Recent content by sammorris

Which are just saying BCRs need to be positive. I believe electrification was the original plan, which presumably was costed with a positive BCR or it wouldn't have been taken forward as far as it was before electrification was removed from the plan. The barrier to electrification is very...

This is completely incomparable - you can't drive into London, there is nowhere to park. The problem with the change within such a short journey (Bedford to MK really isn't very far) is it adds time compared with a reversal. It implies a wait standing on the platform of at least 10 minutes...

True, very long distance commuting is a minority pursuit, mainly very senior management who can afford to spend a fortune on season tickets. But the point I was making is it's not only about connecting East Anglia to Central/Western/Southern England - it's about these other uses too, even if...

To be fair that brochure will be partly a PR exercise. If you read the route scoping report for the central section, there was a huge emphasis on potential for commuting for example, because it's key to viability, and I think there was a fair bit of thought given to the potential for connections...

Good point actually - I would foresee this being quite economically useful for MK in a small way, I know of quite a few academics (and this applies equally to many other university and university-related staff I'm sure) who commute enormous distances by car, because while working in the...

To me that's the fundamental point. Leaving aside all the detail arguments about specific bridges etc., and even taking generally the most optimistic assumptions about everything (i.e., even assuming you could debunk every last objection A0wen has listed), I still don't see the sort of...

From the perspective of a commuter from the Cambridge/Peterborough branch of Thameslink, I can see there being a developing traffic from here to Canary Wharf, adding to the current City/Westminster/West End commuting from around here. It's currently not an easy commute from here to most of East...

Yes, it is. I live a few hundred yards from it, and occasionally things do go the 'other way' on the old line, usually very early or very late. I can't see anything from here but distant lights moving, but you certainly know they're doing it - it makes a screech that must be audible for miles...

To be fair they'd need to do extensive reconstruction work to the station to let trains back out to the north at P5. At some point there is a plan to reconstruct the station anyway, at which point this could be reconsidered. Great to see this link back on the map - I did wonder at one stage if...

This is an odd way of looking at it, to me. You may be unconcerned about climate change, but that doesn't mean those that are concerned are all making it up to cover for some malevolent ulterior motive. As far as I'm concerned, I've long been convinced climate change is coming, and lifestyles...

Can't disagree with that - MK is the major economic centre, not Northampton. The idea of a Banbury-Northampton-Peterborough axis doesn't really seem logical to me, except perhaps the central 10 or 15 miles of it connecting the major Northamptonshire towns (appreciate others think this is just as...

Isn't there an underground roundabout somewhere in the Docklands? Can't recall where, though...

We're clearly not going to agree on this - but in my defence Wellingborough isn't the only town that would benefit - if you want to get Northampton to Kettering or Corby by public transport right now you'd catch a bus going to Kettering or Corby instead, and there certainly are such buses and...

I was under the impression that Northampton has three closely spaced junctions on the M1, all of which are connected by a network of continuous (or very nearly so) dual carriageways around southern Northampton, and also a direct dual carriageway to Wellingborough. Plus they've just rebuilt the...

The thing I'm unsure about is whether this development across the 'arc' would cause people in Peterborough/Banbury to want to travel to Northampton and vice versa. Thinking about it from the perspective of someone living in a (hypothetical) newly expanded Banbury, bursting with new jobs and new...