Dear editor,
Along with most other people I am very much in favour of restoring the rail link between Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge. But the way that EWR Co is going about it is now insupportable.
At first, it was to involve demolishing a few houses in the Poets’ area of Bedford. Unnecessary, according to some campaigners, but acceptable to most Bedfordians. (Though, of course, not for the people whose homes are affected).
Then it emerged there would be a vast viaduct north of the town. At this, I began to feel queasy. But now I believe it is time for us to think the unthinkable, to stop the project altogether, at least in its present form.
Why? Three things: one, the proposed erection of a large multistorey car park for the station, an eyesore that will render that area of the town even less attractive than its present, somewhat wilted, beauty.
Two, another multi-storey for the hospital (for which we taxpayers are expected to fork out £36m, it seems).
Certainly, parking at the station and the hospital needs sorting out – but are two huge blocks the only possible answer? Multistorey car parks are not among architecture’s loveliest achievements and will move Bedford further along its progression towards resembling Luton.
But the matter that puts the tin lid on it for me is the disruption that EWR will cause during the construction phase. They have chosen to put their depot right in the town, rather than on one of their rural sites.
That must mean that all their vehicles will be stored there, lorries will be coming and going constantly, receiving and distributing materials. Crashes and bangs will be heard all the time.
Five years?
Moreover, several hundred workers’ cars will enhance the daily rush-hour experience, morning and evening. Streets will be clogged, the town will be gridlocked, and dust and fumes will choke the people.
And it’s not for weeks or months, but for years – probably five years, given the way that construction projects always over-run.
Five years of hell for Bedfordians?
That was never in the proposals, so let’s have a new proposal that eliminates these problems. Maybe an out-of-town station on the main line, maybe moving the entire station out of town with plenty of parking and a shuttle bus service?
Maybe follow the original route that Beeching closed in the 1960s? They say it’s prone to flooding – on what evidence I don’t know – but they are engineers, so they can fix it. Just as the Victorians who built the original line nearly 200 years ago were able to.
One thing is becoming increasingly clear – Bedfordians are required to pay too high a price for the present shambles and deserve a more workable alternative. Step forward Mohammad Yasin MP, Mayor Tom Wootton and Bedford Borough councillors.
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