Say no to the Proposed Expressway Road Scheme between Oxford and Cambridge

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

ERTA supports an East-West Railway but not an Expressway Road. The reasons for this is that a. the closure of the origional railway made a deficit of rail east-west which throws all subsequent land movements onto roads fuelling demand for more roads. Only the railway can dent this vicious cycle. b. These trunk roads fill up with traffic and then what? Build yet more bypasses to bypass and bypass. It is all a great land take when we need land for food production, conservation, housing and employment - striking the balance. c. The road way will heap traffic up at urban areas and junctions with other road-ways like M1 and cause long tailbacks as volume exceeds capacity. Only our programme of local reopenings can again dent this trend and it is a need for public and Government will to change to foster modal shift through more and better choices.

ERTA supports the east-west rail scheme but whereas Oxford-Bedford is more or less a straight forward rebuild and relay trajectory along a former trackbed, East of Bedford is more problematic. We want a reopening utilising more of the old route with modest deviations where blockages exist like at Blunham and Gamlingay and to enter Cambridge to link with the proposed new Addenbrookes Station/alias Cambridge South. Alas one scheme proposed bypassing Bedford via Wixams to Shepreth and onother suggests arcing via a second station for St Neots to Cambourne and enter Cambridge via Chesterton Junction. This ill-conceived idea is a great way round and has many issues which delay a to b of rail travel than assist it. NIMBYISM is a problem, but a clear defined route to discuss and work with in planning terms is what the theatre of Bedford-Cambridge needs and allay fears uncessarily whipped up in the absence of definiton..

Please sign the petition and stop this horrible road scheme as a starter for more of what we wish for!

Please sign and share this petition with all your friends and family https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/227699 . If only 15% of Oxfordshire’s 650,000 population signed this petition we might at last get some proper debate in parliament and full disclosure of all the costs that will be associated with this proposed Road and Rail construction, the doubling of housing numbers and residents and all the costs of providing the extra schools, hospitals, surgeries and infrastructure that will be required and which has not yet been revealed. Most people who love living in Oxfordshire believe that the proposed £4.5 Billions of Government spending should be directed to improving and modernising existing roads and railways, concentrating on measures to reduce noise and air pollution and improve traffic flows and road junctions.

PETITION.PARLIAMENT.UK

Petition: Stop the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway & all associated ill-conceived development

Disastrous plans for an expressway and 1,000,000 new homes across our Home Counties cannot be allowed to happen. How can Oxfordshire absorb double the amount of houses it currently has? Similar proposals exist for Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Cambridge. Totally unsustainable project.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Officer.

Musings on global to local in action terms to tackle climate change and air pollution

12 years left to avert climate change! That is the dramatic picture painted by teams of climate change researchers and scientific scrutiny. Yet the reality is that it coincides with reports of catastrophic consequences impacting lives and communities of air pollution from congestion, emissions and from Sulphur and Nitrogen-Dioxides to particles from chemical spraying, braking and rubber. Taking the long-term view, we can see the closures locked into our whole way of doing things to roads for majority of passenger and goods mobility; globalism has boosted aviation to a top strata of masse usage/demand. As far as land-based transport goes – a key element is a rolling programme of local line rebuilds/reopenings/new builds for passenger and freight with start up capital funds by Government indicating leadership for modal shift through more choice and capacity, which would be a step in the right direction. Our ERTA Reopenings Pamphlet – available off our website – calls for a modest 33 such schemes to be considered for the English Regions; Wales and Scotland have their own already. If the principal road artery between London and Birmingham along the M1 and M6 is 25mph due to volume/capacity, a railway at 125mph seems quite fast enough to be competitive on time, if not price? So why are we wasting £100 billion + on HS2 which cannot even cater for freight whereas a partial rebuilt Great Central railway could? Government stalls on the announcement for a preferred route for a Bedford-Cambridge rail link, which means a ribbon could be cut for opening in 12 years’ time when it will be too little, too late and many areas will still be locked into road reliance. What of technology turning our planes and shipping ‘greener’ using renewable energy? Sounds far off and many are insistent that time is critical. ERTA continues to sow seeds and interject ideas, but relies on the public to yes vote with their feet where they can like walking, cycling, using bus and train, but also joining and giving of their time to help usher our projects along. In short there is something we can all do, without costing the earth! If Government cannot determine the direction and rolling out of schemes like Bedford-Cambridge, the strategic infrastructure for accommodating growth and denting trends to damaging effects, then there is intransigence at play. The old route was the most direct route. Some needs modest deviations but end to end it should be recoverable if we get on with directing intent of purpose and actions commensurate now. Alternative routes are National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) direct line via Wixams to Shepreth which avoids Bedford or another idea which is a South Cambs ‘no railway here’ back door suggestion to have a railway well away from Gamlingay and surrounds. Leadership is required, not paralysis and when route is finalised/published, then consultation, then Inquiry and Transport and Works Act, a 12-year delivery period seems about right! It should never have been closed by stealth by Government and local areas should be compensated for the subsequent damage its absence has informed beit road congestion and costs or pollution, health and quality of life erosion.

Further reading and sources:

1.            https://zululandobserver.co.za/afp/487164/un-warns-paradigm-shift-needed-to-avert-global-climate-chaos

2.            https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2017/12/13/cost-of-congestion-to-uk-business-approaches-1bn

3.            https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/m0000nhn

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/17/air-pollution-kills-more-people-in-the-uk-than-in-sweden-us-and-mexico

Great Central Press Release 11-10-2018

Great Central Press Release 11-10-2018

ERTA Bedford-Cambridge Rail Link Route Suggestion - October 2018

This rough diagram shows the route ERTA supports and we note the following:

But starting from the Bedford end first, we may observe the following:

Ø    Milton Keynes Central will have trains from Aylesbury and Bedford will have trains from Oxford. Change at Bletchley Flyover new station for interchange between the two.

Ø    Bedford Midland Station and tracks between it and St John’s need reconfiguration more or less back to pre-1977 current Bedford Midland design. Accommodation, through running and capacity for more is what the current layout is not designed for.

Ø    Carriage sidings need relocation to Wellingborough or Kettering or Corby with the new electrification.

Ø    The old St John’s is of a 4-coach configuration, so 8 coach trains will rule it out surely? But the redemption of the old route gives, with level crossings at Cardington Road and entrance to Priory off Barker’s Lane and the raising of the A421 Bypass with an underpass for the railway 4.5 miles of relay-able railway corridor.

Ø    From there we have 3 competing routes: 'C2-2' / 'CBRR'. C2-2 follows more or less the old route, CBRR going on a completely new route. To simplify, one suggestion is to follow the A421 corridor to parallel to St Neots Bypass, past Eltisley, Cambourne and enter Cambridge via Chesterton Junction. This balmy idea means gradients, tunnelling, completely new build and getting rid of the Cambridge-St Ives Guided Busway. No tears lost there per se!

Ø   The National Rail Infrastructure Commission wanted to bypass Bedford via Wixams.

Network Rail or whoever is responsible, are to bring forward a proposed Central Route in Spring of 2019. Development encroaches apace. Delay would haemorrhage progress.

ERTA prefers utilising the corridor of the old route as it is as straight as you care to find, serves East Bedfordshire linking to the County Town of Bedford and you can add tracks to link from St Neots north of Sandy, ditto St Neots – Cambridge via the same old Bedford-Cambridge railway and corridor.

Ø   Sandy should be made an interchange. Yes, realignments are needed at Willington and Blunham, exacerbated by piecemeal interim planning decisions and the course of the River Great Ouse.

Ø   Potton and Gamlingay old route is completely obliterated, recovery would be massively opposed and upheaval laden with cost. Bypassing the two with a shared Parkway Station would be sensible, but will Central Beds Council’s laisse-fare approach to parcels of land for development, keep a window of land to allow Sandy – east of Gamlingay new deviation route to be recovered?

Ø   To go south encounters the Wrestlingworth and Clopden Hills. Hence wrapping around built Potton and Gamlingay and following more or less the old route is expedient.

Ø   Raise the M11 with a bridge to allow trains to go under it. Tunnel under housing and Trumpington Park and Ride.

New Junction in the Long Road Bridges area, heads east for East Anglia via Cambridge!

Caption Above: How times change? Taken circa 2005 by Richard Pill, these ex-Bedpan Class 317’s stand in the former Bedford Bays at Cambridge Station facing south. Former flour mill in the background. Will Bedford bound trains ever arrive at this destination again? ERTA issues a call to action to inform they do in a timely manner. 

If you support the logic of our stance, why not join our free news and email loop? richard.erta@gmail.com - together we can make a difference!

Here's a worked up interpretation of the above diagram:

Press Release 28-08-2018

28 August 2018

Press Release

East-West Rail routes need hurrying along and Councils must protect options in planning decisions

ERTA is concerned that on the one hand the East-West Rail Consultants need to be urged to speed up publication of their proposed Bedford-Cambridge rail route and on the other, alternate interpretations unless one and the same for gauging public reaction purposes, speculate on possible options causing unnecessary NIMBYism to arise.

What the predecessor to the English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) from 1987 advocated was a rebuilding of the traditional rail route from Bedford-Sandy-Cambridge. Blockages exist and either need compulsory purchase and demolition or deviated railway route to avoid. This may seem controversial, and would be even if it was a new roadway, but to plum for brand new routes brings other blockages and obstacles to the fore as well as working with the grain of history and the lie of the land contrast costly cuttings and tunnels to intertwine with ridges and hills for example.

Richard Pill, ERTA Media Spokesperson said “These new ideas want to serve purported greater populations enroute including the St Neots and Cambourne areas. But run into problems with a clash to move the Guided Busway as their scheme assumes the same route. It is crucial the East-West Rail does have links with Peterborough and St Neots from the north and Stevenage and East Bedfordshire from the south to the County Town of Bedford and onwards to other places. My own view would be to get to Sandy and then bypass built Potton and Gamlingay with perhaps a shared station between the two of them and either short term link at Shepreth or raise the M11 and tunnel into Addenbrookes Junction Station and run into Cambridge from there. Development pressures are on and time is running out for recovering a reasonably direct route.

End Press Release

Further comment: Mr Richard Pill 01234 330090 or richard.erta@gmail.com

Refs. http://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge/a-vision-of-how-east-west-rail-could-look-under-think-tank-s-proposals-1-5666406?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social_Icon&utm_campaign=in_article_social_icons and

https://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/feature-east-west-rail-central-section-route-options/

Addendum: We are following developments closely and making our input as we go. That we are talking about a route at all is some progress, but Government should be encouraging early delivery and that means putting the preferred option in the public domain and letting the people decide. Tweaks on a core route theme seem more sensible than completely new build as none have blockage free trajectories and it is essential that East Bedfordshire and St Neots are both linked to the County Town of Bedford by rail again. That translates to one route, curves and chords onto and from it and sharing of tracks with east-west trains, Thameslinks and freight. That is why we need extra platforms and tracks through Bedford Midland and I welcome to chat to leading planners or politicians as to how best that might be done, it can, we have windows of opportunity but existing plans need revising to cater for it. After electrification and dust settles, we're locked-in to a straight jacket and will have less wriggle room unless we get other councils like Corby to think ahead and cater for relocation of train serving depots for example. I attach a map of what we were considering in 2006.

ERTA secures Matlock Forum and consolidates support for reopening the railway.

Matlock Forum -Three ERTA members (Tony Bush, David Ferguson and I) had travelled up to Matlock on Friday 29 June and had spent two nights at a B & B in the town where we all attended the ERTA Matlock Forum which was held in the afternoon of Saturday 30 June at the Crown Pub (a Wetherspoons) in Matlock. Eleven people altogether came to the meeting, including the three ERTA members.

Practically all the attendees who were not ERTA members lived in or around Matlock and had seen our Press Release which had appeared in the Matlock Mercury. We chiefly discussed the Peak Rail, and it emerged that there are about six disused tunnels along that route, of which one contained a disused private halt for Haddon Hall (the Duke of Rutland's seat near Bakewell); also at least one of these tunnels is now used for a cycle-path. The chief problem with the tunnels is the vibration which had been an ingredient for track subsidence suffered by that line during its last few years prior to closure. Another ingredient for that line's track subsidence was that the ballast consisted of millstone grit, which was (and still is) an important locally-produced material. Other issues include replacing a bridge over the A6.

One of our Matlock-based attendees planned to organise another Matlock meeting later in the year, and also another attendee will be a useful contact since he works for the railways specialising in tunnels. We had all agreed that collaboration between people such as businesses (particularly quarry companies), landowners, local authorities, and transport pressure groups  is essential.

Over the whole week-end both David Ferguson and I had distributed a stock of ERTA flyers relating to the re-opening of the Matlock – Buxton railway, and among the places we had both distributed included the Peak Rail bookshop at Matlock Station, our very good B & B and several shops/restaurants etc. in the town and, of course, all our meeting attendees. On Sunday both David and I travelled on the Ecclesbourne Railway where we had also distributed some of these flyers. However, Tony had to go home on Saturday after our meeting.

Anyone interested please contact Simon Barber: T 020 8940 4399 

E. simon4barber@gmail.com

Let's reopen the St Albans Abbey to Hatfield Rail Link

The English Regional Transport Association is a voluntary membership based organisation seeking select rail reopenings. St Albans - Hatfield would link west coast and east coast with St Albans in the middle and provide a handy link for services to and from the corridor of the Abbey Link. A housing estate needs partial relocation to clear the way for a railway, most of it is a cycle cum footways which has held the corridor in reasonable stead. There is also a proposal for a St Albans south station and ERTA calls for Napsbury to have the underground extended from Barnet via M25 (new Park and Ride Station), London Colney (has no rail service) to Napsbury, ducking under to emerge to a new link into both St Albans Abbey and across direct to Bricket Wood for termination sharing at Watford Junction. These links will provide more options, new commutes, flexibility and help de-congest many busy roads, cut air pollution - all the things touted we need to cut global warming, but unless it is local rail, we fail to address the core and systemic issues of closures 50 years ago x growth ever since and subsequent impact on movements and environments, health and peoples lives. ERTA want to cut stress, enable self determinism in mode of transport more and break a London cnetric cycle which is overloaded and price managed and isn’t coping very well. There is a proposal to have a new freight by rail depot south of St Albans and maybe this link could also serve that adding revenue to the passenger services. Contact: Mr David Ferguson, 25 Virginia House, 19 Kingston Lane, Teddington, TW11 9HL 

T. 020 8977 4181 E. daferguson1212@gmail.com