Looking at the area in August 2019 one can see that with realignments via adjacent fields and a southern bypass of built Gamlingay – pretty much from the M11 to east of Potton is recoverable/new build-able. However, at Potton the old formation is heavily built on as is at Gamlingay but much more severely. To go to the south of Potton from a southern bypass of Gamlingay meets further complications whereby notwithstanding the old route is lost any new route to the south faces the significant blockage of John O’ Gaunt Golf Course which is prestigious attracting well-heeled people who can read, write and command lawyers. Who would want to ruffle their feathers by suggesting a railway blights their facility and landscape? Moreover, from south of Sandy to east of Gamlingay the railway rises out of the Ivel Valley to higher ground. So, any tunnelling or cut and cover solution would have to be on a gradient. Go further south and you face the hills of Wrestlingworth and Hateley, further south and you enter another valley altogether going north of Eyeworth for example. So getting from Sandy to east of Gamlingay is a pinch point which could have done with some positive consideration If the case and justification for the railway outweighs the pain or cost, then it is imperative things like this are looked at with a view to options of what could be done, not rule it out at the stroke of a pen. In this caption by Jeremy Harvey looking westwards you have Gamlingay and Sandy Heath on your right, a wind turbine on your left. Key question is, can we get a local railway through here with a park and ride station or do we accept development with no sustainable transport and send it all on local roads? That is the stark choice here and elsewhere plethora and tough choices have to be made. To pretend expanded Gamlingay will not expand further over the next decade is to put one’s head in the sand!
