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East West Rail 2024 route update, exploring the proposed new railway from Bedford to Cambridge, with new stations at Tempsford and Cambourne.
#EastWestRail #Bedford #Cambridge
39 Comments
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Thanks for a great series, which for me at least, has helped to visualise the entire project. Looking at Cherry Hinton's satellite view brings home just how far removed Cambridgeshire is now, from the days of Rupert Brooke's idyllic poetry:(
To me it's not the most direct this route could've been, but it just needs to be built now. And it needs to connect to Aylesbury. My main complaint is that it does not seem to be opening as an electrified route, which is ridiculous in this time! As for the people moaning about it being used as a reason to build more homes, good! We need more homes and they will need transport and services. We don't want more random and disjointed car-centric sprawl or developments! I expect Labour to build at least 1 or 2 new towns on this line, Tempsford seems like the top candidate. If we are going to build new towns or cities, we should take advantage of building areas that are in walking distance of the smaller stations on the network. A local example to me is Cuffley, a large village on 1 side of the station and just fields on the other side, just wasted potential there.
I hear that the Councils are to control car parking and place parking restrictions on roads near the stations, if that is the case then EWR as a commuter route might as well be scrapped as it will be exploited by local authorities that will destroy the benefits of EWR in favour of its busses and turn the public against EWR and try to kill it off. THEY ARE VERY GOOD AT THAT.
This is yet another excellent video, but you might want to take a look at the spelling of "Cherry Hinton turn back" at 9.23
So where is the Bedford connection to Northampton and golden triangle had measures again 😡😡😡😡
It's a shame that there's not really plans to approach from the north, but ultimately I think that could've only been a chance if the council hadn't shot themselves in the foot years ago by replacing the unused train line with the Guided Busway. Unfortunately that took its place, which means adding in a trainline during the A14 renovations was just completely off the table. The north of Cambridge and the villages above often suffer due to this lack of foresight and planning, and I doubt that'll ever end.
Am I missing an obvious reason why the trains couldn't/shouldn't continue to Cambridge North?
Thanks!
This is what we need…… more cross country lines down here in the bottom end of East Midlands. To get across to Norwich we have to travel to london and up the Kings Cross line. We don't need another North South line like the HS2…
I grew up near Cambourne, though I haven't lived there for decades so I don't have a personal stake in this any more. But I gather from a friend who still lives around there the intention is for EWR to simply sever most of the local roads e.g. the B1046 between Toft and Comberton. Which is complete madness in my eyes, because all the kids from Toft, Kingston, Hardwick etc go to school in Comberton. The individual communities are too small to actually remain functional if you can't get between them to get to schools, shops etc and the detours are ridiculous (environmentally absurd to force people to drive 5 times further). I'm a big supporter of building railways but it'd be pretty hard to support EWR if I still lived there, if they really were going to ruin umpteen villages and vastly increase car use mileage / pollution, all because they're too half-arsed to build a bridge or underpass. I'm really hoping this is a misunderstanding on my friend's part and actually they are going to build one, but the lack of electrification puts the whole thing in a half-arsed category anyway as far as I can see
The proposed line has no connection with the ECML and people woul be required to change trains at a two-level station at Tempsford. There has not been any appraisal of journey demands and potential travel that would be served (or generated) by running trains between EWR stations and ECML stations, or of the value for diversions and emergencies of being able to switch trains between ECML and EWR. Examples of sauch services are Kings Cross – Stevenage – Hitchin – Biggleswade – Bedford, Oxford – Bedford – Huntingdon – Peterborough and on to York, Cambridge-St Neots -Huntingdon-Peterborough. With a connection between EWR and ECML it would be possible to divert ECML trains onto the MML south of Bedford to St Pancras, or MML trains from Leicester/Derby onto ECML to Kings Cross, in the event of line closures due to derailments, OHLE troubles, landslips, or for trackworks at night or weekends. None of this appears in the consultation brochures or the supporting Technical Report.
Useful video.
I think the Bedford to Cambridge plan is very stupid and wasteful, and I sincerely hope it's never built. The expansion of Bedford station will require the demolition of many houses, and the route from there to Cambridge is way too indirect and bendy.
Instead, the new line should leave the Marston Vale line near Stewartby and head east, with an interchange station with the MML similar to the one proposed for Tempsford. The route should aim to use as much as possible of the existing Hitchen to Cambridge route, with an ECML interchange station south of Biggleswade. This option would be cheaper and offer faster journey times from Oxford to Cambridge.
I always hate it when the railway passes next to a large village without any station, seems so short-sighted and turns communities against them, it's not like they even need to man the station!
Not convinced the Cam to Bedford section will even be constructed, the country is on the brink of a significant recession. Things can change quickly when an economy falls apart, time will tell…
audio track says English USA X_X
Not more money wasted on the railways – so force it through and T. H… with any objections, because fans of the Choo Choos rule, despite all of us subsidising it by over 10 billion a year. Not to mention HS2's 100 billion or so. Nice to be able to waste peoples hard earned money. If Airlines are more efficient and cheaper to fly Edinburgh to London, then subsidise inefficient rail.
Might as well make the turnback at Cherry Hinton a full station. I'd love to see this all built regardless!
Ive been following this for a decade. Just get on with it! It is pathetic how much time has been wasted.
Needs to head further east into Suffolk along some of the old Beeching-cut route
In my opinion, the latest EWR consultation feels more like lip service to the process.
I'd argue that at Bedford station two additional lines are not necessarily needed. What is needed is joined up working with Network Rail, who've previously proposed adding a platform for the fast up line. Given that Thameslink services terminate at Bedford if two terminating platforms were created for these services, then EWR could utilise the existing lines.
At Tempsford it appears that until the latest consultation there wasn't a link to the ECML, which given the freight potential seems incredible. I'd argue that the ECML has spare capacity along that section for EWR to join it at Tempsford, use the existing lines through St Neots, before departing towards Cambourne. St Neots is a large town, and conveniently the railway station already has platform access to all four lines.
A railway line is not a motorway. Trains do not run nose-to-tail and no nasty exhaust fumes and no road lighting all night.
Great walkthrough of the latest EWR proposed route, thanks
This project is fine in principle. An east to west railway route in this area would be useful in several ways. However, the full Ipswich/Oxford route has been been hijacked by HM Gov (DfT) and rebranded the OxCam Rail Link, ignoring the Eastern end. It is this that is causing much anger in Bedford and Cambridge. Government obsession with opening south Cambridgeshire to massive development is the reason for the bizarre winding route instead of following sensible existing low impact transport corridors. Their claims that the route would ease traffic congestion is fantasy. The 1.5 million houses planned would create a huge increase in car ownership but very few stations for easy access. The intermodal freight inevitably attracted to the line would need to pass through both city centres, hardly a great design feature.
The options of southern route round Bedford and northern approach to Cambridge were dismissed very early on.
Dogma is at work here. A full redesign is required to avoid an HS2 style fiasco, and create a proper railway that serves real people.
It's not clear to me from the consultation documents what "discontinuous electrification" means in the context of EWR. Do they mean just very short unelectrified sections underneath bridges or at stations? Or do they mean longer sections of several route miles?
“Train don’t stop Cambourne Wednesdays” 😉
The lack of a station at Kempson Hardwick where the new Universal Studios park is due to be built feels like a massive oversight to divert people away from cars
Very interesting that Cambridge could be very interesting if Cambridge does gain a 9th platform will be interesting to ride from Cambridge to Oxford when the whole line is open
3:21 please note that, on opening, the new dual carriageway between Black Cat and Caxton roundabout will be numbered as part of the A421. Not A428. However it is not yet known if the existing, remaining A428 ‘stub’ towards Cambridge will be renumbered.
Excellent video. Would it be worth a brief closer look at why the old Varsity route was not used? Obviously it has been built on, but what were the determining factors that made clearing the route a non-starter?
Apologies if this comment loads twice… At 6:30, the estimate of 700m for a typical TBM is a bit of an overestimate. Crossrail TBMs were 140m which is fairly typical for a ca. 7m single-track tunnel boring machine. Large TBMs are actually shorter as there's more room for all the gear they have to drag behind them, e.g. TBM Virginie that was used for the EOLE Paris RER-E twin-track tunnel was 11m in diameter and 90m long.
The way to make a railway "popular" is to run plenty of steam services. End of.
An excellent overview. A new east-west line that links up with the ECML, MML & WCML has got to be a great thing, right??
As part of the planned redevelopment of Ely Station and Junctions, they could create platforms for terminating trains there to increase capacity at Cambridge. Either by terminating some EWR, Great Northern or Greater Anglia trains there instead of Cambridge. This would also then improve links for the new development at Waterbeach
the trains should end at cambridge north station providing more trans cambridge direct services and alsoshould takeinto acount possible bristol – east anglia long distance srvices not just localcommter trains.
Interesting that most of these comments concern the turnback arrangements at Cambridge, rather than the meandering nature of the proposed route (which contrasts with the direct route taken between Oxford and Bedford), which just happens to pass the places where they want to build many thousands of new houses on green field sites, and where a rail link might just dissipate some of the protests against the loss of yet more farmland and natural habitats!
To me the positives slightly outweigh the negatives for the overall rail project in Bedford. Bedford gets upgrades for the main train station for EWR, a brand new St Johns station (although losing valuable parking space for the hospital), a brand new Stewartby station which is literally a few minutes down the road. The most contentious issue for me is two new rail tracks they have install which will lead to knocking down homes. EWR hasn't done a good job highlighting tangible benefits that most ppl would will understand in Bedford hence why some is kicking up a fuss. This isnt going to be easy for most to put up with but doing a whole rail project that could connect Bedford with Oxford, MK, and Cambridge by rail is worth investing in.
screw the south they have enough already, why they don't reinstate the Oswestry branch is just stupid it already has a track bed and though it would only have two stops, Osw and the orthopaedic hospital as well as its connecting Gobowen that is. the benefits it would bring to the area are massive, it was to be funded but Labour are cnts
Thank you for an informative and interesting update. I am now holding my breath for "anytime soon", but the opening to Bletchley in 2025 shoudl help to add some momentum. Thanks for this historical document!