www.bbc.co.uk
Having a family member working at the council, I heard that the MP essentially lobbied the Queen’s Park community against it.Further news on Bedford:
Bedford council opposes East West Rail car park relocation plans
The council says the new location for the car park will cause extra congestion and cause pollution.
Confusingly the council seems to be talking about the EWR proposals for Midland station, but the BBC has used an illustration of the EWR proposals for St Johns.
6 years on and still no sign of trains from Oxford to Cambridge. I am 77 and am still waiting for scheduled trains to get to Bletchley, let alone Bedford and Cambridge. The X5 Oxford to Cambridge bus as been downgraded to the 905, even at peak times, and the route north of Bedford has yet to decided, let alone started. The existing Bedford Hospital Car Park is in the way and EWR is going to charge the NHS £35 million to build a multi story one in its place. The plan for Bedford Station car park is to put it west of the station, with all cars having to go over the existing road bridge into a built up area. Luckily I come from a family with great longevity so there is still at least 20 years for EWS to prove my prediction in 2020 wrong!!
Really sorry to hear this Mike. I turn 64 in a fortnight ands I doubt I will travel on any HS2 train except maybe Curzon St - OOC.
Erm. Isn't this a bit late given as just the one station has been built and opened, but there still aren't any trains.
There’s also a significant issue on the open route with Bicester level crossing downtime. I believe the solution will be part of this consultation stage.
I was under the impression the solution had already been proposed in November last year?
I assumed it would still be the last chance to propose a different option?
www.bbc.co.uk
It surely is a no brainer.
I'm glad to hear they're intending to speed up things. I still think the improved access to Cambridge for commuting and visiting is the biggest justification, Universal will surely help boost passenger numbers and strengthen the case for the line further. Let's hope construction can start quickly.BBC News report is here:
Trains to Universal's Bedford resort within 'first few years'
A rail company says four trains an hour will stop at a station there "by the early 2030s".
Both correct and incorrect. We manage these projects for votes. HS2 to Crewe was cancelled for the pro-roads vote after (IIRC) fuss over London's ULEZ zone.
www.constructionenquirer.com
I thought that one of the lessons learnt from HS2 was not to do this? Because you have different contractors competing to use the same materials and equipment at the same timeThere's also a story in the construction trade press about running the delivery packages in parallel to reduce overall costs and risks.
East West Rail reset plan to speed up construction
Delivery plan switches from sequential build to parallel construction packages
HS2 is a much bigger project than this will be though, so it may not be much of an issue.
It was cancelled because the cost of HS2 was WAY over budget and out of control.
Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2 because he believed it would get him more votes to do so. To me it doesn't appear that worked, but that was very clearly his intention.
I do also wonder why they left that section out, and why they chose Oxford Parkway-Bicester Village instead of going from Oxford itself. Though the fact it goes from Bicester suggests the supply could be shared with a (partial or full) electrification project for Chiltern.
I would expect that wiring Oxford station wants to be done as part of Didcot-Oxford rather than from the Parkway side. Given EWR would be running BEMUs, they can afford to leave the hard bit to someone else and get enough electrification for their needs done.
Yeah - I can watch electric trains glide past my closed ( sorry merged) station. I wont be on the train as I will be driving which might negate the green credentials of the line!
