Great Central Re-Rail Corridor Recovery Needed Now!

Great Central Corridors: The English Regional Transport Association facilitates Forums in various places to enable people to tap into a meeting, make common cause and turn from looking inwards to what the executive can offer to being the answer to what is needed themselves as willing volunteers.

We are thin on the ground personnel-wise. We are committed to holding Forums in Aylesbury, Rugby and Leicester – subject to demand and supply of people responding to the opportunity afforded and choosing to join, get involved and take a pro-active interest. Failure to respond, means we are limited in what we can do. The principle of reopening the Great Central Corridor are laid out in our report: https://ertarail.com/sales/ where you can buy a pdf download, gem up and by all means come back with questions but also be prepared to be part of the answer. Key areas we need people to beaver away are:

1. Join ERTA yourself and work with us as part of a team.

2. We need trackbed watchers all along the line between Narborough-Rugby via Lutterworth and south of Rugby along the Canal corridor to Willoughby and south through to Brackley and south thereof to Calvert and the spur land use potential for direct Oxford and yonder running vice versa.

3. We need people to make business cases and work at getting the case made up to acceptance by Network Rail’s GRIP process and at the Department for Transport (DfT).

4. We need people to object to planning applications and blockage threats, places like Woodford Halse are out in the sticks to non-car drivers like us, we need you to be our ears and eyes and report back.

5. We welcome people with time or talent or both to take pictures, monitor locations, lead and go with others to take delegated meetings with councils to win over to the principle of corridor re-railing, that is the goal and ticket, and can always be upgraded once established.

Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham Rail Reopening Group ~ Part of ERTA

Horsham Public Meeting – 
Reopen the Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham Railway for local benefit.

The meeting is open to all and is to be known as 
‘Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham Rail Re-opening Group’ 
Please give support and help build the consensus for the rebuild of the local, conventional rail link to serve and link communities together for the benefit of all, cutting congestion, freeing up parking spaces, bringing footfall and spend to areas.

Day/Date: Saturday 7^th September, 

Time: 2pm-4pm

Place: Horsham Unitarian Church, Worthing Rd, Horsham RH12 1S

(adjacent to local bus station with regular buses with the local railway station)

Purpose:

Ø    To bring people together

Ø    To grow support and recruit members to ERTA for wider good

Ø    To allocate roles and responsibility for covering the various facets the project presents

Ø    To appoint volunteers as helpers to act as local coordinators to ensure the smooth, principled and consistent goals are adhered to.

A mini outline report may be produced in due course as a sales/introductory tool. Clearly any volunteers or contributors welcome to entertain.

https://ertarail.com/events/ or T. 0208 940 4399

On Saturday 22nd June 2019 some 12 people came together at the local Wetherspoons in Horsham to discuss the prospect of rebuilding a Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham Rail Link. Whilst many have varying views and ideas of preference, the ERTA line is and must be to plum for a conventional railway rebuild with deviations where blockages exist such as Cranleigh for example. The process requires on the one hand a dedicated trackbed watch and orchestration to protect the route with access at both ends to existing lines and lands to ensure deviation where blockages may exist are kept clear. The rail link could offer the following (by no means exhaustive list!): Ø    A quick and handy local connection between two large and developing towns and intermediate expanding populations. Ø    Local commuting for work, school, shopping and wide travel by rail Ø    It would relieve the Brighton main line and free up capacity/reduce overcrowding.

Ø    A fast, flexible choice to car reliance and contributor to free up parking spaces for others, reduce congestion and associated air pollution Ø    Horsham – Shoreham ‘South Downs’ Link giving direct access from points north, east and west of Guildford to Brighton et al and vice versa Ø    Access between Reading/Guildford and Horsham/Crawley and approach Gatwick from the south Ø    Access for the Horsham and connections lines to Guildford and Heathrow for example, with or without an extra runway! Our basic aims are: Ø    Build local support and consensus that the rebuild is a good thing and grow support for it to be done sooner than later. Ø    Appoint Local Area Reps. To cover both the Guildford and Horsham ends of the line and interim (ideally someone for Cranleigh or group) who attend the various Forums and meetings and liaise with ERTA core team. Ø    Get local MP’s and Councils on board to form consortia and pool resources/apply with other agencies for study funds to tick all required boxes!

ERTA's Message to Politicians and Public

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary assoication advocating and calling on Government to start and continue to mainstream a rolling programme of local, conventional railway line reopenings. Basically the closures of local and duplicate lines in the 1960's went too far and today glaring gaps exist. This a. stifles railways ability to compete with other transport modes namely roads and b. the railways lack the capacity to carry all the people and freight that could be taken by rail. 

The recent success of the rebuilt Borders Railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank shows what can be achieved and if the English side played fairly and rebuilt from Carlisle to the Scottish Border, a through route could do far more. Alas it is the English side which is the weakest link x the English Regions.

The recent Extinction Rebellion acts as a wake up call on climate change and bedevilments like congestion, air pollution, accidents and waste of time, fuel and efficiency mount up to £billions lost every year and if we are to inform cutting these 'bads' we need to re-rail the country and incentivise modal shift back from road to rail and support businesses which club together and bid for modal shift to be built into their logistics and transport designs. A rolling programme of reopenings would give a green light to local authorities and consortias to work up schemes and make submissions for delivery more. Currently there is a strong feeling of stifling, stagnation and fobbing off with high sided business case rules and study costs but no delivery at the other end for those who do prolongingly jump through the hoops whilst at the same time £billions are wasted on road renewal and expansion for more of the blight they deliver especially to urban areas where land allocations are finite between parking, road space, accommodation and employment for example.

https://ertarail.com/events/

Press Release Guildford-Horsham 24-06-2019

We welcome your kind interest and support!

https://ertarail.com/events/ and join us!

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/people/new-moves-in-bid-to-reopen-defunct-horsham-to-guildford-rail-line-1-8974381?fbclid=IwAR2fLciQwtKEs6HSd26WHsne4b_NwgLtLKDlKKjnoT8TAF1Fn9npwnkOvrg

Rebuild the Guildford-Horsham Rail Link

All welcome to our forum Saturday 22nd June 2pm at the Lynd Cross, Horsham Forum.

ERTA Response to Government Climate Change Targets of 2050

12 June 2019

Press Release

ERTA Response to Government Climate Change Targets of 2050

ERTA welcomes the new government targets but believes whilst we need global agreement and reductions commensurate to reducing emissions and pollution, it is still too little, too late. Moreover, it fails to see the terrible congestion across the English Regions which bedevils industry and communities as a whole in time, fuel and cost waste on a daily basis. It fails to take account that this state of affairs is a direct result of previous government actions and policies switching in the post war period from rail to road with mass closures of railways and building new roads often on top of them.

Any observation of the M1 for example at Junction 14 shows going north and south indicates approximately 50% of the traffic is juggernaut lorries ploughing it and the same with the A14 from Felixstowe. HS2 will not cater for freight at £56 billion and existing tracks are at capacity. The M1 and A14 meet at Lutterworth with M6 taking the exact same ratios of traffic to the West Midlands and the M1 to the East Midlands. There is no east-west rail for 100 miles north of London, we are currently sending container trains from Felixstowe into, across and out of London via the West Coast Main Line which is one of the busiest lines in Europe. These trains take paths which other passenger and other freight by rail could utilise, if we rectify the lack of an east-west rail and design it to cater for freight from day one. Just 50 miles of rebuild would enable that from Cambridge-Bedford-Northampton. Yes, realignments are needed where blockages exist, but it has to be done if we are to decongest our roads, cut emissions, cut waste and free up existing railway capacity.

ERTA calls for Government to commit to a rolling programme of rail reopenings and rebuilds across the English Regions and new builds between Luton and Northampton and Rugby-Narborough via the M1 corridors of conventional rails, plugging missing gaps and giving modal shift a real chance.

End of Press Release

Further comment: Mr Richard Pill T. 01234 330090 and E. richard.erta@gmail.com

Website: https://ertarail.com/

London Calling!

Here is a principal proposition for alleviating the East London/West Essex area by inserting more and better rail links to intercept with stations, key road arteries.
If you support the idea, please join ERTA: https://ertarail.com/membership/ If you want to join our free, no obligation email loop, please send to richard.erta@gmail.com Thanks.