Sorry, I don't follow? The busway doesn't run through the science park?You have some extremely expensive civil engineering to do to avoid the entrance to the Science Park in that case.
Sorry, I don't follow? The busway doesn't run through the science park?You have some extremely expensive civil engineering to do to avoid the entrance to the Science Park in that case.
3.14 Given that the Northern route was also less favoured by southern East Anglian members of the Consortium, it was agreed not to pursue this option further but to include it in further tests as a service to Peterborough only, to gauge its potential as a link to the East Coast Main Line.
The west entrance crosses the busway on the level - you wouldn't be allowed to just get rid of it.
http://goo.gl/maps/OnydY
You have some extremely expensive civil engineering to do to avoid the entrance to the Science Park in that case.
Has the unwritten rule that prevents re-opened rail lines from deviating from their former route been updated to include a section about deviating from the altitude of the former route too?
How about the new route (the entrance to the Science Park) going under or over? By the way, I wish the OP could detail his route west of Histon. I can't see where it would feasibly go via Cambourne, it all looks built up and there is the A14. I assume he is on his way to Sandy???
How about the new route (the entrance to the Science Park) going under or over?
Reasonably it'd need to fit under both the A14 and Milton Road, so you'd essentially have to sink quite a bit into a cutting to fit under the Regional College/Science Park entrance road.
All heavily complicated by the imminent presence of the busway extension to the much awaited Science Park station (link +map).
There's already a seperate campaign pushing for the Haverhill line to re-open. The 13/X13 bus route is very well used but slow as it gets stuck in the A1307 traffic jam. The road is notorious for bad driving, with lots of accidents. Haverhill is these days primarily a Cambridge dormitory town.
Still wouldn't go amiss to connect the line through to Marks Tey on the GEML, probably by connecting to Sudbury (the old Stour Valley route) rather than via Halstead (the Colne Valley route)
But any plan that involves "dig up the busway" is a non-starter. The northern busway is very busy; the short sightedness of not building the southern busway to handle double deckers will be shown up when the housing around it is completed.
eh? If (as is most likely) E-W Rail approaches Cambridge from the South (most likely from the Shepreth branch) the chances of E-W trains running "through" to Stansted are more or less nill, as that means reversing at Cambridge.
Agreed. Heading down the ex-MR route to Hitchin seems the most likely route rather than a new route via Sandy. I guess the question is whether it is sensible to go to Hitchin and reverse (allows ECML interchange, good; quite slow, less good), or whether there is scope to go onto the flyover (is it bidirectional?) and then north without stopping in Hitchin. Suspect that we'll be stopping at Hitchin, then.
Tobbes
eh? If (as is most likely) E-W Rail approaches Cambridge from the South (most likely from the Shepreth branch) the chances of E-W trains running "through" to Stansted are more or less nill, as that means reversing at Cambridge.
Will there be capacity there though?
Agreed. Heading down the ex-MR route to Hitchin seems the most likely route rather than a new route via Sandy. I guess the question is whether it is sensible to go to Hitchin and reverse (allows ECML interchange, good; quite slow, less good), or whether there is scope to go onto the flyover (is it bidirectional?) and then north without stopping in Hitchin. Suspect that we'll be stopping at Hitchin, then.
Where do you mean, Rich?
Tobbes
There is no way in hell that you'll be able to reverse at Hitchin on the very busy ECML (at least not without building a dedicated line for EWR trains).
Connecting directly to the flyover is possible but highly undesirable as it's quite a long stretch of single track. In particular it'd be a nightmare to path a westbound train in between all the eastbound trains (5 or 6 tph) that will be using it by then.
My suggestion would be to run down the MML to south of Luton Airport Parkway, head east , crossing over the EMCL between Woolmer Green & Knebworth then curving north to join the Hertford Loop south of Stevenage. With a flying junction on the MML, you can avoid conflicting movements.
No paths there (post-Thameslink project completion) I'm afraid.
At Hitchin for E-W eastbound adding a chord from southbound ECML onto the flyover line towards Letchworth is easy.
2. from Hitchin east Junction run alongside the new down flyover line but build a dive-under to go under it. either also dive-under ECML or run parallel with it northwards and then have a flyover to cross the ECML to reach the down slow. Probably the best option.