Chelmsford - about new Boreham Interchange, and lessons for Chippenham.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I am noting a proposal for a new Park and Ride station at Chelmsford - the "Boreham Interchange". Essex County Council writes:

The new station and connected transport links, such as the new Beaulieu Parkway relief road and the Chelmsford North-East by-pass, will play a significant role in transforming travel in Chelmsford and the surrounding areas.

It will help relieve pressure at the Chelmsford train station, reduce car journeys into the city, and therefore tackle congestion on local roads, reduce pollution and encourage more Chelmsford residents to use safer, greener, healthier modes of travel for short journeys.

The new station is being funded by nearly £160 million, which includes £124 million from the Government’s Housing and Infrastructure Fund, £12 million from the South-East Local Enterprise Partnership and £22 million from the developers of Beaulieu, Countryside and L&Q.

The station is a significant addition to the Beaulieu and Channels neighbourhoods in the north of the city, which form the first phases of the new Chelmsford Garden Community.

The Beaulieu Park station will provide travel to London Liverpool Street in 40 minutes and will include three platforms, car parking, a public transport interchange, cycling facilities and new track for passing trains.

The full article is (here)

Why is this relevant to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) main line?  Because we could be asking "are there similar things we could be learning for here in Wiltshire?  And I am struck by a similarity bewteen Chelmesford and Chippenham.  Like Chelmesford, Chippenham already has a highly successful railway station. And like Chelmesford, Chippenham's station is in the town - to the extent that its use encourages passengers using it from a wider catchment area to drive or be driven through the Town Centre to get there.

With Hilltop Park and Hilltop View being developed alongside the main A350 Chippenham Bypass, and the railway line just to the east of Thingley Junction crossing that road there, perhaps there is a case for a station there to relieve Chippenham Town, to provide a freight loop / multiple platforms, to allow at-junction connections from Melksham to Bath and Bristol, to allow much quicker transfers from other towns in the area (I note Corsham and Melksham) onto main line trains.

[Mark A]

+1. Park and ride for... various places. Also, stations on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) are (rightly) buried in the middle of towns and cities but there has to be a very substantial untapped park and ride demand that's not met by the likes of Bristol Parkway.

Mark