You may have noticed that this blog hasn’t had regular updates since June last year. There have been multiple reasons for this: I wanted to take a break after the EWR consultation closed, as I had produced a lot of material in a short space of time; I was no longer using the railways around… Read More Bedford Rail
This article offers some quick thoughts on the ‘East West Main Line Strategic Statement’ recently published by Network Rail. The most important thing to understand about this document is that Network Rail does not have any formal role in East West Rail (EWR). Unlike any other major rail project, EWR is a separate company that… Read More The ‘East West Main Line Strategic Statement’
Introduction I write the independent Bedford Rail blog (https://bedfordrail.wordpress.com), and have been following the development of the East West Rail scheme closely. This consultation response will comment on aspects of the consultation that have a bearing on Bedford as a whole, the service that the railway will offer, and the conduct of the consultation itself.… Read More Response to the 2021 East West Rail consultation
There are still a couple of weeks to respond to the EWR consultation. Please do so, if you have any view on the proposals and what they might mean for you or for Bedford more widely. Hopefully the articles on this site will be useful in getting an overview of the issues. For instance: Anyone… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: how to respond
This is the final article in the series looking at the East West Rail 2021 consultation. Since the exercise was launched, the picture has been a fast-moving one in some ways. Both Bedford Borough Council and EWR have been holding public meetings, with attendant publicity on social media, while new information and analysis has emerged,… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: wrap-up
This is the last in the series of articles looking at the options for the route and design of East West Rail into and out of Bedford (although a wrap-up article looking at developments during the consultation period will follow). This time, we look at how the new railway will make its way out of… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: East of Bedford
On May 16th a new timetable will be introduced on the Midland Main Line, and with it Bedford’s rail services will settle into a new pattern, after three years of change and disruption. Rail users in the town, particularly those who commute to London, have good reason to look back on this period with anger… Read More May 2021 timetable changes – what do they mean for Bedford?
Introduction This article looks at the extensive proposals to upgrade [EDIT] one of only two parts [/EDIT] of the Oxford to Cambridge route that is currently both in existence and open(ish) to traffic: the Marston Vale line, between Bedford and Bletchley. [The other being between Oxford and Bicester.] As it looks at a whole line,… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: the Marston Vale line
The East West Rail consultation proposes a major revival for the second of Bedford’s railway stations, Bedford St Johns. However, there are options for what form it will take. The available options are shaped by the available spaces for new infrastructure, which in turn are dictated by the history of Bedford’s railways in that part… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: Bedford St Johns station
For the second article looking at what East West Rail might mean for Bedford, we turn from the controversy surrounding the tracks north of Bedford station, to the station itself. It’s here that the wider benefits to Bedford of East West Rail really start to come into focus. Bedford station is unable to accommodate current… Read More East West Rail 2021 consultation: a new Bedford station
Bedford Rail 