Landowners Blocking Cycleways?

[mjr]

So is it because the train is already overloaded?

Partly. There is currently a power supply limit north of Cambridge, plus a bottleneck at the Ely North junction, plus some limited platform lengths, plus a mixing of Cambridge commuters with London ones. AFAIK, the power supply is being upgraded with the Chesterton Parkway works, fixing Ely North has just been punted into the long grass by Network Rail, platform lengths are unlikely to change now Thameslink will end at Cambridge (instead of using the whole line as originally announced) and the mixing is insoluble... so now by the time each constraint is eased, places down the line will have grown to overload the trains again pretty quickly.

And it'd be 15 miles each way on a bike if one of the most direct routes was used. An hour if it's a good design, plus it would connect all the places in between to their nearest city

 

[mjr]

Well, in case we didn't believe the results of St Ives-Cambridge or Bath-Bristol, it looks like Germany is going to give us another case study, building an interurban fast cycleway (radschnellweg) linking eight cities over 100km: http://www.boredpanda.com/bicycle-highway-autobahn-germany/

 

[youngoldbloke]

If only the Bath-Bristol was like that! Whenever I've used it it has been clogged with walkers, joggers, pootlers, pushchairs, dogs, etc etc etc - all of whom have a perfect right to be there, of course.

 

[Mark1978]

For what it's worth, I'd cycle between Ely and Cambridge if it was like the guided busway path all the way and I could (for the majority of the route) avoid the A10. If they had a well-maintained path along the side of the rail track it would be great.

Me too... And then if they could extend the cycle path up to Downham, that would be spiffing.

 

[mjr]

Me too... And then if they could extend the cycle path up to Downham, that would be spiffing.

Oh it's far more annoying than that south of Downham: the railway has been single-tracked but I think all the river bridges still have unused space on their west sides where a cycle track could be put. Even just connecting the former Denver and Ouse Bridge stations would cut about a mile off National Cycle Route 11. About 500m of new track and some improvements could connect Middle Drove and St Johns Way along the eastern bank of the Relief Channel and make it easier to follow roughly the route of the railway, although that's not strictly necessary. Make some minor junction improvements at the south end of Ten Mile Bank and you could cycle from Downham Market to Littleport without mixing it with much heavy traffic and without the current zig-zag between Denver and the sluices.

Really, there are tons of possible improvements and if government (at various levels) was serious about cycling as part of its transport strategy to improve air quality and reduce congestion, something should be happening around towns like Downham Market. I feel I'm too far away (yet it's only 8 miles!) so can only get tiny improvements, like the very short cycleable link that we won between the Trafalgar Industrial Estate and the new housing to its north - which also means people in the new houses will be able to cycle to the existing link towards Richmond Road. If there are going to be substantial improvements around Downham, its residents need to start pushing too... could you help?

 

[Mark1978]

.... If there are going to be substantial improvements around Downham, its residents need to start pushing too... could you help?

I'd certainly be interested in doing all i can to improve routes between the major towns around this area. I'm not experienced in that sort of thing, so any assistance would be well received.

I live just outside Downham on Barroway Drove, so my preferred route when I'm commuting (assuming that Welney wash is passable which it generally is in the summer when i tend to do a couple of commutes a week), is out to Welney, through Pymoor and Wentworth/20 pence road, all of which is fine and dandy apart from 20pence, which can be a bit hairy in rush hour. A more protected cycle route from central Downham which basically follows the train would be perfect IMHO.

I have considered moving to St Ives in order to take advantage of the pretty excellent busway route into to the science park.

If you have any ideas of what I could do to help, drop me a PM