Transport for the South East (TfSE) needs the public to support BRTA's rail agenda!

TfSE - please read and engage. Please email your local MP via 

https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons 

and give support for BRTA's principal calls which are chiefly:

1. Electrification of the North Down Rail Line for Thameslinks semi-fast from East Croydon to serve the town of Guildford (Phase 1), maybe Reading too (Phase 2).

2. Support for reopening/new-building to a modern rail standard the former Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham rail link to enable better rail choices, connections and cut emissions and congestion in a context of growth.

3. A new-build Polegate-Stone Cross rail link for shaving 20 minutes end-to-end Brighton-Ashford journey by rail, competing with A27 which has a lot of upgrades successively whilst rail remains Cinderella.

4. Electrify and double track throughout from Brighton to Hastings to Ashford, no exceptions.

5. Eastbourne to be station upgraded, a new fast service linking London (capital), Gatwick (airport) and Eastbourne (resort).

6. Support a new direct curve from Tonbridge to Gatwick, saving time changing at Redhill, freeing up Redhill for other services more.

7. More integrated bus-rail ticketing, railcards for 18+ to Retirement audiences. If that means longer trains, longer platforms and rejigging track layouts, signalling - we need the agenda going forward now.

Switch funding from new roads, they only deliver congestion to urban areas and pollution elsewhere too. We need our local rail links back and public involvement and accountability built into Great British Railways emergent new set up: https://gbrtt.co.uk/

Thanks very much. Cycleways and footpaths need not go literally on railway courses, but can be put alongside principal roadways as per the A27 in the Lewes area - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-65921577

BRTA is having its AGM in Guildford this Summer. Please book the date. It is free and open to all, so all welcome.

Membership of BRTA and/or donations helps us produce flyers, hold meetings and we welcome support please including there are opportunities for experience and volunteering, please visit our website: https://brtarail.com/events/

Development and Planning synergies around Bedford?

BRTA is concerned that the government pressure and targets, dire need and weakness of planning systems to avoid cost at all cost including legal issues which can also be protracted, that development infill across our green and pleasant lands is going a-pace without adequate infrastructure, rail-based access public transport to facilities like shops, better buses, social housing for local people mix in both urban and rural locations.

re: https://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/politics/council/plans-for-93-new-homes-in-bromham-submitted-to-council-4696315

We welcome objections to this notwithstanding clarity and confirmation of   a route from former Oakley Junction area off the Midland Main Line going west towards Northampton can be done still and if not, can land be protected to ensure realigned or on new-build alongside, a viable route is do-able please?

Bromham has few shops, chronic High Street constant through traffic and a poor hourly bus service. Contrast Biddenham which has expanded but has no shop at all and Stagsden which is without much if any social housing, limited bus, no pub and has fields between A422 bypass and Village Road which could be developed in-keeping with other des-res developments. Cycle way improvements and better facilities to avoid unnecessary driving all the time, could make an emissions reduction impact.

We do need a Bedford-Northampton rail link anew, with new-build where olf route is lost especially avoiding Olney for example. These development allocations seem to tick-box quotas to be seen to develop housing of a certain des-res type, but are parochial in focus and immediates, rather than the whole A428 corridor, that has sprawling development and where 4 cars per house will end up/want to commute to? Urban interfaces, meaning congestion, more pollution, parking land demand (scarce resource) and costs spiralling on and off the roads.

The pothole issue is partly underscored by heavier vehicles pounding structures and road surfaces daily, add to that weather, salt and other toxins inherent of rubber on hard surfaces and exhaust emissions and costs spiral as well as danger to those few cyclists who actually bother to use roads rather than pedestrian spaces?

Our media and politicians must speak out and help to inform a study into reopening the local rail alternative, free-up urban parking demand and make these growing pockets of development more sustainable.

Please see: https://brtarail.com/b2n/ and also we call for a study, like Wixams into Stations North of Bedford at Oakley and Sharnbrook to cut traffic along the A6 and free up Bedford Midland spaces for other rail users/cut drive-times for everyone?

On another track, if a direct curve or 5th track from either Wixams or Bedford-Bletchley Line is installed with a direct curve onto the fast lines off the local Bedford-Bletchley Railway, ending in a new river bridge and bay at Platform 5 west of Bedford Midland Platform 4, it would be dead-end in all probability and means the Kempston Fire Station may need relocating? I am unconvinced the implications are well thought out and far better to let trains east-west run into Bedford Midland via St John's area, segregating the lines and leaving fast-tracks unimpeded for fast trains or maybe Thameslink if an extra bay on that side was seen as appropriate?

BRTA has called for more and better buses to and looping between the Bus Station and Railway Station as part of the overall journey/routing of issues and problems can be overcome. That it has been an on-going issue for 40 years since privatisation, is curious, and no politicians seem to want to bring heads together to address it as opportune to more direct footfall and spend in town centre outlets including (orbital bus fashion) Tavistock Street, High Street and Bromham Road (new stop outside Wyvern House) and into Hassett Street for outwards from Bus Station.

The new Greyfriars ideal of Woolwich high rise in central Bedford designs, will mean the roundabout goes and a loss of open green space. I am not sure how buses entering and leaving the bus station will cope with a single x2 way traffic light operation and the high rise flats proposed at close proximity will cast a shadow on an area which is less-than ideal for pedestrians and a main walk-way to and from Bedford Midland Station via dingy Alexandra Place and Woburn Road. I think poor links with Bedford Midland and the High Street are missing an economic trick based on car-legs myopia, which is a false economy!

It could be instructional to restore through buses between one end of urban cordons to the other like merge No. 1 with No. 5 for Norse Road to Kempston and back for example, No. 7 with No. 3 and 51 with 9 to/from Clapham and Shortstown? It could shave time wasted baying at the Bus Station, enable more flexible operations and free up capacity for more bus services? At least could it be kept under review? Affordability is a key plank beyond usual usage of buses, so 18+ bus passes to retirement age is something which would give lifestyle choices, greener options, fill buses and save costs on car ownership, when young people need to get to college, work, leisure outlets and save money they do not necessarily have to £3 each time they use a bus on a low income? Leaving home is also a cost and getting public transport right is the difference between idealism and making things work for everyone.

Hope of interest. 

Join our Stations North of Bedford Facebook Page:

 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566833106949

That East West Rail does not take into account linking with Northampton or east-north movements for freight, shows how it lacks any true business sense beyond Oxbridge focuses end-to-end, which while a railway is better than none, misses the point of what better comprehensive linkages can do for modal shift more from national to regional to local focuses and vice versa. If the government ever did plum for a 4th London Airport at Thurleigh in North Bedfordshire to 'share the load and rescue the overheated South East'; then the East-West Rail Northern route would not serve it, be in a tunnel under Ravensden and again misses the whole point of integrated transport links. I fear our route east of Bedford via St John's will be built over by housing, locking-in the Northern route, which is a cynical outcome we have battled with since 1987.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ 

and 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566833106949

Write to your MP and ask for Government support for BRTA's ideas and suggestions to make things work for all!

https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

London Orbital Airports, has the government really thought it through?

The government's push for growth via airport expansion beit Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, needs a jolt to ensure they coincide with more and better rail links first as follows:

1. Stansted - needs rail link eastwards to link with Braintree and Colchester.

2. Gatwick, needs a new direct curve from Tonbridge to Gatwick for direct running both ways and the reopening of Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham with a direct curve to run from the south to Gatwick direct via Three Bridges.

3. Heathrow needs the Heathrow Southern Rail Link and the new Reading arm to extend to link with bays and a new tunnel to link with the Chiltern Main Line for Milton Keynes/Aylesbury-Heathrow-Guildford arc, see: https://heathrowrail.com/ and

4. Luton Airport Parkway Station needs a new 8-coach bay on the northern side underneath DART for a new 'South Chiltern Link' linking between Luton, Heathrow and Reading via the proposed for reopening Dudding Hill Lines of North-West London. 

5. If we find the South East is overheating and care about environmental impacts, then we should both welcome more services out of St Pancras to continental places taking off the pressure for short-haul flights and maybe should also study what about Thurleigh Airport as a London 4th in North Bedfordshire? Alas, unless East-West Rail is willing to relocate their Northern Route to serve it and St Neots onwards to Cambridge, the railway would be in a tunnel to the south of the airport and opportunity for 12, 000 jobs (Stansted example) thrown away. 

An airport without rail access generates lots of congestion, pollution and bads and is unsustainable. Has the government thought these things through carefully, or a knee-jerk announcement without thinking through what is involved except as some after thought? If Universal Theme Park goes ahead, 8 million visitors are envisaged per year, the airport could come in handy for that audience?

If we are talking about the exciting Dudding Hill Lines, unsure how it will connect with the new station at Brent Cross? Docklands also needs to extend to Brent Cross via the North London orbital road. These links will be strategic and popular.  on the back of it with a new bay at Luton Airport Parkway for 8-coach trains, would inform a 'South Chiltern Link' on the back of it. But despite putting it out, few backers are gagging for it... all enquiries welcome via richard.brta@gmail.com

Our London Forum will be convened where these and other regional/London-wide issues can be discussed. 

We welcome support and interest in these things. Please join/affiliate https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/  to BRTA. A lot is possible, but we need more people to volunteer and help us and resources to enable more and better.

Bedford East West Rail and Thameslink Meeting 01-03-2025

 Bedford East West Rail and Thameslink Meeting 01-03-2025

Key feedback points were:

1. East West Rail Northern Route leaves much to be desired and a feeling they are not listening. If their route flounders, they have only themselves to blame and by which time, our route will probably be built over. Problems with our route is ORR’s ruling against new-build Level Crossings and a lack of champions at strategic or council level. The southern route bypassing the town centre station, would mainly be Park and Ride and disenfranchise swathes of people who do not drive. However, if it is found Heathrow Third Runway is unpopular and defeated, but capacity and spreading out more from the heated South East is required, any consideration of Thurleigh as a London 4th Airport, would not be served by the current East-West Rail Link which in tunnel would serve no-one but end-to-end users but for Tempsford Station, which without physical rail links, and incremental sprawl development locks out connectivity and optimal operations for winning to rail from further afield like York, Peterborough and in-between from the north and Stevenage, East Bedfordshire from the south. Direct travel is better than changing in the middle of a housing estate bereft of infrastructure!

2. Buses need to loop the bus and rail stations as a part of overall journeys. If the corner going towards Greyfriars off Ashburnham Road is a problem, which the current No. 41 bus manages, then loop out via Midland Road to Ashburnham Road and back via Bromham Road and Hassett Street for example. Not rocket science, but needs a determined effort and lead. Pre-privatisation the 108 to Clapham did for example. But it has been a 40-year gap and orbital buses out of the station to/from rural areas and indeed serving Tavistock Street and the High Street could boost spread of footfall and spend.

3. Concerns at blurring kerbside with pavement space and roads. The St Paul’s Square project may look aesthetically nice, but scooters and bikes on pavements has become a hazard for pedestrians, especially disabled, partially sighted, and elderly people who are taken by surprise, shocked and disturbed at pedestrian space being disregarded.

4. East-West Rail puts a spin on more rail usership coming to Bedford Midland and rightly so. But a new trainshed for passengers of a larger size, more retain outlets for affordable snacks and quality food like St Albans has, buses linking with the railway and better disabled ramps at the front not sidelined and toilets likewise should all be considered. On the railway, Thameslink offers a comprehensive network and was reminded of Pre-Privatisation Network South East used to have a Rail Day whereby people could use the railway free for a day and with the arcing rail link between Bedford and Oxford, could really draw many hearts, minds and users back to the railways. Likewise extending Thameslink to Corby and cascading East Midlands Trains should focus on a. better corridor rolling stock, b. longer trains, c. a seamless single journey between Bedford and Leicester and d. one direct train from Bedford to Leeds. Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and indeed Carlisle should all be served by East Midlands from Bedford without changing trains. Reopening Matlock to Buxton/Chinley for East Midlands-Manchester rail journeys should also be facilitated without change of trains anywhere. Generally, councils have constrained budgets but need to talk and work with us to focus on key projects more. Bedford-Bletchley needs upgrading and better rolling stock, longer trains and good quality facilities. The year-on year fare increases across the rail network is another bug-bear. 18+ ages need concessionary bus and rail cards, as cost of living, acces to court work, welfare curtailments and leaving home arcing’s all means high costs and low incomes leave gaps which cannot be filled easily. So we need outlets bringing together and creatively tackled to enable more and quality of life experiences on and off the rails to be people, places and society cohesively nurtured.

5. Our impression from the meeting was that many are aware and moves to these ends understood. Now the map, plan and implementation carrying people and users with us is also highly desired.

Bedford to Northampton (B2N) new creation rail link for greater sustainability and connectivity!

Update at 03-03-2025: 

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/politics/construction-start-date-revealed-for-controversial-217-property-housing-estate-in-busy-built-up-part-of-northampton-5012065

Ransome Road development as is some others to the rail idea if it does not leave adequate corridor land and with space for:

1. 25KV OHLE Electrification for Thameslinks/other link-up modern traction and gantys.

2. adequate space for perimeter fencing and a cycle way alongside with lighting

3. Consideration of the congested London Road, Northampton, air pollution and whether this development is sustainable or just quotient infill housing for its own sake without wider contextual considerations superimposed by people located in greener rural areas on urban situations?

If you support our rail aspiration, please write to you local MP - find them on https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

The local MP for Northampton South is Mike Reader MP, but he can only entertain emails for his own constituents, but if other MP's can contact him and work towards accommodatiung the railway verifiedly, that bodes better. If the railway is rebuilt, a station halt serving both Delpare Abbey, Northampton South and the Waterside Northampton University Campus can be implemented and benefits serivative thereof. New housing tend sto be flimsy and needs barriers and space from close proximity to a railway and sowe do question whether Ransome Road development is the best location given these other agendas or a blocking of the rail idea via a fig leaf of 'everyone needs homes'? Let us have your own feedback via richard.brta@gmail.com and join our loop for updates and other newes related to reopening railways.

Our excellent webmaster, Andy Purves has spruced up and issued a new campaigns page about the idea of reopening the Bedford-Northampton Rail Link anew, not the old route per se, as is blocked at Olney. However, support would be welcome at a strategic council, agency and upwards level as well as public interest in the idea. Please see the page: 

https://brtarail.com/b2n/

I am mindful Bedford Borough wrote to West Northants Council asking the corridor into Northampton from Bedford is retained, as that is a key aspect as per the Bromham Bedford end, can a new route north of Bromham for a railway be done and a flyover to link with the 2 slow lines for access into Bedford Midland Station for Thameslink integration and also East-West Rail?

I am available for feedback, discussion and welcome people to join, offer to assist and eventually grow a team.

Studies are needed given the new situation with Olney blocked, we need a new 10-15 mile route arcing the Lavendon sort of area and where the A509/A428 meet, could be a better location for a Parkway Station?

10 years hence, given regional and indeed, nationwide development without proper infrastructure planning routes will be lost unless options are identified and retained as part of allocating development now.

BRTA stands ready to do its bit and welcomes any help, support, advocacy and champions for it to take it forward please of any level and tier of power.

The new rail link could

1. feed into and from local bus links from outlying areas

2. save wear and tear costs on pounded roads

3. enable more options for logistics and public transport end-to-end

4. make growth sustainable, saving land, cutting emissions and freeing up urban parking capacity.

5. create capacity for more by rail off the Midland Main Line, West Coast Main Line and arc the Rugby-Luton gap, which is a significant gap for both freight by rail, public transport and connectivity.

These are just a few benefits taking an interest towards adoption by the government could ultimately deliver for the communities and 3 regions it would serve as part of a nationwide network of railway inter-connectivity.

What we wish for:

Join BRTA and feedback/enquiries welcome via richard.brta@gmail.com

Bedford Road, Northampton... a regular situation informing delays, waste, costs and pollution. What are local leaders willing to do to rectify it please?!

British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) calls for extension of the rail link to Stansted progress news Reuniting East and West Essex by Rail

Now this: 27-02-25

Would complement rail links between Stansted and Colchester/Braintree too?

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/02/proposed-essex-kent-superlinks-to-scupper-unaffordable-lower-thames-crossing.html

Update 25-02-25: Reuniting East and West Essex by Rail

Minutes are now available of a Zoom meeting about #Stansted Airport expansion and an extension of the rail link eastwards to Braintree and Colchester respectively. Minutes of our Zoom call yesterday about the proposed expansion of Stansted Airport and a proposed extension of the existing rail link eastwards to link with Braintree and Colchester which would enable more use of rail for journeys to, from and beyond the airport like Cambridge-Chelmsford and Colchester to Harlow for example.

We would welcome your help to champion the rail link and on request I have a report study done by Railfuture East Anglia which I am happy to share showing the feasibility of such a uniting rail link, broadening the employment base and accessibility to wider audiences of ther airport and helping with jobs and other regenerational footfall and spend for example in town centres and reducing the chronic congestion, pollution and mayhem more roads upgrades inform which are also accident prone too.

We seek champions for the rail link proposal and help to upgrade the study, champion the rail link idea and get a round-table going to bring professionals, elected representatives and other support bodies together to champion it to the highest level and court government support like they recently gave to Heathrow Third Runway, which arguably overheats the South East and without more and better conventional rail links will be unsustainable - people, places and quality of life considerations for example.

The report, a recent letter from Stansted Airport and minutes from our Braintree Public Meeting via pdf are available from here richard.brta@gmail.com

I sincerely hope this may be of some interest, as if we do not get the rail link, the impact of airport growth will throw ever more pollution and congestion onto the A120 and land use demands for ever more parking as well. Join our loop via richard.brta@gmail.com Likewise copies of the Railfuture Report and a letter from Stansted Airport too. They are pdf's.

https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/

21-02-25 Update Zoom Meeting - all welcome:

See: https://brtarail.com/events/ 

Scroll down to Monday 24th February for Stansted Zoom Meeting. 

Any queries or to join our update loop send to richard.brta@gmail.com

Minutes of BRTA Zoom Meeting discussion of Stansted Airport Expansion and better rail links from Colchester and Braintree for more by rail and reduced traffic impacts for example.
Present: Ian Couzens (Railfuture East Anglia Chairman), Trevor Garrod (Chaired the Meeting from Lowestoft), Richard Pill (BRTA CEO), Simon Barber (BRTA), Dave Aldridge (Shortgate Parish Council, Wickford.
1. Apologies for absence: Jonathan Coghill (BRTA), David J. Start (BRTA).
2. Minutes of previous minutes and matters arising: There were no matters arising and the minutes were accepted.
3. Stansted Expansion and better rail links:
a.   The meeting want the railway extended eastwards to serve Braintree/Colchester and Chelmsford arcingly.
b.   A question was do we want more aircraft in and out of Stansted? Medium to long haul maybe, but short flights, the emphasis should be on more and better rail links, services, and connections. Pan-Europe travel by rail for example was flagged up and Eurostar is expanding services via the Channel Tunnel to/from wider European destinations.
c.    If we want more by rail, we need links like east of Stansted for wider audiences to and from the airport by rail, cutting congestion on the A120 and emissions.
d.   We considered the environmental benefits of the proposed rail extension and the population attending the airport commuting for work, shift hours and subsidiary industries informing a supply chain dependent on business to and from the airport. It is thought about 12, 000 people work in relation to the airport and presumed from a wide area. Better rail links would enable more of these people to attend by rail and enlarge the employment base and choice from a wider range including East Essex for example.
e.   The new rail link would reunite east and west Essex which is a fairly large and growing population county of England.
4. Consideration of their letter of response to the Braintree meeting:
a.   The letter was a welcome response, but it was expressed that we are not asking the airport to fully fund the new rail extension, but help and be instrumental in helping gather a coalition of support by lead agency and councils to take the project and give it a home and forward to appeal for government backing just as Rachel Reeves has done for Heathrow Third Runway for example. It is of regional and nationwide significance and impact.
b.   Richard Pill to email Mr Fieldhouse and would ass the pdf of Railfuture’s Study making the case for the airport rail link extension.  This basic study makes a case, but we need investors and support for a more detailed and fuller study to be worked up which may for example do routing, engineering, environmental considerations, and possible Parkway Station for Great Dunmow area for example.
c.    Ref R120 mirrors A120 corridor. The population is growing in volume, sprawl, and density, so land use is becoming a precious commodity and ensuring the railway remains do-able is why it needs a home with professionals, councils, agencies, and government to be done within maybe a 10-year timeframe?
5.   Next Steps:
d.   Richard to ask Mr Fieldhouse for any origin and destination data from customers and staffing supply and demand and what expansion would inform numerically.
e.   Richard to write/email councillors and ask for them to consider a key person’s conference to further consider these matters and a course of action for the railway and invite the author of the Railfuture Study to speak for example?
f.      Another meeting/conference could also be done by Railfuture/BRTA, location to be determined. BRTA happy to help marketing by email, but can’t resource such ourselves and any future meeting would be Zoom and/or a smaller public meeting at Braintree.
g.    Richard to contact Transport East about the matter.
h.   The Railfuture Consultants were Jonathan Roberts, based in London and these minutes would be sent and any future mapping on the way ahead is welcome to entertain.
i.      Richard to post out to those who attended Braintree who only gave postal addresses.
6. (see 5)
Who will do what including BRTA seeking someone to join and be the Essex Area Rep to recruit and build a team to coordinate.
7. Any other related business:
It was discussed about time-span from conception to delivery. Clearly given pace of development there is no room for long terming or complacency. We need coalition, support, champions, and leadership now. It was mentioned East West Rail (Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge) started as an amateur campaign and has taken 40 years with Oxford-Milton Keynes Passenger Trains running from August 2025 mooted.
8. Future Zoom/date of next meeting and any plugs.
No future formal da in touch and so another Zoom for interim progress later in the year seems logical. Meanwhile people can join our growing email loop via richard.brta@gamil.com
Meerti8ng started at 3pm and finished about 4pm Thanks to our webmaster Andy Purves for helping set up and manage the Zoom apparatus for the meeting.
Notes:
 Website: https://brtarail.com/events/
Copies of pdf letter via richard.brta@gmail.com
Enquiries via 01234 225068

Railfuture Report Consultancy: https://www.jrc.org.uk/

13 February 2025

Press Release

 

British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) calls for extension of the rail link to Stansted to arc across to reunite east and west Essex as one east-west rail link with Braintree and Colchester

 

BRTA convened a meeting on Saturday 8^th February at Braintree to bring people together to discuss the matter that if Stansted is to expand, the public should rightly ask their MP’s, Councils and Government to demand contributions to extending the rail link eastwards to link with Braintree and Colchester including a new Parkway Station for Great Dunmow.

 

Benefits would include:

1.     Decluttering the A120 in a context of massive infill development. The road is accident prone and hazardous and needs the relief a proper rail link can offer.

2.     Reunite east and west Essex offering train travel between places like Cambridge and Chelmsford, Harlow to Colchester and all in between.

3.     The meeting also discussed re-connecting Maldon to the main line by rail, a new route would be needed, a study is called for.

 

Richard Pill said after the meeting “Essex deserves better joined-up rail connectivity and we call on councils and others to demand the rail link and routing for it be included in expansion plans for the airport. We aim to hold a Zoom Meeting on 24^th February and all are invited, further details via richard.brta@gmail.com”

 

End of Press Release

 

Further comment: Richard Pill, BRTA CEO 01234 225068

BRTA Response to Rachel Reeve's Statement in Eynsham, Oxfordshire January 2025

Routes have not been shown in consultations since 2019 and ours never! So how can the public objectively have their say or choices? Latest news on Airports, Capacity and overheated SouthEast must lend to a reconsideration of these routes betweem Bedford and Tempsford and how physical links at Tempsford could enlarge rail's market share more for passenger and freight operations?

Government clearly has not thought through the application of its ideas and how much, having locked itself to not charge Income Tax to the better off, how funding will be done? Private or public, there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Our views are as follows:

1. Heathrow Third Runway, the place is already overcrowded, congested and blighted, would it not make sense if we must have such, to spread the load and consider rerouting East-West Rail to serve a 4th London Airport at Thurleigh and run the railway via St Neots and onwards to Cambridge? Moreover, Heathrow needs more and better rail links anyway like Heathrow Southern and the Reading arm. https://heathrowrail.com/

2. On East-West Rail, we do need a rail link if not 2 or 3 more. Our stance of routing has been ignored. We wanted east of Bedford via St John's (see attached) and new-build from the Willington area to approach the Tempsford plains from the south-west not north-west as the current Northern Route offers. It will serve no-one in North Bedfordshire with probably long tunnelling (like HS2) rather than a station! It is a sad irony, that when we launched a Bedford-Sandy extension of the Bedford-Bletchley rail link for East Coast Main Line (ECML) connectivity in 1987, councils objected saying no case, but would not fund a study and also would not entertain it because of 'blockages' which then was less-than 30 houses albeit more expensive houses than those in Poets. Now we have 60 houses to be knocked down and more and the case, as year after year studies rather than delivery was the name of the game (writing ordinary advocates off on cost grounds) and Bedford Borough Council and the former County Council opposed a bridge over the old railway route in 1993 despite other councils writing asking for support for the railway, so A421 Southern Bypass became another blockage to our route. Then from 2017 the 2019 Consultation put the Northern Route but not our route, so it biased the people and has repeated this pattern, yes people want an East-West Rail Link but they can only vote for what is presented to them, rather than the options in this study: https://www.bedford.gov.uk/files/bedford-ewr-station-choice-wider-impacts-final-11-01-24.pdf/download?inline

So we are where we are. If Northern Route goes pear shaped, then ours stands ready to be looked at and supported, but Office for Road and Rail needs tackling on special dispensation for a Level Crossing at Priory Park entrance and also a bridge over the railway at Cardington Road, if a Level Crossing is not suitable, although it was once there until 1982 ish.

Funny how objections to dualling A421/A428 Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge have been muffled compared to the railway throughout, where will all this road-based traffic go upon meeting the urban interfaces like Bedford and Cambridge which both share gridlocked roads at times?

Meanwhile we will continue to bang our drum for satellite stations for Bedford like Oakley, Sharnbrook, Kempston Retail and putting Ampthill back on the railway map.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ and https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/

Write to your MP about this as well, given government finds money and permits new roads, but not this and similar other rail links? How will modal shift back to rail happen, let alone the environmental needs for cleaner transport like rail offers, ever be done? https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24897104.government-cant-afford-oxfordshire-rail-link-says-minister/

Write to your MP and challenge the government's stance: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons