stonehenge solution

At last one of the roads which deface the Stonehenge site is to be closed permanently. The picture above shows the road concerned, which is the one on the left in the picture. Yet the A303, on the right, will still pass far too close to the site.

A couple of questions - if the A344 is to close where are the parking facilities going to be? And, more importantly, how are people going to reach the site?

The solution is so simple iit's ridiculous. Create a park and ride in Amesbury and link to Stonehenge by tram. A fleet of shuttle trams (perhaps 5 or 6) could easily handle the one million visitors a year. There could be excellent facilities built at the Amesbury end - food, souvenirs etc, but also visitors should be encouraged to visit the town itself, spending money and supporting local businesses.

Now what the government and local authorities should do is buy the right of way then offer the build to a local consortium or local company to build and operate the route. I find it hard to believe that this isn't already happening as without the trams surely there will still be cars and buses approaching the site?

And whilst they are at it why not rebuild the Amesbury branch so that people can come all the way by train and tram via Salisbury? It's going to have to happen eventually so why not get ahead of the pack and get building now?

stating the obvious!

Plans for expansion of Cheltenham railway still on cards

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Gloucestershire Echo

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WORK on a large housing development in Cheltenham will not put the brakes on hopes to restore a second railway line through the town.

Changes have to be made to the Honeybourne Line embankment as part of the Midwinter development.

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   The steam train that travels to Cheltenham Racecourse could still one day come into the heart of the town

But it will still be kept strong enough so it could one day bear the weight of a railway line.

It means that the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway line could be extended into the heart of Cheltenham to link up with Cheltenham Spa.

GWR spokesman Ian Crowder said: "Since we took on the line, it has always been an ambition to extend it into Cheltenham for a link with the mainline.

"But every time there's another break in the line like this, it makes that more difficult to achieve."

Cheltenham Borough Council and Bloor Homes, the firm behind the 176-property scheme, spoke out on the matter yesterday.

Cabinet member for built environment Councillor Andrew McKinlay (LD, Up Hatherley) said: "The permission that went through stated that the embankment must be left so rail could be reinstated in the future.

"It was one of the subjects discussed during the planning process and the agreement leaves open the possibility of rail for the future."

The road access from the Prince of Wales Stadium side crosses the Honeybourne Line into the Midwinter site and has split the embankment.

Bloor planning director Steve Macpherson said the company would abide by the council's decision.

He said: "We are aware of the issue and are committed to maintaining public transport links for pedestrians and the long-term potential for rail. If the funding was ever found, then the potential would still be there for reinstating a rail link, but it would have to be re-engineered."

Heading south would see the line extended from its current halt at the racecourse to Cheltenham Spa, providing a useful link for race-goers.

A tram route is one of the other possibilities mooted for the line.

GWR owns the stretch north of the Prince of Wales Stadium, but the part through Cheltenham is controlled by the borough council.

GWR is extending its line north to Broadway and is likely to concentrate on that in the short term.

The ambitions won support from other councillors.

Councillor Ian Bickerton (LD, Leckhampton) added: "This route needs to be safeguarded and open the possibility of completing the GWR Honeybourne Steam Line with the final link from the racecourse to the town centre."

Mr Crowder conceded that any plan to extend rail along the path was likely to cost millions of pounds and therefore would only be possible in the long-term.

This was a daft closure and this route really needs to be restored for proper trains ASAP. Whilst tram routes have their value ie as feeders to heavy rail, they really shouldn't replace rail. It's a NETWORK we need, we should have learned from the mistakes of the past when some lines never quite joined up where they should! Each city should have one main station which all main line trains use, plus many suburban stations served by stoppers and, yes, trams in some cases!

a new way forward?

This is a video of the new line in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This is a sort of monorail tramway, with the trams being guided on a single rail, taking power from overhead cables, and running on tyres. It may well be that this is a far cheaper way of introducing tram type vehicles in smaller towns, and it will be interesting to see if this system develops elsewhere.



As if to prove there's nothing new under the sun check this site out!

interurban rebirth

The Interurban is an idea whose time has come. Once the USA was covered in these electrified lines, which brought modern transport to many towns and villages for the first time.

Unfortunately the rise of cheap oil meant that in many cases they only had a short life span. Amazingly modern, cheap and fast travel was replaced by spluttering and 'cheaper' anti-social cars and buses. With the end of cheap oil the interurban will return, some of the new batch of American tramways and light railways already show interurban characteristics as they edge out of the city centres.

But this line, the Chicago and South Bend, has kept going the whole time. It includes sections of classic street-running as well as fast reserved sections. Soon this will be just one line among many, but for a while it was the only survivor!

croydon's tramlink

A video of Croydon's superb Tramlink system. One of the new breed of British tramways, and a tenuous footstep into the maze of London's transport, this is an example to all forward-thinking cities both in the UK and elsewhere. Parts of the track utilised closed railways, some is on street, some were converted railways and there is a completely new section to New Addington which had never previously been served by trains or trams.