ERTA Bedfordshire Forum - All welcome! Tackling transport and public service issues in and around Bedford and Shire!

Dates of next Forums are listed here: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/

Instant Karma!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLy2SaSQAtA

As one goes about one's business, one observes as well. 

1. The disabled toilet at the Bus Station has been out of action 4 weeks now. This is a principal gateway to Bedford Town Centre. Other cubicle occupied or out of action. X5 is 2.5 hours to Bedford from Oxford, most out-of-town journeys 1 hour or 1.5 in the case of Northampton-Bedford No. 41. So having good working toilets properly stocked and serviced at the Bus Station is important for civilised values to be shared and adopted. Yes, after closure, there is nearby Pilgrims Progress, but not all will know that and whether to use a toilet scheme is still operational?

2. No. 21 Grant Palmer withdrawn. Had reliability issues but also if it served Bedford Midland as part of its over all journey, may have had more use as well. 

3. No. 8 Queens Park and Great Denham. 08.01 Monday, 08.41 Sunday. But is it too much to ask for a consistent clock face past the hour x per hour departing Bedford Bus Station and keep to it please? Ideally it could be half hourly. Loadings seem high with standing room only and an aging population. Buggies, wheelchairs and shopping bags on wheels take up precious space, but larger buses may find parked both sides of the room and careful maneuvers hazardous? Could Grant Palmer be contracted to do a Bedford Bus Station-Ford End Road - Old Ford End Road-Great Denham-loop Stagsden, Bromham and back or via Bromham Road, Ashburnham to serve the railway station and Midland Road to Bus Station? That would act as a relief and enable more buses and supplement the bi-hourly No. 41 gaps more locally. 

4. X5 loadings seem very healthy with sometimes every seat taken and 1 hour to wait if turned away. Is it time, post pandemic, to revisit a half hourly time table between 9am-6pm?

5. MK1 seems to be healthily loaded. When I think how some scoffed at the idea of extending the old Bedford-Luton bus to the airport, now it is booming usage wise! Could running Hitchin buses to loop round by the Hitchin Rail Station also boost overall usage?

6. No. 905 - could it loop round Longsands to serve St Neots Rail Station and vice versa - surely a gap and long walk in the dark currently between rail access and bus links. The town orbital is patchy, slow and useless. 905 regular and with plusbus style rail-bus ticketing would boost footfall mutually.

7. Town centre: Lurke Street Car Park used to have a mens and womens toilets with 4 cubicles and 4 space urinals (mens). Now reduced to one cubicle for all with a growing population and desire for more footfall via free parking to the town centre? People who park, visit, eat, drink need ample toilet access. Cost cutting here seems retrograde to what we are trying to achieve? Likewise Beales, Debenhams and M&S gone, lost toilet capacity there and basically town centre and Embankment, there's a dearth and some study or consultation should be done to see what people want and need. I think a toilet cubicle akin to Cambridge with baby changing facilities on lands north of the Butterfly Bridge may be prudent. Long walk from Cardington Road Tesco to Russell Park or Aspects to town centre... and food and drink is being consumed, we are trying to want people to come here and spend time enjoying the area?

8. Selfish plea, but again 53 Wootton service is used and Hillgrounds has no bus on a Sunday. Could something be done to restore a part-time 53 say 2 hourly or something? I used it to get to Grace Community Church Bedford which meets at the Addison, but there's the sports centres, open spaces and residential communities down there who should be served. They are all potential users and contributors.

https://www.graceinthecommunity.com/

9. Personally, I want a library service which is open to all, accessible 9-5 Monday - Saturday. I dislike pins and passwords culture, and feel also the staff need training to know what and where. How can we reduce cost and make the stack more accessible? Do we need a new, bigger central library? Maybe move Borough Hall to Debenhams and relocate the library at Cauldwell Street with a hotel and respite centre? What is the vision. Suffice to say I have been asked to queue when no one else was about, just to comply with the taped lineage. I feel the system is dumbed down and we need to nurture serious study and a culture of learning and growth, civic and personal life long development. Adult Learning has taken a tumble and on-line costs are prohibitive for low income people. Again, who is thinking about this?

10. Mill Street in brief:

a. buy and turn the former Howard Chapel into a walk-in community, civic, display, arts and gallery centre - it has pavement access. Mill Street needs revitalisation. Open the side passage from Ram Yard to Mill Street via Howard Chapel. We lost amenity when the Civic Theatre was closed. North-side pavement is too narrow for thoroughfare walking and window looking. Make road-way one-way from east to west and narrow like High Street, single lane. Make pedestrian and cycle friendly and encourage footfall with safe access for all. You can put solar panels on the roof for a bit more income.

Hope these ideas and feedback are not shot down, but considered. Chicken and egg, no buses, congestion fills the gap, add buses, congestion can modal shift more with incentives.

https://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/people/bedford-is-the-4th-worst-traffic-hotspot-in-the-uk-according-to-new-research-4239867 

Next Forum - All Welcome. Bedfordshire Forum at The Swan Pub, Flitwick (opposite the railway station served by Thameslink: https://www.swaninnflitwick.co.uk/ Suggested Wednesday 24^th January 2024. Enquiries welcome via richard.erta@gmail.com 

ERTA Bedfordshire Forum meets Wednesday 25^th October 12 Noon food, 1-3pm business Upstairs, Costa Coffee, 20 Silver Street, Bedford, MK40 1SU All Welcome.

If you wish to join us, please notify Mr Simon Barber

T. 0208 940 4399
E. simon4barber@gmail.com
 
Key reference on-line portals are: https://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ (scroll down) and https://ertarail.co.uk/ (electronic joining/donating options).
Do nothing and it may not happen, do something and be part of the answer of whether it may!
Agenda:
1. Apologies for absence
2. Consideration of A Station serving the Retail Park, Kempston et al.
3. Consideration of the Ampthill Parkway Station Narrative doc and
discussion in the light of the issues raised
4. Consideration of Stations North of Bedford (Sharnbrook) -Bedfordshire only.
5. How best to take these projects forward?
a. What is needed – more members, volunteers, and team building
b. An on-going leaflet campaign - £100 gives x1000 flyers (Bedford and Kempston), £50 a shot (SNOB/Sharnbrook, Ampthill/Flitwick).
6. Existing Rail, Thameslink, East Midlands, Bedford-Bletchley, Station redesign.
7. East-West Rail Update and discussion
7. Better Buses, Pedestrian Issues and Cycle shared access/safety.
8. ERTA Needs
- Leafleting
- Funding
- Area rep and team of local support

9. Date, Time Place of Next Meeting: Bedfordshire Forum at The Swan Pub, Flitwick (opposite the railway station served by Thameslink: https://www.swaninnflitwick.co.uk/ Suggested Wednesday 24^th January 2024. Enquiries welcome via richard.erta@gmail.com

 

ERTA Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham Rail Reopening Working Group

15-02-24 Update - All welcome - bring cash to our meetings please!

BRTA Guildford-Horsham Working Party – Saturday 24 February 2024 in the Jubilee Room, 2-4pm business Venue: Guildford United Reform Church Building, 83 Portsmouth Road, Guildford, GU2 4BS Venue W. https://guildfordurc.org.uk/
Venue Phone: 01483-569822 Main Contact Mr Simon Barber T: 0208 940 4399  
E: simon4barber@gmail.com
 
Agenda
1.     Apologies for absence
2.     Where we are at (CEO BRTA Richard Pill/Chairing)
3.     Volunteers we need:
a.     Seeking funding/sponsorship for flyer printing £200 for 500 A5’s £400 A4 on colour gloss – getting into letter boxes starting in Cranleigh first
b.     Volunteers for reliable on-going leafleting
c.      More members help us grow the support base
4.     Local news on what is happening:
a.     Threats to the route – update on old and new
b.     Council courting
c.      Agency/quango/government courting
d.     Need investors for funding preliminary can-do studies.
5.     South Heathrow Rail Link news and a west-north additional curve for Waterloo direction to the airport and if we get our way to Reading/Old Oak Common/Chiltern Main Lines.
6.     Any Other Business
7.     Date of next Working Group: Saturday 15^th June – same venue please Simon/same times.

 
Notes:
1.             Please encourage attendance and support for our Public Meeting in Horsham ERTA Horsham Public Meeting – Saturday 27 April 2024 12 Noon lunch – Meeting 1pm
Lunch Venue: Lynd Cross, 1 Springfield Road, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 2PG
W. https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/west-sussex/the-lynd-cross-horsham
Agenda: 1pm open up.
2-2.30 1st speaker (Tiffany Lynch – Director, TPL Transport Planning Ltd) followed by Q&A.
2nd speaker(tbc) followed by Q&A.
Update from us on the Working Group and close 4pm.
Vacate premises by 5pm.
Meeting Venue: Horsham Unitarian Church, Worthing Road, Horsham RH12 1SL
Venue Website: https://horshamunitarianchurch.com/
Venue Phone: Mobile 07717-221520 Main BRTA contact is Mr Simon Barber:
T: 0208 940 4399   E: simon4barber@gmail.com
2.             Note, we are meeting 12 Noon at the local Wetherspoons, setting up from 1pm and business starts 2pm. We need as many helpers/volunteers and unified advocates and recruiters as we can muster.
Public Meeting at Horsham will additionally have Rob Whitehead
Community Engagement Officer (Southern and GX) | Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR)
3.              As a second speaker.

4.             Please always bring cash to our meetings for retiring collection to help pay venue fees and peruse our second hand books and magazines/encourage people to join as  a member. Thanks.

13-01-24 Update

We received this, disappointing and raises the question of Government inter-play by directing to quangos like this who ignore or dismiss schemes such as ours, so Government ducks responsibility, accountability and scrutiny blaming quangos it sets up for the very purpose of avoiding schemes. Environment, modal shift and re-railing should be harmoniously the main agenda, instead we have plurailism and road schemes in the mix still! Things must change, Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham and trimmings alongside Heathrow Southern Rail Link should be seen strategically and worth investing, not long-grassing to never, never lands!

"Thank you for your email dated 4 January 2023. As a sub-regional transport body (STB) Transport for the South East (TfSE) advises Government on the  investment needed to transform our region’s transport system and drive economic growth. Our Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) outlines all the schemes we have identified with our delivery partners up to 2050. The SIP is the culmination of five years technical work which has included extensive stakeholder engagement.

As an STB, we focus on identifying regionally important transport schemes that will deliver our economic, social and environmental objectives. The schemes in the SIP have been selected for inclusion using a multi-criteria assessment framework consisting of over 50 criteria, including when and how each could be delivered.

It was not realistic to include all the schemes that everyone would like, or which were put forward as part of the Transport Strategy and SIP engagement process. The schemes for which you are seeking support, such as the reopening of the Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham rail link, construction of the Arundel Curve and re-instatement of the Polegate-Stone Cross have not been included in the SIP.  This does not mean that they would not offer benefit or improve the transport system in the south east but that others were better aligned with our objectives. .

We are not considering any additional schemes to take forward at this time as we are now focussed on how we can support delivery partners to progress the schemes that have been included in the SIP.

For those schemes that are included in the SIP such as the service enhancements to the Reading – Waterloo mainline, we are reliant on our delivery partners such as Network Rail as we are not a delivery body. In turn, our delivery partners are dependent on their own funding and decision-making processes. As a result, not all the schemes in the SIP will be delivered in the short term and a number of them may have to be delayed until a later date. Network Rail will be looking at the Reading – Waterloo mainline link in the second phase of their Wessex Suburban Strategic Study. This will include considering  increases in service frequency to meet demand to 2050 and journey time improvements, however, there is no timetable for this study as yet.

We  are in the process of refreshing our Transport Strategy as we are aware that a lot has changed since it was agreed  in 2020, including a heightened focus on decarbonisation, impacts of Covid on the travel market and the levelling-up agenda among other important influences. Following the Transport Strategy refresh, the SIP will also be reviewed to ensure it continues to deliver on our vision and objectives for the south east.

On your request for a contribution to cost of the production of your fliers, like many other Government funded bodies, I am afraid that we are not in a position to offer any financial support for this."

Kind regards

 

Elan

 

Elan Morgan

SUPPORT OFFICER

07849 308518

transportforthesoutheast.org.uk

  

19-11-2023 onwards:

~ERTA Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham Rail Reopening Working Group~

Notes from first meeting 18 November 2023 at a Room in the Guildford URC Church premises at 83 Portsmouth Road, Guildford, GU2 4BS

 

Present: Richard Pill (Chair), Simon Barber (assisting), David Ferguson (ERTA), Trevor Jones, Tony Newton and Adrian Chandler.

 

1.     Chairman’s welcome: Richard Pill presided in the Chair explaining our stance is for a heavy rail solution between Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham with amended spurs to serve Dunsfold and Shoreham as addendums and separate study following support for our core rail focus being advanced.

2.     Introductions: We went round clockwise introducing ourselves, our particulars, and stances.

3.     Things to consider:

Of the many things, the following was noted:

a.     Winning over Cranleigh people as important.

b.     Making it clear that a benefit would be the reduction of waiting time in the commute into Guildford and Horsham respectively and wider, further travel by rail opportunities.

c.      A281 and B2128 were seen as important roads the rail could alleviate.

d.     Stations for Wonersh and Bramley and also at Peasmarsh for the Park and Ride.

e.     Getting councils and MP’s needs local people support and emails/letters. ERTA can inform an umbrella for people to work under if they wish. Richard’s role is one of coordination and delegation.

4.     Actions: ERTA to design an open-ended question one side of an A4 with diagram and membership on the reverse – A4 B&W sheet for delivery at first Cranleigh, the Bramley and Wonersh. In that order. £100 gets 1000 ish or 500 colour gloss. It would be issued from February 2024 That in turns can feed for similar at the Horsham end and Guildford itself. Donations and volunteers working together and coordinated by Richard with whom they communicate, is necessary to avoid duplication or waste. An additional thing could be a draft letter people could download and sign and send to MP’s and Councils.

5.     Prioritisation: All of route protection, getting a coalition of political and public support and funding for studies are all important, but given the situation that we are at the start and foothills and a mammoth project needing more people and resources, to make our appeal to the public affected first and then move onto more and greater – the other aspects is required.

6.     The phased approach of Guildford-Horsham, Curves and Straight, Shoreham and Arundel Curves and other related aspects – Dunsfold was tabled - was generally supported although some thing the Arundel curve idea a red herring! The curve heading West direct off the Guildford line would enable direct and relief route to Arun Valley, Portsmouth, and Chichester. Brighton – Reading arc remains a wider regional un-rail-serve direct link, which our route could facilitate if a route can be found.

7.     Any Other Business:

a.     ERTA does not support Canal intrusions, LRT or Guided Busways on the old trackbed needed for a railway. However, there should, with some widening of the route and some flexibility, enable a walk-way cum cycle-way alongside the railway with perimeter fencing.

b.     Other things mentioned was Guildford East and West Stations and one for Merrow. These were in hand we were told. Likewise, support for an extra platforms and track capacity into Guildford is also to be desired and no more land sales to non-rail uses! A Woking flyover was also mentioned. There was support for a Woking-Heathrow Rail Link with an arm to Reading. This would link and follow the current Paddington-Heathrow rail service route.

c.      Emails from Trevor Jones and Tiffany Lynch were read out.

8.     Day, Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting: same venue Guildford URC Room on Saturday 24^th February 2024. It was also noted that a public meeting would be held end of April at the hall of the Unitarian Church next to the Bus Station at Horsham: https://horshamunitarianchurch.com/contact/ with a guest speaker to be announced. All welcome, watch this space.

Meeting closed approximately 3.30pm

 

Note: ERTA welcomes people to join, donate money and time and volunteer to help us respectively. The Working Group is open to all who support our trajectory of travel and who want to practically help us as these notes indicate. Thank you.

Local Train to Guildford awaits departure from Redhill 18-11-23

Update 12-11-23

Our working group starts the preliminaries next Saturday and over 2024, we have a goal of making progress to be as organised as we may to startmoving pro-affirma the measure of why and whether to reopen and move out and onwards from there to coalition building to get it done within a 10 year period. 

There's the local, regional and nationwide fit of reopening these rail links and benefits near and far if we do. Reading/Heathrow-Brighton arcing the corridor for one, South Coast to West London and beyond likewise. It needs local authorities to work with us and get on board as well as organisations like Transport for the South East (TfSE). They paint a broad brush and tinker with walking and cycling and bus, but we need additional rail reopenings to give modal choice for modal shift on a bulk measure and that can only happen if existing lines get upgraded and strategic missing links like Guildford-Horsham are reinstated. 

Please consider helping us. Sadly one councillor form the Shalford area has been sarcastic talking about cable cars, but we never flinch that tough choices need to be made, rail v obstacles, modern rails instead of steam but gains as with end-to-end timings and faster acceleration and braking for stations. Has Government or Opposition

got the message and courage to engage positively and not long-grass be deferring to quangos it appoints, to trade reports, hold conferences but delivery falls short of actual pro-rail 'spades on the ground'? Things must change and we need an agency which can inselect and thankfully few cases say "here's the cheque, move please", but councils should not be allowing blight on old rail courses in the first place, so some rectification is required to take these things into account.

Free pdf newsletter and agenda available via richard.erta@gmail.com All welcome.

1. 
2. 
   

Guildford-Horsham-Shoreham and arms – a pivotal rail link for modal shift revolution

link for modal shift revolution

Of the many aspects one could elaborate on, the rebuilding with new direct lines and curves of re-railing the Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham-Shoreham rail corridor could inform the following:

1.     The local connectivity of local main centres with each other, currently only bus and road-based direct access is possible. That puts a strain on local roads (rural and urban) and as development goes in, so will get worse.

2.     The regional rail-base choice, currently not on offers could be:

a.     Reading-Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham/Shoreham-Brighton arc ‘not via London’, freeing up seats elsewhere, shaving end-to-end timings and enabling more rail-based usage, decluttering roads in a large area.

b.     Guildford-Heathrow Southern Rail (see: https://heathrowrail.com/proposed-route/) which should yes, have a Reading arm, yes have a Waterloo (west-north curve) and yes should be extended to link and bay at Old Oak Common (OOC) Interchange (emergent) as well as direct tunnels to link Guildford/Woking with the Chiltern Lines for direct arc and access by rail to Banbury, Aylesbury and Milton Keynes (East-West Rail) and them audiences to Guildford and south ‘not via London’ freeing capacity on existing lines, making rail use more attractive and relevant for existing and new audiences.

c.      The curves at Horsham should link for direct running from Guildford and points north and west into Horsham and onwards via Crawley to Gatwick from the south via Three Bridges. Likewise, a direct curve to the west would link with the Arundel Valley Lines and South Coast to Portsmouth, Chichester and Bognor Regis for example and a direct line onto the former Horsham-Shoreham line would enable direct, quick by rail transit to Shoreham (a port), Worthing and Brighton from the west. The curve from Horsham to the Shoreham line should also be reinstated and also the south to east curve at Arundel as well to give more flexibility to rail-based operations for people and more freight by rail, cutting local road pressures, wear and tear.

3.     These rail links would enable much more by rail and should be supported by all. How do we bridge between aspiration to full Government support?

a.     It needs studying from a can-do point of view. Engineering, business cases, environmental considerations (gains and pinch points) and alongside this, how it would fit into the wider regional landscape in planning, development and sustainability terms. ERTA is confident it would stand evaluation and be an asset not a ‘unviable distraction’!

b.     Route protection is vital to keep options open and where development has encroached the old line, to consider deviations or if not possible in some cases a ‘here’s the cheque, move please’ approach for the greater benefits and good the rail restoration would inform.

4.     What ERTA is seeking to do:

a.     We have a working party to look at small and fine details and what can be done and to nurture towards local government, MP and other support who in turn may adopt the project and take it on to a higher level of appreciation and move the agenda on to delivery not mere talk of a ‘nice’ idea.

b.     We facilitate the working group and also public meetings to bring people together, let them join, have their say and be educated as to what the rail link (relevance) could mean for them.

5.     ERTA is a voluntary membership-based association and welcomes people and organisations to join and be involved with us. We are always seeking speakers (providing they bring their own equipment) to give illustrated talks at our meetings in Horsham and Guildford. Membership helps resource our work and activity and that in turn raises up the profile of the rail link aspiration to ever wider audiences.

 
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ERTA Northampton Public Meeting 30th September 2023 Success!

02-10-23 Press Release: 

02 October 2023

Press Release

 

Public Meeting reflects both interest and concern over potential rail enhancements and how best to do them incorporating the Brampton Way ‘Green Corridor’

 

ERTA gathered people at a public meeting to discuss and explore public transport issues in and around Northampton Saturday 30^th September. Despite the set-backs of strikes and disarray of buses, we were pleased locals turned out for us.

 

ERTA is aware that Northampton like many towns has a congestion and air pollution problem and as development goes in, so that will exacerbate, impacting the quality of local peoples lives.

 

It is our view that national and local policy should be geared to fostering local rail reopenings and rail-based solutions. We have unearthed under Freedom of Information (FOI) a study into rebuilding a Northampton-Market Harborough (N2MH) railway, which could offer rail alternative transits between Northampton and Leicester of just 35 minutes competitive to lure people out of their cars.

 

The Interim 2020 Network Rail study into N2MH reopening needs to be updated and completed. ERTA calls for this. Rail Magazine Edn. 991 6 September-19 September pages 8 and 9 state clearly Network Rail’s West Coast South Strategic Advice (WCSSA) says “HS2 won’t fully resolve WCML capacity issues.” This should be a springboard for ’spades in the ground’ now including extra tracks along the Northampton Loop and new addition through rails and platforms at Northampton Station. Precise details need studying, but ERTA’s call is to embrace potential, not throw it away.

 

Speakers included Mr Andrew Meaney of Oxera on financing and business cases, Peter Doveston from Northampton Streets Campaign and Professor Andrew N. Williams on the study for reopening the rail link.

 

End of Press Release

 

Contacts: Further comment, please contact: Professor Andrew Williams 07923489254 anw@doctors.org.uk or broader comment: Mr Richard Pill ERTA CEO

0772096392 richard.erta@gmail.com

Northampton Public Meeting – a personal reflection by Richard Pill.

ERTA held a public meeting at Northampton on 30^th September 2023 at the Northampton Quakers in Wellington Street, Northampton. Despite a nationwide rail strike and bus networks overcrowded and, in some disarray, (fragmented privatised industries means a lack of joined-up-consideration with extra buses laid on for example), so people had to use what is available. Some 17 people came and heard presentations from Mr Andrew Meaney from Oxera on business cases and the funding of rail schemes and his illustrated talk was an interesting contrast between the state of the financing of the railways in the Beeching era and that of today and subsidies. However, we wish to avoid the comparison whereby closures were thought to save money, there being no money for investment to modernise and save medium long term. Now, government dithers and tilts between a roads only future and a fragmented rail landscape with part private and part public involvement and virtually leaderless whereby a single voice speaks and champions rails and rail users market share. Moreover, the business models of maths, engineering and science are all very well, but surely other values and evaluations like people before profit, arts and humanising what we do. Closure of ticket offices, disenfranchising swathes of users, in the name of modernisation and ‘efficiency’ in accountancy terms, must be balanced with the moral value of ‘the right to travel’ and what environmentally is best?  

There then followed and the meeting was chaired admirably by Mr Peter Doveston who leads the Northampton Streets Campaign which arcs walking, cycling, buses and rails from a grassroots level upwards for a better deal for the people of Northampton. Peter was able to ameliorate concerns of impact such a new railway between Northampton and Market Harborough may inform like whether relocation or realigning in a widened ‘green corridor’ the Brampton Way (public footpath and cycle way) and keeping the preserved Northampton and Lamport Railway as well as single bore tunnels and much more.

Professor Andrew N. Williams then spoke eloquently of the study he had unearthed following a Freedom of Information enquiry and the 2020 study showed the benefits of reopening like a 35-minute Northampton-Leicester rail transit for passenger services and how a link at the Market Harborough end could be done. The new Northampton Rail Freight Depot and DIRFT at near Rugby could both be beneficiaries removing more lorries from local and regional roads like the M1 and A508 for example. If we do not embrace the railway option, more development going in now, will exacerbate some of the highest congestion and air pollution in the country and likewise, if we do not embrace more tracks for more trains on the West Coast Main Line inclusive of the Northampton Loop, then true modal shift, let alone current growth of existing lines, will be stifled with roads being widened, where does this traffic end up? At urban interfaces! You cannot build your way our of congestion, but you can inform more rail choice, if we all support and act now to retain that option. No reopening is trouble free, but examples like Ebbw Value in Wales and Borders Rail in Scotland shows reopenings have exceeded expectations and forecasts and Northampton-Market Harborough (N2MH) is no exception. On the one hand you have Oxford-Milton Keynes Central inform potential consideration for more tracks between Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central, but to be able to commute between Oxford-Milton Keynes-Northampton-Leicester and vice versa, local and regional options currently only road served.

ERTA will continue to build a team and chip by chip engage as we may and yes, the pinch points like the Northampton Northern Link Road which crosses the trackbed at Boughton, how the preserved railway can be retained and how the width of the corridor can be widened to incorporate ‘interests’ as much as reasonably possible. In Lewes, East Sussex, they put their cycle-walk-way alongside the A27, which is really where such alternatives belong x every motorway and trunk road surely? See https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23445960.a27-work-complete-cycle-path-built-east-lewes-scheme/ You can have a route alongside a widened railway, or alongside A508, but the idea that you can only walk on old trackbed, is a belief too far, sharing is an investment in all of us and the railway would protect land which otherwise will be developed with widened roads and congestion proliferation the end result.

The meeting went well and we hope to build on it. ERTA needs more willing volunteers to help with organising meetings and practical considerations like light refreshments, lifts from stations and ensuring the smooth running as much as possible. On a personal front, I do not rule out more meetings in Market Harborough and Leicester, but it depends on more willing volunteers, costs-income and translating to the Working Group to be self-sustaining, self-perpetuating, and able to stand on its own feet.

On Air Pollution in Northampton see: https://www.northantslive.news/news/northamptonshire-news/northampton-people-indirectly-smoke-189-8168681 This is just a law of averages, other towns like Bedford and elsewhere have their fair share too. Only re-railing can offer the modal choice to people and goods, even a 10 % shift nationwide would make substantial benefits and savings (preventative health for example) and yet Government seems in complete denial of this. Let us hope before, during and after a General Election, let alone the Climate Emergency, our elected leaders start to level up towards cleaner air, less congestion and getting UK PLC back on track!

Suffice to say I note Roade has got its bypass (A508), Parish Council dismissed the idea of a railway station… as the area grows, so the need becomes ever greater and we call for a. let the people decide in a vote and b. think again… think rail!