I agree that Haverhill to Cambridge rail reopening is highly unlikely. Obviously had it never closed, I think it would be very busy as it connects several settlements and employment locations. Up to Haverhill it hasn’t been as badly breached as other lines but crossing the A505/A11 looks problematic.
Comparison with Corby is irrelevant. Kettering/Corby is a low growth area with no intermediate stations. Haverhill links with Cambridge, which is booming, and has lots of other residential, business and educational traffic generators along the way. These include Linton, the Abingdons, Babraham, Sawston, Stapleford and Shelford. It is also right side of Cambridge for the rapidly expanding Biomedical Campus including 5 hospitals, 3 existing and 2 more planned, and the new Cambridge South station.
Obviously rail use is still slightly down on pre Covid levels but I agree that it would likely be very busy. If hypothetically it was already in place I would expect 2025 rail usage figures to be approx:
So the off peak bus service is carrying about 60 passengers per hour (average of 35 per double decker?) Is that a good use of rail?
That is going to be a problem if a rail service was re-instated, unless a car park is built at the new railway station. A car park could be built for the bus passengers, without the expense of a railway line to go with.
Pay the bus drivers more then, and the shortages will disappear. They only can't be now because the bus industry is not blessed with anything like the sort of subsidies the rail industry gets.
Off peak 5 buses per hour 2 to Haverhill 3 to Sawston so with your 35 passengers per vehicle that's 175 journeys per hour in each direction or 350 in total, about 6 times higher than your estimate.
No they won't because there is nowhere affordable for them to live. And any more bus drivers in Cambridge are more effectively deployed on other routes that do not have the rail option, such as the existing St Ives busway.
That is the not so expensive but delivers less option. Either way the car park will be near the A11/A505.
But a rebuilt railway will not conveniently serve all those bus passengers, so only a fraction would change to a train. The train will have huge ongoing subsidy costs compared to the current bus service, even with drivers paid better than they are now. (Let alone the sheer cost of rebuilding the railway)
Build them houses then.
Why less option? How is building a car park next to a station, with trains going to only a limited number of stops in Cambridge, giving more options than building a car park near to the bus route with a greater range of local destinations?
Good one. People have been trying to do that, so far with very limited success.
In the Haverhill case a railway would conveniently serve most of the bus passengers as both bus routes enter Cambridge very close to the existing rail line and stations. They will switch because the journey will be quicker and less vulnerable to the delays caused by Cambridge traffic congestion.
A busway does not deliver the same capacity improvement because it runs up against a road capacity constraint at the edge of Cambridge City. Also a busway would not serve Stapleford and Shelford as well as a train because the rail station is centrally located whereas a busway will have to go round the edge.
Not this one again. This is very much in the 'Pie in the Sky' category. Somebody will be able to dig up an old thread on this line to explain why.
Has the Steel train that kept it open stopped running? The case for running a commuter service up the line is decent, if you can solve the problem of how it serves the centre of Sheffield in a reasonable time.
Yes, just the Network Rail test train has run since November and a railtour is booked. A new Sheffield Victoria style station would be required with trains either terminating there, or running through to Meadowhall and Rotherham. It could have tram train potential too. Or, even Supertram could extend on to it from Middlewood somehow. Plenty of options.
Another tram-train line? 500m of new line down Rutland Road and a ramp up to the line. I expect that would somehow cost £100m or something stupid though
But the trains would likely be 4 car and could be longer if required and would be quicker. I appreciate that rail is unlikely of course.
I have looked at the figures from the 2021 census. I can only see a few sentences from the Economist article so can't see their data sources.it is a very relevant comparison. Corby is, actually, a high growth area. Indeed in 2019 it was the fastest growing town in England...
How Corby became England’s fastest-growing town
Commuters and immigrants have swelled the population by a thirdwww.economist.com
That is also irrelevant because 2020 is before the 2021 census.
Not if the bus company can't recruit enough drivers and the service can't run effectively because of traffic congestion.
A large amount of Cambridge’s growth is in South Cambs which immediately abuts the city boundary tightly. Circa 50,000 new homes are proposed in Cambridge/South Cambs over the next 20 years
Ironically they are more use for local politicians if they don't get built.
Someone has to keep the people writing useless feasibility studies and cost benefits analyses in a job