The Market Harborough route is now the Brampton Valley Way footpath/cycle path, so no surprise that it comes under the control of the local authorities.
My MP is the Hon Mike Reader. His geography isn't great because he can never find his way to the North West of his constituency but he seems to think that Northampton Gateway is on the Northampton - Bedford line.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
BBC has a story about rail links from Northampton to the Universal UK Resort see here:
Northampton MP calls for direct trains to Universal theme park
A direct railway connection would open job opportunities for the town's residents, says Mike Reader.www.bbc.co.uk
The MP quoted doesn't seem to have a very good grasp of railway geography.
Bizarrely, the West Northamptonshire rail action plan, referred to at the end of the article, makes no reference to East West Rail.
My quote above is from the Universal discussion (which got hit by the dreaded automerge).
The quote in question is discussing East-West Rail. He seems to be aware that freight is currently running on East-West Rail to Northampton gateway, and that Universal will be on EWR. He just hasn't realised that the freight trains are running on a different section.
It's a shame that there is no possibility of a Northampton to Wellingborough reopening (and on towards Peterborough), because there's a fair bit of population along that corridor not served by rail, and the main arterial road will start suffering with congestion as population growth.
That road (the A45) already does daily, even though there are sections of 3 lane (each way) around Northampton.
The rail route missed a lot of the population centres and following a lot of gravel extraction large parts of the Nene Valley (that the line followed) are protected wildlife reserves for migratory birds. Part of the route has also disappeared under an Anglian Water sewage works.
And those buses use the town centre at each end, whereas a reinstated rail link would drop off away from the centre - with an uphill walk to follow. Not so bad at Northampton, but Wellingborough is a bit of a trek.
Exactly, 4 buses per hour isn't exactly lightly trafficked.
Although light rail allows diversion into settlements and doesn't necessarily disturb nature reserves as such.
The population of Leeds has so far not been able to justify a light rail scheme.
Unfortunately that is the case with many mid sized British cities (the Solent conurbation, Brighton, Liverpool, Bristol etc.), but that's a result of government intransigence, rather than the population itself not justifying the expenditure.
And the government intransigence has nothing to do with the expenditure not being justified?
Population alone doesn’t necessarily justify expenditure. Population distribution is much more significant.
Let's do a mileage sum on this.
Wellingborough would have had to be a lot lower PSR because the curve goes against the direction of the junction, and Ely hasn't got any more capacity for other services let alone EWR, not to mention the new chord at Manton and likely triggering resignalling of Manton-Helpston and Peterborough-Ely.
Fair point about Merseyrail - although the Merseytram scheme would have served a lot of areas that are poorly served by that system or the City Line.
Indeed, but even including the metropolitan areas of the cities I've discussed, population is not sparsely distributed.
I don't think it's a viable replacement for EWR - the Tempsford to Cambridge section will have a sizeable new town built around it, and the existing new town at Cambourne on the route, let alone all the housing and employment available as a draw at the Cambridge end.
Would going this way not also require using up space on one or both of the WCML and ECML?
While I share your view of reopening Wellingborough to Northampton, the idea that Bletchley to Cambridge via Wellingborough and Peterborough is sufficient to replace the more direct Bedford to Cambridge EWR route seems very suboptimal both in terms of capacity and journey time. EWR is currently proposing 5 trains per hour between Bedford and Cambridge - not sure how that level could be provided through Ely North junction given all the existing demands. Furthermore Bletchley to Cambridge via Bedford is proposed to take about 55 minutes. A route via Northampton, Wellingborough, Manton and Peterborough even if capacity was available would surely take the best part of 2hrs 30. It would be quicker via London!
Probably even more than that - even with the slightly circuitous route between Bedford and Cambridge, ESR between Bletchley and Cambridge can’t be more than about 58 miles.
Definitely the WCML - the Cross Country Route between Manton and Ely is largely separated from the ECML. Though the down slow on the ECML also access as the up on the Cross Country route.
This is exactly the challenge to either a reopening or light rail scheme. Follow Google Maps along the Nene Valley and the challenges are more obvious. The Northampton-Peterborough routes missed Rushden and Higham Ferrers, which were later served by a MR branch from Wellingborough, and it would have been too difficult/expensive to divert the route out of the valley bottom.
As with many lines built then, I think the Blisworth-Peterborough via Northampton route was principally for long-distance freight traffic. With the passenger service being an added extra.
The L+B line from Blisworth was the first railway in Peterborough, opening in 1845.
