing!

Reports which fail to grasp the nettle of what's needed - re-railing!

If the objectives of the Report January 2013 'Rail Strategy - Fit for Purpose' is to have any credence and substance that must incorporate route protection, recovery and a rail reopenings agenda surely? County lies east-west arcingly sandwiched between the London Southeast/Eastern Regions and East and West Midlands. The rail lines are all north-south through the county without any linking east-west lines which is perverse and absurd, made more by the fact this report seems dismissive of such an aspiration or at least as long as undefined 'others' pay for it, hiding behind an undefined 'commercial business case' as the pre-requisite to entertaining, but widening congested roads, building new roads and adding more congestion and parking/land use allocation and cost managing capacity seems fair cop, rather than solutions through choice of mode. People and communities need their rail links back, especially radial of the County Town and ERTA calls for just that progressively, starting now in aspiration mode and delivery over a 20-year period. Otherwise it is bust and hollow rhetoric and whitewash. If any want a pdf copy please email richard.erta@gmail.com and let me have any feedback or join ERTA and fight for rail's return and be part of the answer to the silent deficit: https://ertarail.com/events/