East-West Rail / ECML junction

[TW1306]

I've been following East-West Rail recently as it is planned to pass close to my hometown; the proposed ECML crossing is at a site a little south of St Neots on the ECML, my local station. It's not clear if there will be a junction station between the two lines or simply a crossing, but something I've been wondering is if it would've been feasible to run EWR into the existing St Neots station and construct a new junction off towards Cambridge? Currently St Neots only receives 2 tph in each direction (the Peterborough-Horsham route) and a couple of peak-time trains to King's Cross. All five initial proposals for EWR's central section involved construction of a new station or relocation of an existing one instead slightly to the south, bypassing St Neots entirely.

Maybe I'm just biased since personally I would love to be able to travel to places like Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Norfolk/Suffolk etc, other than just the P'boro-Horsham service, but I'm sure trains to Cambridge would be welcomed in general - there's often delays on the road between St Neots and Cambridge due to traffic.

 

[richieb1971]

It won't happen. St Neots has built up areas all around it and EWR is simply going to cross the ECML either over or under it. Its far too East to have a junction that is worthwhile since from Cambridge you can already go north and south. From what I have seen there is zero provision or mandate for any junction that does not already exist. Even at Bletchley where it would make most sense, its not even considered. EWR is going to have lots of potential ideas left wanting. If it were 1860 you'd have several junctions on the route, but this is 2022. Whilst I will use the route from time to time, I see its future as a freight mover more than anything, even then, its left wanting with few junctions. Of course, if the railway at Bletchley had not already had a junction to support it, one wonders if they would have built it, no matter what was in the way.

 

[adamedwards]

The hope has to be that St Neots Parkway, as the new station might be, becomes a post HS2 intercity stop, when there is fast line capacity to do so as it will draw on a wide area plus Bedford and some Cambridge traffic.

 

[365 Networker]

Whilst it would be nice to have an interchange with EWR at St Neots, it is not certain that the project will actually be finished:-

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says East West Rail project should be cancelled

He said it would save £3-5 million

www.cambridge-news.co.uk

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says the remaining stages of the East West Rail project should be cancelled. He made the statement during an interview with LBC.

When asked what he would do if he was in charge, he said: "I would cut East West Rail on what's called two and three, the second and third stages. The charges of it, it would save £3-5 million."

 

[swt_passenger]

There’s tons of previous posts about this in the EWR consultation thread. I‘ve done a search for the station name St Neots:

Search results for query: St Neots