Rails for the East and West across North of London, South of Leicester
Public Meeting with guest speaker Mohammad Yasin MP for Bedford and Kempston Constituency,
speaking on: East – West Rail and associated matters.
?Saturday 25th March 2023, 2pm in the Long Room,
Bedford Quaker Meeting House,
5 Lansdowne Road, Bedford, MK40 2BY
Admission free, all welcome.
Come and have your say, ask questions, engage with opportunities. Enquiries: [email protected] and join our free email loop for updates.
Rails for the East and West across North of London, South of Leicester
Details of our meeting in Bedford attached. All welcome.
Our ERTA preference in Bedford-Tempsford via rails east of Bedford via St John's area and old trackbed with deviation at Willington and new embankment based building north of Blunham. The current view is north of Bedford via new-build arcing through Ravensden area. Nil passive provision for getting through Black Cat Roundabout expansion and new developments south of St Neots/North of Station Road, Tempsford.?
In 5 years time, none of these routes will be recoverable.
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That defaults to all existing and new east-west transport land-based movements by roads which are consistently getting upgraded but also ever-more congested. So standing still is no answer to these conundrums. I am pretty sure that if you want full-bodied rail and traffic on the rails north of Bedford, 6-tracking will be required with consequences. I am dubious it will work generally, but even more so if existing twin-track slow lines are used with growth of existing lines plus east-west rail.?
Via St John's as far as I know requires no houses to be lost. Yes it is problematic like level crossings at certain locations and / or bridging. Speeds of 100 mph are daft as curvature of existing Bedford-Bletchley would probably mean trains coming off on the curves!?
Likewise east of Bedford, I'd settle for 70 mph max and have a railway than gridlocked roads and locked-in pollution affecting public?health as is across the regions such may serve? Our leaders seem hapless, sadly, the government is strapped for cash but finds it when it wants?
I'm always open to explore and discuss, we are not the impediment, rather seeking balance and rail-based solutions.
The two routes should be worked up and studied and put before the local public in a consultation and referendum.If we don't, if we just object without a rail-based Plan B, then ultimately a new railway will have to go somewhere and may well end up with Oxford-Bedford and other lines east-west to Cambridge and wider East Anglia??
1997 was the original?East-West Rail Study and made the case for a new Oxford-Cambridge route via Bedford and east of St John's. It found after Milton Keynes, Bedford was the second most beneficiary along the whole corridor if?the railway was reconstructed. The case was accepted by Government up to 2003/4 and others rallied time and again for the next 10 years. Then a lack of development control?and development curtaining off the eastern access north of Sandy, led to where we are today.
A statement from East-West Rail and Bedford Borough Council for our meeting next Saturday would be appreciated for me to read out to those who attend. Local elections coming up, post them and Coronation, we need to have the map and plan of where the project is going of Plan A and B.
Meanwhile, sorting the Ely bottleneck and considering a new rail parallel to the A14 (Felixstowe-West Midlands) with links to existing radial north-south main lines may cost ￡100 billion, but at least the land is majoritively there, 5-10 years won't be. The current Peterborough-Nuneaton corridor is oversubscribed, lacks?capacity?and Leicester needs relief, not to more?roads, but 25, 50 and 75 miles east-west axis radial to London, more east-west rail links if more decluttering, modal shift to rail and cutting emissions on land transport is to be done. People can write to their MP and DfT in support and of course, join/donate to ERTA, as every member and ￡'s in the kitty, help us towards doing more, and more reliable volunteers enable better too. Please join and help us. Thank you.