News - Dec '02 & Jan 03

From BACIT member Andrew Wallace:

Nick MP mentioned the Central Railway (not to be confused with Central trains, our local rail operator). They plan a rail line to carry trucks and freight from Liverpool - Sheffield - Toton - Leicester - old Great central Railway - anti-clockwise round M25 and thence to the Channel Tunnel. See their website.

However, more interestingly is the antis' website.

This is NIMBYism on a grand scale! Looks like its driven by people in the Chiltern / Buckinghamshire area though, as they seem to be the prominent local group.

You can see a map of the proposed route here.

Dr Nick Palmer MP posted the following on the BACIT email list following the latest announcements from the Department of Transport.

The announcement today basically says yes to both the M1 multi-modal study package including the M1 widening (which I didn't support) and continuing support for the tram, and indeed the Nottingham Parkway station and pedestrian improvements in Nottingham and other stuff - in fact, at first reading, Notts has got absolutely everything it asked for (which doesn't mean it was all the right thing to ask!). But the tram still has the usual stages to go through as before - this merely confirms that the Government is encouraging further work.
The big project nearing the front of the pipeline but not mentioned here is the Central Railway proposal (not to be confused with our local Central Rail)to run a predominantly freight line from Liverpool to Toton to London to the Chunnel. This will come up for decision next year, followed (if approved) by the mother of all public enquiries. If it goes through it will take a huge proportion of lorry traffic off the north-south motorways.