Dear editor,
RE: East West Rail has “hit the buffers” says local MP
This is a failure of tiers of Government as well as anyone else.
On the one hand, English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) takes a view the Northern Route E between Bedford-Tempsford area-Cambridge was unworkable, like engineering and steep gradients, for example, and lack of things like an east-north [route] from it to the Midland Main Line.
The design did not incorporate such.
On the other hand; taking into account development ‘creep’ has curtained off the Sandy area for accessing the north-south main line (East Coast Main Line/ECML) and that such a physical linkage was not inherent in the 2019 consultation, [this] means the wider range of market potential (inclusive of the north of Stevenage, south of Peterborough and East Bedfordshire) is written off.
No way will people realistically be expected to come to Bedford from one of these areas, changing trains [in the] middle-of-nowhere, even with 300 new houses in Tempsford, when they can drive or [get the] bus in less waiting time?
ERTA believes we do need an east-west rail link and discerns that freight should be an important element in such a design.
Stalled by Government
However, [we should have] a passenger line serving Cambridge as one main market and a new passenger and freight line to link with radial lines at Ely, which is being pushed for a rail upgrade but being stalled by… government.
Who is the Secretary of State for Transport? Is it not one Rt Hon Grant Shapps?
Again, as with the strikes, he is unwilling to consult with us and consider a Plan B option, it is ‘do or bust’ and that is sadly, unworkable.
As for Richard Fuller MP’s rhetoric, we should not. [The] A1 and A421 roads are being flooded by unadulterated growth of traffic in a context of no east-west rail comparative choice in 100 miles north of London.
Black Cat Roundabout and dualling to Caxton (near Cambridge) will at best buy time, but the development rate and overflow straight onto the roads, means that gridlock congestion, urban, rural and at junctions is at best delayed, but when it comes, what then?
No easy answers
A1 ‘motorway-isation’ has been on the cards for decades and where to put bypasses of [around] Biggleswade and Sandy bring their own issues.
To the east of Sandy you have growing Potton, to the west growing Beeston and Blunham/Ivel Valley course of river. To tunnel under Sandy Heath would conflict with RSPB HQ (birds). There are no easy answers.
ERTA appeals to Councils, MP’s, DfT, East West Rail Company and others to talk with us, reason with us, invest in studying our proposals and do a comparative assessment.
Contrast the cost, upheaval and other issues including getting through [the] Black Cat Roundabout area which does not make passive provision, and see our suggestion could make a whole lot of sense.
Currently, we feel marginalised and ignored by the media and the various parties and we wonder why. Suffice it to say “the stone the builders rejected, turned out to be the capstone.” So we are in good company.
Please stay with us, I attach a small write-up, but the situation is changing all the time.
Page 18 of the current Modern Railways Magazine apparently has a new story of a new platform at Bedford Midland.
This sounds like what we have suggested for catering for Oxford trains calling at Bedford. Two bays are needed. But it is made in such a way as to keep open going north of Bedford.
That means a station booking hall rebuild, which means two new arches under A4280 Bromham Road and knocking down 40+ houses with six tracks; so bays seem more sensible, reversing and out from the southern link.
We need a sustainable railway
However, for freight going north of Bedford, better access to the existing twin slow lines is needed, so a complete redesign/revolution is required.
If, when and what we await with excited anticipation and of course the upheaval it will inevitably bring on and off the rails.
There’s always more and rationale can lead to conspiracy theories rather than to put it baldly ‘cock-up’.
The jury is out, but a roundtable could bring representatives together including ERTA Reps, and together we could work at making a rail link a success, rather than an embarrassment.
Read: Letters: Freight is not the issue with the proposed East West rail route
Realism wrongly predicated on pollution, large land-take and environmental degradation, is unsustainability by design (more ‘roads only’ answers) and a false premised economy.
We need a sustainable railway and our suggestion could reduce costs, speed up end-to-end journeys and rebalance road-rail usage.
If Dr Beeching could see the strategic potential of retaining the Bedford-Cambridge rail link, x3 over six decades of growth on and off the roads and rails, then so should we.
Location, location, location!
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
ERTA Chairman
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