LOCAL ACTION MAKING THE CASE FOR RAIL IN THE FENS

Wessex Rail Summit One: Wisbech Barclay saw that earlier analy- By David Brace Stephen Barclay, the MP for North sis had focused on the transport [email protected] East. Cambridgeshire, talks to Chris case, but not evaluated the wider Austin economic benefi ts. ■ ■ Gateway to South Downs The market town of Wisbech in In addition, the scheme had no A new community rail partnership the Fens has attractive riverside champion, partly because of the has been formed covering buildings, but in economic terms, poor economic case, and partly a number of stations on the has become a bit of a backwater. because the local authority had Direct route north run into diffi culties with previ- The economic development that of . The stations included ous major transport schemes, in the East CRP are has boosted the corridor from Stansted Airport to Cambridge including the notorious St Ives , Liss, Petersfi eld and busway. Rowlands Castle. These are the and Ely has not reached north four stations within the recently Cambridgeshire, even though Stephen Barclay pays tribute created South Downs National it is within the area of the Cam- to Martin Curtis, the leader of Park. Substantial funding and bridge and Peterborough local Cambridgeshire, for supporting support has been provided by the economic partnership, which has the wider benefi ts study which national park. The CRP describes the fastest growth of any local transformed the case for the line. the train service as the gateway to the South Downs and enterprise partnership. Now the project has a sound follows the format adopted elsewhere in Britain to encourage business case and full support support for local train services and to help integrate the Originally the town was served by two stations, the Midland & from the county council and the railway into the community. Several meetings have already LEP as a priority. been held as well as a public event at Liss, plus some Great Northern and the Great organised walks and cycle rides. Eastern, with direct services to In political terms, Stephen Bar- Peterborough and Great Yar- clay has built a strong case for ■ ■ Engineering works and bustitution mouth until 1959, and to King’s the line, not primarily to link , through the South Western Alliance, has Lynn, March and Cambridge Wisbech to the national network, adopted two very different methods of carrying out major until 1968. A freight link on the but in support of the Govern- engineering works over the winter and spring. eight-mile line from March was ment’s £1 billion Cambridge City retained until 2000. Deal, designed to develop the Version one led to minimal disruption for passengers. When Just 20 miles to the east is the potential of this internationally the track between Basingstoke and Salisbury was renewed, renowned city. high output equipment was used on mid-week nights. This successful Fen line, electrifi ed by approach meant that very few replacement buses had to be Railfuture vice-president Chris For this reason he actively sup- run, mainly to cover for lightly used last trains. This also gave Green in 1992 and now thriving, ported the new station planned the engineers a little more time each night. As a bonus, the in stark contrast to the moth- for Cambridge Science Park, last jointed track has now been replaced on this route. balled Wisbech route. despite some local criticism that it was not in his constituency. Version two caused major problems for passengers. For the The desire to improve prospects major switch and track renewals at Southampton West and on for his constituents is the main But he saw that the political case to Bournemouth and for the commissioning of new signalling factor that convinced MP Ste- for Wisbech would be made west of Poole, more than two months of weekend closures phen Barclay of the need for bet- much more eff ectively through were imposed, with no trains through Southampton and ter links between the two parts of enabling the wider benefi ts of numerous replacement bus services providing stopping and the county. The 4,000 signatures the Cambridge project to be fast services. While well managed and probably necessary on the reopening petition served achieved, by providing access to given the scale of the works, it did cause substantial to underline his judgement here. aff ordable housing for the new inconvenience to passengers, especially those with bikes, Restoration of the line has been workforce, rather than the nar- buggies and baggage. Railfuture Wessex was asked to give proposed several times before rower case for a rail link to the its views to local paper The Southern Echo and we supported town which, on its own, had the need for the works despite the diffi culties in carrying but has never got anywhere. The them out without the lines being closed. We advised that fi rst problem was that it had no failed to establish a business the paper should view it as a successful investment story. business case and that previous case in the past. A 40-minute rail At least rail passengers in our area now have the summer studies had shown little ben- trip in the future compares with months without any more bustitution. efi t in return for the capital cost a drive of an hour and 40 min- of restoration. Looking more utes today. At a crucial point in ■ ■ Campaign for better trains to match price of rail travel closely at the scheme, Stephen the discussions, he convened The branch secretary of Railfuture Wessex was interviewed live on BBC Radio Solent in response to the Offi ce of Rail Regulation’s fi nancial report for 2012-13. He was Picture: WIKIPEDIA able to make the point that, given the high cost of long- distance commuting in our area, more appropriate long-distance rolling stock is needed rather than the class 450 trains with 3+2 seating (see picture). This has been a long-running campaign, particularly for commuters on the Portsmouth Direct line who suffer not only the class 450s but also have a poor journey STANDARD Picture by courtesy of the ELY time to London compared with many other routes. ■ ■ IC125 to boost Bristol-Weymouth route in the summer Railfuture Wessex is pleased to see that First Great Western will run an InterCity 125 train on the Bristol-Weymouth line to provide extra capacity on summer Saturdays. Weymouth is a popular Dorset coastal resort and the normal two-car diesel Manea today, Wisbech tomorrow: Stephen Barclay MP, left, at units cannot provide anywhere near the needed capacity. Manea where passenger numbers have tripled since Greater Anglia increased the number of trains calling

14 railwatch July 2014 Twitter: @railfuture www.railfuture.org.uk

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