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Wixams station progress updates

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flitwickbeds

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Also has this interesting quote:

However, according to the report by Kilborn Consulting, commissioned by Bedford Borough Council in March 2019, “The location of the Wixams station, which has been fixed by recent work for BBC and is tightly constrained by signalling, electrification and developer requirements.

“In order to capture funding from the developer, the Wixams station will be built well before the EWR is under construction.”

I assumed the proposed Wixams station was now dead and buried, especially after "Bedford South" (a potential station on EWR, near to Wixams and the Interchange Retail Park; linking to the MML but avoding Bedford Midland station) was killed off after choosing the preferred route instead. I know the report/quote is from 2019 but is there any further progress on Wixams as a Thameslink-only station?
 
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ewrfan

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I assumed the proposed Wixams station was now dead and buried, especially after "Bedford South" (a potential station on EWR, near to Wixams and the Interchange Retail Park; linking to the MML but avoding Bedford Midland station) was killed off after choosing the preferred route instead. I know the report/quote is from 2019 but is there any further progress on Wixams as a Thameslink-only station?

Bedford council confirmed it would be going ahead some time ago. I found this more recent article where it is reaffirmed:

The Council outlines new and better stations centres around Wixams as a priority. A railway station at the Wixams has always been part of the concept, and the Council is leading on the development of the station, as an important enabler to the growth of the Oxford-Cambridge arc.

Current plans would deliver four Thameslink trains per hour each way calling at the station, with opening targeted for late 2023.
 

DaveN

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Bedford council confirmed it would be going ahead some time ago. I found this more recent article where it is reaffirmed:



Yes, Wixams station is still in Bedford Council's capital budget, including £1m for this financial year and £5.4m for next. See https://www.councillorsupport.bedfo...tem 13.4 Capital Programme and Appendices.pdf
Approved by the full council on 3 Feb 2021. I don't know what that £1m is being spent on.
 

flitwickbeds

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Yes, Wixams station is still in Bedford Council's capital budget, including £1m for this financial year and £5.4m for next. See https://www.councillorsupport.bedford.gov.uk/documents/s53234/Item 13.4 Capital Programme and Appendices.pdf
Approved by the full council on 3 Feb 2021. I don't know what that £1m is being spent on.
Any further information about *where* the station will go? The place I understood it was going to be built on, has now been - err - built on with houses. Are they proposing to knock down the caravan and bungalow site on the other side of the tracks about here:

 

DaveN

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Any further information about *where* the station will go? The place I understood it was going to be built on, has now been - err - built on with houses. Are they proposing to knock down the caravan and bungalow site on the other side of the tracks about here:

The original outline planning permission (from 1999) had the station further north than the obvious place where those houses now are
 

flitwickbeds

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Wixams residents are one step closer to having their long-promised station after the Wixams Station Board recommended the project can proceed to the next planning stage.

Cllr Graeme Coombes (Wixams) wrote in the latest Wixams residents’ newsletter that the necessary funding has been secured and there is support, in principle, for a two-platform station.


“The [Wixams Station] Board then recommended that the project proceed to the next stage (Stage 2b), by commissioning design work specifically for a two-platform faced station,” said Cllr Coombes.

“The deadline should be met for obtaining the additional station funding from L&Q [the Wixams developer] who are still engaged with the project and keen for it to proceed.”
 

DaveN

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As posted on another thread, the local councillor has given an update. See https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/wixams-station-shunts-one-step-closer-to-2024-opening/

Wixams residents are one step closer to having their long-promised station after the Wixams Station Board recommended the project can proceed to the next planning stage.

Cllr Graeme Coombes (Wixams) wrote in the latest Wixams residents’ newsletter that the necessary funding has been secured and there is support, in principle, for a two-platform station.


“The [Wixams Station] Board then recommended that the project proceed to the next stage (Stage 2b), by commissioning design work specifically for a two-platform faced station,” said Cllr Coombes.

“The deadline should be met for obtaining the additional station funding from L&Q [the Wixams developer] who are still engaged with the project and keen for it to proceed.”

“The planned date for the opening of Wixams station is currently July 2024, around 11 years late,” he said. “Let’s hope the trains are more punctual.”

Also from that article:

A Borough Council spokesperson said: “The development of the Wixams Station has been years in the making but, with agreement from the rail industry now secured, a location and footprint agreed, funding is in place and construction is expected to begin in 2023.

“This progress has only been possible because the doubt over East West Rail plans was removed from Wixams last year.

“With the significant large-scale development already in place and committed in the area around the station it would very difficult to change this to become an interchange point on the East West Rail line.”

£13million of the funding for Wixams station is time-limited from the developer, L&Q.

The time frame would have run out before the station was built if it hadn’t been possible to move the plans forward over the last year.

“The proposed southern routes for East West Rail would have put the delivery of the Wixams Station in serious jeopardy, would have blocked the progress that has been made over the last year, and would result in millions of pounds of economic benefit bypassing our Borough.”
 
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Aictos

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Is that serving EWR or Thameslink only?
 
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flitwickbeds

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Thanks @yorkie for moving my post. I tried searching for this new thread using forum search but nothing came up. This thread still doesn't appear when searching for "Wixams". Odd.
 

swt_passenger

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I think there's a spurious h ("Wixhams") in the Speculative thread title.
There is, but search still doesn’t find it spelt that way. I don’t think it’s actually working across all forums or recent dates at the moment...
 
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