Future Railway Lines

[The Planner]

Northamptonshire as a whole is poorly served by rail.

Northampton itself, as the county town (historic county, seeing as they have now split the administrative county) is far and away the biggest town, but only gets about a half-hourly service to Milton Keynes and London in one direction, and Birmingham in the other ... but no other stations in the county apart from one serving the village of Long Buckby.

Kings Sutton says hello.

 

[Bartsimho]

Of the two routes available, Market H looks the better bet (with a short new build over open land south of MH); via Wellingborough would add local traffic, but be a fair bit slower to Leicester.

Agreed. Hence a route aiming towards Leicester and beyond makes sense. It's a moot point which option is overall better - sadly, I fear it's academic

If there are ever devolved English regions I would guess Northampton-Market Harborough would be built as it's all historic East Midlands and Northampton itself is disconnected by rail

 

[RobShipway]

Do you mean completely new alignements? EWR is obviously one, but other than that I'm not sure of any serious proposals.

Re-openings that would involve some new/rebuilt track but on largely original alignments (at least in part) that are being actively looked at include Portishead, Fawley/Hythe Branch, and Grain branch (among others).

I do mean completely new alignments yes. As you say EWR is one.

 

[zwk500]

If there are ever devolved English regions I would guess Northampton-Market Harborough would be built as it's all historic East Midlands and Northampton itself is disconnected by rail

I'd be astonished if that happened because nobody gives two hoots about regions like that except for sports rivalries.

I do mean completely new alignments yes. As you say EWR is one.

Then I think we're at the end of the list other than short chords because I really don't see it happening for political reasons. Much as I'd love my pet Uckfield-Glynde line to come to fruition...

 

[stevieinselby]

Kings Sutton says hello.

OK, I may not have worded the sentence very well, but what I was saying was that Northampton has no direct service to any other stations in the county.

 

[zwk500]

OK, I may not have worded the sentence very well, but what I was saying was that Northampton has no direct service to any other stations in the county.

Does the county (particularly connection to the county town) actually matter any more for anything other than Cricket?

 

[30907]

Oxfordshire CC are reportedly (today's Branch Line News) studying Oxfod-Carterton, which would require some new build (not just reinstating vanished trackbed).

 

[stevieinselby]

Does the county (particularly connection to the county town) actually matter any more for anything other than Cricket?

Not specifically, but it typically outlines common travel patterns. Not entirely, sure – the shape and geography of the county means that people living in the rural south-west of it are more likely to look towards Oxford or Banbury as their main regional centre. Given the proximity of the main urban centres within the county, it's hard to believe that there wouldn't be significant rail traffic between them if the opportunity was there.

 

[zwk500]

Not specifically, but it typically outlines common travel patterns. Not entirely, sure – the shape and geography of the county means that people living in the rural south-west of it are more likely to look towards Oxford or Banbury as their main regional centre. Given the proximity of the main urban centres within the county, it's hard to believe that there wouldn't be significant rail traffic between them if the opportunity was there.

I'd say MK is a bigger draw for Kettering than Northampton (based on working in MK for 5 years and meeting several people who did commute from Kettering), despite being in a different county. The County boundaries of England have not massively changed for something like 50 years, and even then they're still largely based on 1,000-year old Feudal holdings which had bugger all to do with economic relations. But Northampton-Kettering is served by a bus today. Does anybody have any experience of how busy it is?

 

[Magdalia]

The County boundaries of England have not massively changed for something like 50 years, and even then they're still largely based on 1,000-year old Feudal holdings which had bugger all to do with economic relations.

One of the biggest drivers of economic change in Northamptonshire in those 50 years has been the A14, linking the area to Felixstowe, the UK's biggest container port.

Although the recent local government reorganisation was mainly to obliterate the old County Council, the 2 new unitary authorities do have some 21st century economic logic: broadly speaking West Northamptonshire is M1 Northamptonshire and North Northamptonshire is A14 Northamptonshire.

In my view rail in Northamptonshire has already got what it most needed, which was a decent link from Corby to Kettering, Wellingborough and London.

The place in Northamptonshire most left behind from a rail point of view is now Daventry. To what extent, if any, is Long Buckby an actual or potential railhead for Daventry?

 

[stevieinselby]

The place in Northamptonshire most left behind from a rail point of view is now Daventry. To what extent, if any, is Long Buckby an actual or potential railhead for Daventry?

It's got a decent sized car park, which suggests that that is commonly used as a railhead. Door-to-door journey time to the centre of Northampton is similar to driving, and slightly slower to Coventry and slower again to Birmingham (looking at driving times now, the train might have the edge at rush hour).

 

[Bald Rick]

The four mile long East Leeds Orbit Road dual carriageway was costed at £110m but eventually cost £120m. A double track new build normal railway (not HS) costs approximately the same but half the land take. More if there are numerous over and under bridges, viaducts and tunnels. Bald Rick will disagree.

I don’t disagree, except for the land take bit.

Even simple dual carriageways in rural areas are in the region of £30m per km - the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route was in that sort of territory, and inflation since that was built will have added 30%. The new A14 around Huntingdon was £50m / km, albeit that’s a higher spec road.

Land take: A new railway can need just as much land take as a dual carriageway for construction, if not permanently. Check out the land take for HS2, for example.

 

[A0]

If there are ever devolved English regions I would guess Northampton-Market Harborough would be built as it's all historic East Midlands and Northampton itself is disconnected by rail

Not a chance - it serves no useful purpose and would utterly destroy a well used leisure facility in the Brampton Way.

If you want better rail links between Northampton and the East Midlands it can be done *now* without the need to lay an inch of track - introduce an hourly Northampton - Crewe via the Trent Valley - it introduces 1 change connectivity to Leicester at Nuneaton and Burton, Derby and Nottingham from Tamworth.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Jun 2023 ==

Does the county (particularly connection to the county town) actually matter any more for anything other than Cricket?

Simple answer - no.

Apart from sports fixtures - you have the football and rugby clubs as well - people from Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Towcester, Brackley or Daventry don't have any need to head to Northampton - unless they are appearing at Northampton Crown Court.......