Chiltern Evergreen 3 project - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I'm presuming that if the TWA for Chiltern is granted, there won't actually be a need for a further one, certainly south of Bicester Town?

[IndustryInsider]

I'm presuming that if the TWA for Chiltern is granted, there won't actually be a need for a further one, certainly south of Bicester Town?

Good question.  I would suspect not.  There is, after all, no new railway on this section - just restoration of the mothballed section from Claydon to Bletchley.

If East-West rail is to follow hot on the heels of Evergreen 3, might it make sense to do all the engineering for the Phase 2B part of the programme at the same time, rather than having to return soon after to finish the job (i.e. re-lay the second track through Wolvercote Tunnel, rebuild Islip with two platforms, etc.)?  I know that efforts have been made to make it fairly easy to bolt on the extra bits and bobs of Phase 2B, but even so...

[eightf48544]

In a world not run by "bean counters" doing both phases of Biscester Oxford at the same time makes perfevt sense, would be cheaper in the long run. OK there'd be over capacity for a couple of years but then again there was massive over  capacity when Brunel first opened the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)!

[ChrisB]

I'm presuming that if the TWA for Chiltern is granted, there won't actually be a need for a further one, certainly south of Bicester Town?

Good question.  I would suspect not.  There is, after all, no new railway on this section - just restoration of the mothballed section from Claydon to Bletchley.

Hang on though, had this thought overnight - that was the situation for Chiltern though, wasn't it?....I thought they were applying because of the new station & facilities at Water Eaton & Bicester Town?.....in which case, isn't the new statiion at Wilmslow the equivalent?....

If East-West rail is to follow hot on the heels of Evergreen 3, might it make sense to do all the engineering for the Phase 2B part of the programme at the same time, rather than having to return soon after to finish the job

The Treasury won't sign this off until the Counties provide their contributions....that might hold things up, and the statement indicated that they would then instruct NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to add it to CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019)....so not before 2014. Elsewhere I read that it is likely to be allocated funding in the final year of this Government, i.e. 2015.

Chiltern will want to be up & running by then.

[IndustryInsider]

I thought the main reason they had to apply was because of the new stretch of railway, admittedly short, linking the Chiltern Line with Bicester Town, though of course you might be right.  Was a TWA necessary when they built Aylesbury Vale Parkway and upgraded that existing track to passenger train standards?

And yes, I agree with your summary on the financial aspects.  I think, yes, it would make sense to do all the works in one go, but financial red tape (or eightf48544's good old 'bean counters' he likes so much), would probably make that impractical without there being a delay to the Chiltern scheme.

[ChrisB]

No TWA for AVP....

[IndustryInsider]

Then I can't see a difference between building Aylesbury Vale Parkway and building Winslow - not Wilmslow as you stated - that already exists and isn't on the EWR route.   

[chuffed]

Bats won't halt rail plans

9:20am Tuesday 13th December 2011 in Headlines
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THE threat of bats in a railway tunnel near Wolvercote holding up a new Rail service from Oxford to London Marylebone looks to have been lifted.
 
Chiltern Railways and Natural England have told the Government they are close to solving the bat problem to get the ^130m scheme back on track.
 
Transport Secretary Justine Greening last month revealed the risk to bats and great crested newts presented a major obstacle to Evergreen 3^s scheme to create a fast Oxford-Bicester-London service.
 
Chiltern Railways and Natural England were given until today to set out measures to resolve the problem, that had resulted in the scheme being denied approval by a planning inspector.
 
The rail company and environment group told the Oxford Mail they had met the deadline with new proposals submitted to the Government, although the details have not been made public.
 
Natural England spokesman Melissa Gill said: ^Natural England met with Chiltern Railways and agreed a way forward in respect of the outstanding issues surrounding bats in the tunnel.
 
^We will continue to work closely with Chiltern Railways to assist them in addressing these matters in their revised application. We have confirmed to the Department for Transport that in principle there is a good prospect of a licence being granted if outstanding issues are dealt with in the way that we agreed, should the Department for Transport issue the transport works order.^
 
News that the planning inspector had withheld approval from the massive scheme came as a blow to commuters who had been looking forward to a new service within three years.
 
The inspector said the bats used the tunnel for roosts and foraging.

And he warned more trains travelling at higher speed would put bats at risk and make the tunnel unusable for them.
 

[IndustryInsider]

Can't be long until an official announcement is made.  Anyone have any clues/inside information?

[ChrisB]

You're right.

It was stated that as long as Chiltern & Natural England agreed a way forward for the bats, the SoS was minded to sign the TWA by January 20th.

Wonder what happened?

[IndustryInsider]

Perhaps her pen ran out of ink?

[ChrisB]

I am - via my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)< who has copied me a letter from Mike Penning at the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

He confirms that Chiltern & Natural England have agreed on a way forward to deal with thde bats & the newts, and that they are minded to sign the TWA.

Before signing, TWA rules now require the Dft to give those that took part in the enquiry another opportunity to express views on this new 'evidence' or to ask for the inquiry to be re-opened.

The letter to Chiltern & interested parties should shortly appear on this webpage
http://www.dft.gov.uk/topics/legislation/twa/twa-decision-letters/

So a delay while everyone involved gets a further chance to comment.....

I'm also hearing on a grapevine that as the DfT has given the green light to EWR, that they will be wanting Chiltern to combine their works with the EWR upgrade. Now NR^» (Network Rail - home page) can't start on EWR until Comtrol Period 5 (starts mid 2014), so there's likely a delay anyway.

[IndustryInsider]

So a delay while everyone involved gets a further chance to comment.....

I'm also hearing on a grapevine that as the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has given the green light to EWR, that they will be wanting Chiltern to combine their works with the EWR upgrade. Now NR^» (Network Rail - home page) can't start on EWR until Comtrol Period 5 (starts mid 2014), so there's likely a delay anyway.

Right, I suppose that all makes sense.  I'm all for the works being combined as long as it doesn't lead to a big delay, and Chiltern won't be happy at waiting for much longer.  Perhaps an agreement could be forthcoming where CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019) funding can be brought forward - after all, only a small portion of the total East-West Rail funding is required to finance the additional enhancements to the Oxford-Bicester section?  Otherwise we'll be looking at late 2015 at the earliest.  Let's get both of these important links up and running as soon as possible!

[ChrisB]

From what I've heard this afternoon, its looking like 2015 now....

[IndustryInsider]

At least that might give Chiltern a bit longer to get all their Mk3's finally refurbished.