East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[VarsityJim]

Is the chord between the old Calvert landfill on the old GC (which per previous comments will be reinstated) and EWR to be reinstated?

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

On 14/08/2022 at 11:10, VarsityJim said:

Is the chord between the old Calvert landfill on the old GC (which per previous comments will be reinstated) and EWR to be reinstated?

The video posted on page 101 showed the bed for a new chord formation, under construction.

22 mins onwards, into the video.

 

 

 

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Edited August 20, 2022 by Ron Ron Ron

[Tony Teague]

The new chord is to provide access to the HS2 depot being built on the north east side of the junction.

It would be separate from any line providing an Aylesbury - Bletchley service.

[1E BoY]

Work progressing on Bletchley High Level station yesterday.

 

The route of the future footbridge can clearly be seen. The picture was taken from the top of the stairs leading to the current Platform 6 (8 in old money!).

[Pannier Tank]

16 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

The picture was taken from the top of the stairs leading to the current Platform 6 (8 in old money!).

 

I spent many an hour 'Spotting' on Platform 8; the new Platform 8 (if that's what it's going to be) will not have the same appeal to me!

[martinT]

On 27/07/2022 at 17:01, Nearholmer said:

TBH, this conflict sums up a fair bit of EWR, because if the Oxford to Cambridge Arc is to become a conurbation, it will need decent local (in-conurbation) public transport, the bit that was missed-out when MK was built because King Car ruled at the time, and that means light rail, or pre-metro. A regional or cross-country railway as has been envisaged wouldn’t cut the mustard for that, but would hog the obvious route-corridor.

 

I never thought I’d say it, but if the area is to become a conurbation, it needs a Development Corporation, and some deeply unfashionable central planning and ‘seed’ public expenditure.

 

Through my letter box yesterday came a newsletter from my local MP, Andrew Browne (Tory obviously for this bit of the world - Cambs South constituency) announcing all the wonderful things he's achieved recently. There were too many to mention but one that caught my eye was that he'd 'Ensured the OxCam Arc project was ditched, & that it does not provide housebuilders with a charter for development in our area'!  This was news to me - has anybody heard an official Government announcement (but I guess that's just too much to expect from the current lot). I've emailed Browne asking for what thinks the implications for the Bedford - Cambridge section might be.

 

Martin

[Nearholmer]

I cycled across there last week, and the villages on the SW corner of Cambridge are plastered with anti-railway posters. What made me chuckle was that they seemed to be targeted on getting the route move northwards, some of the most naked nimbyism I’ve ever seen (very nice villages, BTW).

[martinT]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I cycled across there last week, and the villages on the SW corner of Cambridge are plastered with anti-railway posters. What made me chuckle was that they seemed to be targeted on getting the route move northwards, some of the most naked nimbyism I’ve ever seen (very nice villages, BTW).

ie through my village! 

[1E BoY]

Local news is reporting a major road development between the Black Cat Roundabout (a notorius bottlekneck where the A1 and the A428 meet currently diverting traffic  for a short distance on to the A1 past the village of Wyboston).

 

https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/a428-black-cat-to-caxton-gibbet/

 

This appears to remove the current  single carriageway sections from the A1 and then around St. Neots before joining up with the dual carriageway around Cambridge.

 

It is costed between £810m and £950m for 10 miles of dual carriageway.

 

Being heralded as a major infrastructure improvement by Mayor of Bedford etc.

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Yep, and the next few moves in that game are to go across the southern edge of MK, and onwards towards Finmere.

 

 

[lmsforever]

The road from the M1 to Black Cat is a dual carriageway fast route and no further road building should be allowed ,recently I had to go north of Biggleswade from the Woburn Luton area .This road has been rebuilt and bypasses all the villages until you reach the A1M .  At every opportunity house developers have thrown up thousands of homes so again new roads are not needed.The people against the new line are just like the anti HS2 antis but these are pro car and dont mind thousands of vehicles thundering past but a train ,oh no  we cant have a train but if we can go by car and pollute everywhere thats okay.  I can see the line beyond Bedford not happening and railway that could offer a new range of services stopped because of pure nimbyisim  of idiots who when asked  what will you do when road vehicles are limited to local journeys have no idea. 

[Davexoc]

2 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

Local news is reporting a major road development between the Black Cat Roundabout (a notorius bottlekneck where the A1 and the A428 meet currently diverting traffic  for a short distance on to the A1 past the village of Wyboston).

 

https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/a428-black-cat-to-caxton-gibbet/

 

This appears to remove the current  single carriageway sections from the A1 and then around St. Neots before joining up with the dual carriageway around Cambridge.

 

It is costed between £810m and £950m for 10 miles of dual carriageway.

 

Being heralded as a major infrastructure improvement by Mayor of Bedford etc.

 

 

 

Saw that reported earlier on the BBC local pages  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-62608442

 

They should have done the Black Cat properly with grade seperation last time it was tinkered with.

 

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Yep, and the next few moves in that game are to go across the southern edge of MK, and onwards towards Finmere.

 

 

 

Perhaps that is why the TS stated the future phases of EWR were in jepordy, because the obvious route to take to achieve that, is the trackbed from M1 jct 13 across to Kelly's Kitchen roundabout on the A5 to the south of MK. Can't think the residents of Woburn Sands, Aspley Guise and Bow Brickhill will be very pleased with that....

[Nearholmer]

At the moment, the western part of the “Oxford-Cambridge Expressway”, effectively from M1J13 west, is ‘paused indefinitely’, so the residents of said places can breath easily for now, but it is one of those things that I’m sure the DfT won’t let rest forever. I’m sure that if nothing else the road haulage lobby must bend their ears about it constantly, what with all the roundabouts on the A421 within MK, the single carriageway bit to Buckingham, and the fact that the Buckingham bypass as was is now more of a local distributor road.

[chris p bacon]

16 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

Local news is reporting a major road development between the Black Cat Roundabout (a notorius bottlekneck where the A1 and the A428 meet currently diverting traffic  for a short distance on to the A1 past the village of Wyboston).

 

https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/a428-black-cat-to-caxton-gibbet/

 

This appears to remove the current  single carriageway sections from the A1 and then around St. Neots before joining up with the dual carriageway around Cambridge.

 

It is costed between £810m and £950m for 10 miles of dual carriageway.

 

Being heralded as a major infrastructure improvement by Mayor of Bedford etc.

 

 

 

Having previously lived in Sandy I was well aware of this project.  Sadly it's tinkering with the A1 again to promote the A428, when the A1 should be re-aligned altogether between Baldock (or South of Biggleswade) to just North of Buckden.  

This will not happen in my lifetime as at the last meeting with Civil Servants from the DoT they stated that it would be house building that would pay for such a move and there was not enough planned for the route.

 

The plan of the 3 layer junction fails to note the 2 90 degree bends on the A1 on an old sandstone bridge a few hundred yards South which has been the source of many accidents......nothing like a bit of foresight...

[chris p bacon]

15 hours ago, lmsforever said:

The road from the M1 to Black Cat is a dual carriageway fast route and no further road building should be allowed ,recently I had to go north of Biggleswade from the Woburn Luton area .This road has been rebuilt and bypasses all the villages until you reach the A1M .  At every opportunity house developers have thrown up thousands of homes so again new roads are not needed.

 

The bypasses you note have been paid for by the developers.

 

What many don't understand is that bypasses of a village or town redefine the limits of building. Governments (of many colours) have been using Developer funding for new infrastructure for years in return for releasing the land between the existing town and the new road for housing. That's sometimes why some bypasses take a quite circuitous route to increase the land available.

Don't blame the developers, they're just working to the system provided.

[corneliuslundie]

It is nothing new. Newtown, Powys had a bypass in the 1870s. It was right on the edge of the town, about the only thing on the south side being the station and Pryce Jones Warehouse. Now New Road is the main east-west thoroughfare of the town, and has recently after over 50 years in the planning been bypassed (not paid for by developers) and that bypass is unlikely to cause an increase in housing as the ground is too hilly; the developers seem to prefer the flood plain instead, with "mitigating" actions to prevent flooding, ie send it somewhere else.

But agreed that in too many cases the bypass ends up as simply a distributor road for new housing developments.

But the alternative is ribbon development, which can be even worse.

Jonathan

[VarsityJim]

2 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

the A1 should be re-aligned altogether between Baldock (or South of Biggleswade) to just North of Buckden

 

Couldn’t agree more!

[lmsforever]

3 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

The bypasses you note have been paid for by the developers.

 

What many don't understand is that bypasses of a village or town redefine the limits of building. Governments (of many colours) have been using Developer funding for new infrastructure for years in return for releasing the land between the existing town and the new road for housing. That's sometimes why some bypasses take a quite circuitous route to increase the land available.

Don't blame the developers, they're just working to the system provided.

I must admit it was a trouble free journey .

[melmerby]

12 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

 

 

What many don't understand is that bypasses of a village or town redefine the limits of building.

Hollywood by-pass didn't.

There has been no new building between the existing limit and the by-pass since it opened in 1969.

[chris p bacon]

10 hours ago, melmerby said:

Hollywood by-pass didn't.

There has been no new building between the existing limit and the by-pass since it opened in 1969.

No idea where that is ?

 

Apart from the USA

[Trog]

On 14/08/2022 at 11:30, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

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Decadence that it what it is shear decadence on the part of modern snowflakes who would benefit no end from the character forming effects of tipping a few dozen Mermaid wagons by hand.

 

My heart is still lightened by recollecting the look on the mans face the time the Area Civil Engineers P-Way Assistant ordered a relative of BR Chairman Sir Peter Parker who was on site dressed in a suit to help him tip Mermaids. Myself and the supervisor were half way through tipping another at the time, the relaying gang having had an argument with the supervisor and gone home when their shift was up.

[melmerby]

6 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

No idea where that is ?

 

Apart from the USA

A435 south of Birmingham, UK

 

Hollywood UK was there before Hollywood USA

[Nearholmer]

There's also a Hollywood in Ireland, I remember going past it driving south west from Dublin, so which was the famous one named after, I wonder.

 

(Neither, according to Wikipedia)

Edited August 21, 2022 by Nearholmer

[jamie92208]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

There's also a Hollywood in Ireland, I remember going past it driving south west from Dublin, so which was the famous one named after, I wonder.

 

(Neither, according to Wikipedia)

There is certainly  one in Northern Ireland as well. I had a friend who was stationed there in the RUC.

 

Jamie