East West Rail Link Cambridge - Bedford is it worth it?

[AlanFry1]

Just think, if she'd left it a bit longer, "The Open University" at Milton Keynes would be considered as forming the arc of education between Oxford & Cambridge.

Hmm interesting thought and what would happen to the communities between Sandy and Cambridge would they have stayed backwater or would they have a boom in population growth?

 

[The Ham]

Rail has around 80% of the London-Paris and London-Brussels markets...

Not surprising as someone I know who LOVES flying said that they would only ever use E* to go to Paris because it is much better than and less stressful than flying!

Expect the percentage of passengers who travel to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Cologne Marseille, Lyon and Geneva by train to jump a lot (mostly at the expense of flying) once the DB & new E* services start. Mostly as people who have used E* to get to Paris switch when they wish to travel to the other destinations. This could lead to an increase in services at a faster rate than has been the case to date.

This could mean that although the current use of the tunnel has been stated as about 50% (about 20 years after opening), I would have thought that it would be possible for it to get above 70% within another 10 years and that either extra tunnels or a new tunnel route could be being looked at by 2025 (especially if there were routes to HS2 planned).

 

[joeykins82]

I can't tell for certain but I do think it would be difficult to add another track or two to Stansted-WAML.

The RUS covering the WAML has 4-tracking as far as Broxbourne Junction listed as a future requirement.

 

[jopsuk]

More an aspiration isn't it? Whilst up through Ponders End is possible, and sections north of Brimsdown, it'll be tricky and expensive (not least through Clapton!). It would though be good to essentially have a pair of tracks for Hertford/Bishops Stortford stoppers (the latter sharing the line north of Broxbourne) and another for the Stansted Express/Cambridge and beyond services- and with more tracks through Clapton, stations north of Tottenham Hale could be better connected to those south of it.

 

[cle]

I think the current plan is for north of Clapton until Brimsdown as four track - crucially through Tottenham and allowing some more stoppers up that stretch.

Brimsdown is due to have 4tph terminating (from Stratford I believe) - with some TfL involvement possibly.

If you check this old pic from Wiki, you can see the third track and where four once were planned for... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brimsdown_station_look_south.JPG

so clearly some trains can be accommodated and turned back.

 

[D365]

Rail has around 80% of the London-Paris and London-Brussels markets...

I meant further distances to the continent, i.e. beyond France.

The RUS covering the WAML has 4-tracking as far as Broxbourne Junction listed as a future requirement.

And I also meant dualling the single track between Stansted Airport Station and Junction, although 4-tracking will be needed for increasing capacity on the mainline.

 

[a good off]

The closure of the Cambridge to Bletchley section and the line as a through route was probably in my opinion done on very dodgy grounds using creative accounting. My grandfather who worked on the line at the time of closure witnessed the trains being retimed to when the majority of people didn't find it convenient to use them and he also noted that official surveys and passenger head counts were blatantly being carried out on public holidays when the normal commuters and school kids were still tucked up in bed on their day off. The staple freight traffic of the line was diverted away or either lost completely as the line was being prepared for closure. It was also very 'surprising' how quickly Cambridge University took over the trackbed at Lord's Bridge to build the Mullard Observatory...

I think that had the line remained open it would have been electrified sometime in the late 80s/early 90s and would now have a fast and frequent electric unit service. Stations like Lord's Bridge and Old North Road would have acted as park and ride facilities for people from the surrounding villages heading into Cambridge and people from towns such as Royston who commute westwards to Bedford and Milton Keynes. I'm sure that the Cambridge - Bedford - Bletchley/MK - Oxford market would have been busy.

 

[Tim B]

If memory serves, once the Bedford - Cambridge line was closed space became available to take the Varsity line's 2 tracks through Sandy station (eastern side platforms) and convert them to East Coast Main line running; this converted what had been a 2 track bottleneck into the 4 track line we know today.

Had the Varsity line remained open, would there have been space to the East of Sandy station to expand to 4 lines East Coast + 2 lines Varsity ? This would have necessitated massive rebuilding and remodelling of Sandy station.

 

[The Ham]

The closure of the Cambridge to Bletchley section and the line as a through route was probably in my opinion done on very dodgy grounds using creative accounting. My grandfather who worked on the line at the time of closure witnessed the trains being retimed to when the majority of people didn't find it convenient to use them and he also noted that official surveys and passenger head counts were blatantly being carried out on public holidays when the normal commuters and school kids were still tucked up in bed on their day off. The staple freight traffic of the line was diverted away or either lost completely as the line was being prepared for closure. It was also very 'surprising' how quickly Cambridge University took over the trackbed at Lord's Bridge to build the Mullard Observatory...

There are man such tales for many of the closed lines. Including the lines to beach resorts only having winter passenger counts.

 

[yorksrob]

If memory serves, once the Bedford - Cambridge line was closed space became available to take the Varsity line's 2 tracks through Sandy station (eastern side platforms) and convert them to East Coast Main line running; this converted what had been a 2 track bottleneck into the 4 track line we know today.

Had the Varsity line remained open, would there have been space to the East of Sandy station to expand to 4 lines East Coast + 2 lines Varsity ? This would have necessitated massive rebuilding and remodelling of Sandy station.

I'm sure if they'd flattenned the varsity station and the Eastern Region up platform they would have been able to fit in a simple 4 - tracks - island platform - reversible loop for Bedford/Cambridge trains layout.

as I understandi it, there was a fairly large gap in time between the closure of Bedford - Cambridge and four-tracking.

 

[andyfrommk]

Went past Bletchley yesterday.
They seem to be re-ballasting the tracks that branch off the main line onto the flyover.