Dark ages or what?

Interesting letter in this week's Times and Citizen about rail in Central Beds with a focus on the woes of the Platform Wunners at Flitwick. It is an open letter addressed to the leader of CBC James Jamieson. 

Mr Jamieson has clearly, if the letter is accurate, made some fuss about the bridge refurb at Flitwick to Network Rail and hopefully asked some pertinent questions about the non-refurbishment programme: toilets (locked up for the last five years) and no disabled access in sight. As I have previously blogged, the new bridge and lift at Harpenden is wondrous. But we are still in the dark ages in Flitwick.

Flitwick Station - dark ages

 

Andrew Long writes:

Strategy must include rail

Open letter in reply to James Jamieson (Commitment on traffic, April 11).

 I continue to be surprised by Central Bedfordshire Council’s utter indifference to rail - your letter only briefly mentioning the proposed new railway station at The Wixams.

There was no mention of station travel plans at Leighton Buzzard, with hopefully Flitwick and Harlington to follow. It is particularly saddening that despite the recent development strategy which will be the main planning document for Central Bedfordshire, setting out new policies for development including how many houses and jobs are needed and where they should go; and more detailed policies which will be used to determine planning applications, including transport infrastructure - makes little, if any, reference to rail throughout the document.

I sincerely hope that this omission will be remediated before representations are considered by the independent Planning Inspector. DCLG/Government requires that everyone, including stakeholders, are asked for their views on a series of specific questions about “soundness” and legal compliance.

An examination into the documentation and representations made will take place later in 2013. I would urge that the de-velopment strategy needs to deal adequately with ‘rail’.

Given your recent eleventh-hour letter to the CEO at Network Rail, Sir David Higgins, regarding Flitwick railway station footbridge, it might be more productive for Central Beds to examine what other local authorities have been doing with FCC & Network Rail to deliver significant improvements at their railway stations!

Flitwick is a mere apology compared to others which have seen important and helpful betterment of facilities for passengers. No doubt Central Beds’ large financial contribution to the Luton - Dunstable guided busway pre-cludes any meaningful contribution to rail within the unitary! A great pity and a legacy which rail users in Central Bedfordshire will not easily forget.

Andrew Long,

Transport Planning Society

Flitwick