It's jolly quiet around here

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Well, it's about 31 years since I came to the Cambridge area, after
which people soon introduced me to cam.misc. I've kept an NNTP account
of one description or another in my email client for all the time I've
had a computer at home since then and feel loath to delete it.

There are still some old, familiar names appearing once in a blue moon
but there appear to be only half a dozen threads in total for 2024
visible to me.

I suppose all good things come to an end...

Michael

[Roland Perry]

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Well, it's about 31 years since I came to the Cambridge area, after
which people soon introduced me to cam.misc. I've kept an NNTP account
of one description or another in my email client for all the time I've
had a computer at home since then and feel loath to delete it.
There are still some old, familiar names appearing once in a blue moon
but there appear to be only half a dozen threads in total for 2024
visible to me.
I suppose all good things come to an end...

I'm still active in half a dozen newsgroups, but the number of
participants in all of them have dwindled. I also find many of them
(especially the anonymous cowards) seem to have lost their manners.

So, I'll give it another couple of years, but not every group every
day, which was once the case.

[Keith Willshaw]

Post by Roland Perry
I'm still active in half a dozen newsgroups, but the number of
participants in all of them have dwindled. I also find many of them
(especially the anonymous cowards) seem to have lost their manners.
So, I'll give it another couple of years, but not every group every
day, which was once the case.

Well I moved back to North Yorkshire when I retired in 2016 but I am
still lurking :)

[Tim Ward]

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Well, it's about 31 years since I came to the Cambridge area, after
which people soon introduced me to cam.misc. I've kept an NNTP account
of one description or another in my email client for all the time I've
had a computer at home since then and feel loath to delete it.
There are still some old, familiar names appearing once in a blue moon
but there appear to be only half a dozen threads in total for 2024
visible to me.
I suppose all good things come to an end...
Michael

"cam.misc died when Colin Rosenstiel and Tim Ward stopped dissing
Twitter and started using it"

My Twitter account has now been suspended because I can't be arsed to
make up a fake date of birth for them.

@***@c.im on Mastodon

[Theo]

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Well, it's about 31 years since I came to the Cambridge area, after
which people soon introduced me to cam.misc. I've kept an NNTP account
of one description or another in my email client for all the time I've
had a computer at home since then and feel loath to delete it.
There are still some old, familiar names appearing once in a blue moon
but there appear to be only half a dozen threads in total for 2024
visible to me.
I suppose all good things come to an end...

I'm sure what we need are some nice controversial threads, as that will
encourage the traffic...

So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Theo

[Tim Ward]

Post by Theo
So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Don't forget the anti-train NIMBYs as well ...

[Theo]

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo
So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Don't forget the anti-train NIMBYs as well ...

Is that East-West Rail or a different flavour of train to be anti?

Theo

[Tim Ward]

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo
So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Don't forget the anti-train NIMBYs as well ...

Is that East-West Rail or a different flavour of train to be anti?
Theo

Think it's East-West Rail. Lots of nimby posters in the villages to the
south west.

[Theo]

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo
So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Don't forget the anti-train NIMBYs as well ...

Is that East-West Rail or a different flavour of train to be anti?
Theo

Think it's East-West Rail. Lots of nimby posters in the villages to the
south west.

I wonder whether the government will withdraw funding, and then there won't
be anything to NIMBY about? There's noises about various projects getting
cut, and I wouldn't be surprised if EWR Central Section is in there.

(The A1 Black Cat/A428 upgrade is now a large series of holes in the ground,
so that's too late to cancel. Now if they had designed them together :-| )

Theo

[Roland Perry]

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Theo
So, how's the Mayor/GCP/(misguided) buses/bike lanes/congestion
charging/Coton busway/residents' parking/... going?

Don't forget the anti-train NIMBYs as well ...

Is that East-West Rail or a different flavour of train to be anti?
Theo

Think it's East-West Rail. Lots of nimby posters in the villages to the
south west.

I wonder whether the government will withdraw funding, and then there won't
be anything to NIMBY about?

I can't keep up, but I thought it had long been a privately-funded
project. But if by a private company owned by the DfT, then we have
smoke and mirrors again.

Post by Theo
There's noises about various projects getting
cut, and I wouldn't be surprised if EWR Central Section is in there.
(The A1 Black Cat/A428 upgrade is now a large series of holes in the ground,
so that's too late to cancel. Now if they had designed them together :-| )
Theo

[Theo]

Post by Roland Perry

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward
Think it's East-West Rail. Lots of nimby posters in the villages to the
south west.

I wonder whether the government will withdraw funding, and then there won't
be anything to NIMBY about?

I can't keep up, but I thought it had long been a privately-funded
project. But if by a private company owned by the DfT, then we have
smoke and mirrors again.

"The East West Railway Company is a non-departmental public arm’s length
body set up by the government to accelerate the East West Rail project – a
new rail link between Cambridge and Oxford.

EWRC is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the
Department for Transport."

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/east-west-railway-company


so basically it's similar to Network Rail, but the DfT wanted somebody other
than NR to run the project. Not sure how much private finance is involved.

Theo

[Roland Perry]

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry

Post by Theo

Post by Tim Ward
Think it's East-West Rail. Lots of nimby posters in the villages to the
south west.

I wonder whether the government will withdraw funding, and then there won't
be anything to NIMBY about?

I can't keep up, but I thought it had long been a privately-funded
project. But if by a private company owned by the DfT, then we have
smoke and mirrors again.

"The East West Railway Company is a non-departmental public arm’s length
body set up by the government to accelerate the East West Rail project – a
new rail link between Cambridge and Oxford.
EWRC is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the
Department for Transport."
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/east-west-railway-company
so basically it's similar to Network Rail, but the DfT wanted somebody other
than NR to run the project. Not sure how much private finance is involved.

They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

[Theo]

Post by Roland Perry
They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

Yebbut until they settle on the route they don't know which housing
developers.

I think the new station at Winslow has some kind of tie-in with new housing.
There are also noises about Calvert:
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/calvert/
although there's no stations on HS2 or EWR or even good road connections so
at present it's just an isolated field.

For the route from Bedford to Cambridge, there's developers poised
for Tempsford:
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/tempsford/
(which is already on the ECML and A1 so doesn't depend on EWR as such)

and Cambourne North:
https://www.savills.co.uk/landing-pages/promotion/cambourne-north.aspx

but all these are mostly developer crayonista-ing at this point.
None of them have got very far yet AFAIK.

Theo

[The Natural Philosopher]

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry
They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

Yebbut until they settle on the route they don't know which housing
developers.
I think the new station at Winslow has some kind of tie-in with new housing.
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/calvert/
although there's no stations on HS2 or EWR or even good road connections so
at present it's just an isolated field.
For the route from Bedford to Cambridge, there's developers poised
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/tempsford/
(which is already on the ECML and A1 so doesn't depend on EWR as such)
https://www.savills.co.uk/landing-pages/promotion/cambourne-north.aspx
but all these are mostly developer crayonista-ing at this point.
None of them have got very far yet AFAIK.
Theo

I thought I heard that Rachel Reeves was scrapping everything except 8
billion of Ed Milibands holiday money for pointless renewables,?

[Roland Perry]

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry
They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

Yebbut until they settle on the route they don't know which housing
developers.

Diverting it via Cambourne, which has the knock-on effect of most of the
NIMBY revolt from there to Foxton, is all about new housing on existing
sites. Yes, they hope other station stops will eventually become
Cambourne-clones.

Post by Theo
I think the new station at Winslow has some kind of tie-in with new housing.
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/calvert/
although there's no stations on HS2 or EWR or even good road connections so
at present it's just an isolated field.
For the route from Bedford to Cambridge, there's developers poised
https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/tempsford/
(which is already on the ECML and A1 so doesn't depend on EWR as such)
https://www.savills.co.uk/landing-pages/promotion/cambourne-north.aspx
but all these are mostly developer crayonista-ing at this point.
None of them have got very far yet AFAIK.
Theo

[Theo]

Post by Roland Perry

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry
They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

Yebbut until they settle on the route they don't know which housing
developers.

Diverting it via Cambourne, which has the knock-on effect of most of the
NIMBY revolt from there to Foxton, is all about new housing on existing
sites. Yes, they hope other station stops will eventually become
Cambourne-clones.

All the route options had some kind of housing development included - even
the southern route had Bassingbourn Barracks on it. The crossing of the
ECML (at Sandy, Tempsford or St Neots south) is another development site -
Tempsford would be green field.

The current proposal has it following the A428 dualling (I hope there's
passive provision for it been included - would have been much easier if the
routes were built together) which includes a station north of the A428 at
Cambourne. I don't think there has ever been any thought to a station
between Cambourne/Bassingbourn and Cambridge South.

Theo

[Roland Perry]

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry

Post by Theo

Post by Roland Perry
They keep fiddling with the route, which appears to be to make it pass
the most new housing developments, thus surely (don't call me...) ought
to warrant a contribution from the housing developers?

Yebbut until they settle on the route they don't know which housing
developers.

Diverting it via Cambourne, which has the knock-on effect of most of the
NIMBY revolt from there to Foxton, is all about new housing on existing
sites. Yes, they hope other station stops will eventually become
Cambourne-clones.

All the route options had some kind of housing development included - even
the southern route had Bassingbourn Barracks on it.

I don't think they had a station there, so not a target for a mini
new-town (and funding arising from that). The as it was at the time
"Final Route" via Bassingbourn was mainly chosen for the least impact on
existing housing etc. ie Nimby-averse.

Post by Theo
The crossing of the ECML (at Sandy, Tempsford or St Neots south) is
another development site - Tempsford would be green field.
The current proposal has it following the A428 dualling (I hope there's
passive provision for it been included - would have been much easier if the
routes were built together) which includes a station north of the A428 at
Cambourne.

Very handy for Cambourne residents NOT.

Post by Theo
I don't think there has ever been any thought to a station
between Cambourne/Bassingbourn and Cambridge South.

Nor was Cambridge South envisaged back then.

ps I drove through the Northstowe building site yesterday, and it's
astonishing how little has been built, given that the original approval
was given in Gordon Brown's day, and the misguided bus (as transport for
its residents) was a condition, due to no visibility of A14 improvement
(now done years ago).

[Tim Ward]

Post by Roland Perry
Nor was Cambridge South envisaged back then.

We did try. But the rail industry wasn't interested[#], so we couldn't
reserve the land for it (we'd have been sued to kingdom come), so it's
being built in the wrong place because the right place has since had
other stuff built on it.

[#] I was at a party and met a student friend who had become a director
of Network Rail. She said that I would be pleased to hear that some
board meeting had just approved the Science Park station.

Great, I said, now what about the Addenbrooke's station?

She fell about laughing. Was never going to happen.

[Roland Perry]

Post by Tim Ward

Post by Roland Perry
Nor was Cambridge South envisaged back then.

We did try. But the rail industry wasn't interested[#], so we couldn't
reserve the land for it (we'd have been sued to kingdom come), so it's
being built in the wrong place because the right place has since had
other stuff built on it.
[#] I was at a party and met a student friend who had become a director
of Network Rail. She said that I would be pleased to hear that some
board meeting had just approved the Science Park station.

Which the Science Park later refused to be named after them.

Post by Tim Ward
Great, I said, now what about the Addenbrooke's station?
She fell about laughing. Was never going to happen.

I went to the Network Rail consultation, which was held in the midst of
the pandemic, and it was clear they had in mind a station for the local
commuter belt (to get to London) and the hospital was barely on their
radar.

Not surprising since it's a *long* walk to outpatients, and even if
people wanted to commute to the biocampus (or even hospital staff) it
would only scratch the surface of the number of people wanting to get
their simultaneously.

They had an event at Ely station about two months ago to discuss various
proposals locally, and I asked the chap what the service pattern was
going to be (eg, will it be an additional stop for fast trains, only
served by stoppers, or whatever) and he said they hadn't decided that
yet. Which has to be a lie, because it's a fundamental parameter for the
business case.

Meanwhile back at Cambridge North, the business case there (which I
*did* have a copy of) predicted a couple of dozen passengers a day
commuting from the north (ie Ely/March) to the Science Park etc. And the
final timetable reflected that with only about one rush hour train
stopping there in the morning.

I've not seen the latest footfall data, but last year it seemed it was
abstracting passengers from Waterbeach, rather than generating much
additional use. It's function as "Northstowe Parkway" has been hampered
by the snail's pace of the build there. I went through the other day,
and it was tumbleweed. Mindful that the go-ahead was given during Gordon
Brown's tenure.

I won't go on about the Misguided Bus today <thank God - Omnes>

[Tim Ward]

Meanwhile back at Cambridge North, the business case there ...

... clearly did *not* include Science Park employees going to a meeting
in London, because most of the trains back in the evening that are
supposed to go from London to Cambridge North actually don't, and
terminate at Cambridge, in my experience.

So, back in the before times, when I used to do things like going to
offices and riding trains, I'd cycle from the Science Park to Cambridge
station instead, because at least I knew the train back in the evening
would take me to my bike.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Post by Roland Perry
've not seen the latest footfall data, but last year it seemed it was
abstracting passengers from Waterbeach, rather than generating much
additional use.

For people from West Suffolk needing to get to London its very
convenient - or would be if the ticket machines were replaced by someone
who had more intelligence than a Z80 - for the simple reason that
Waterbeach is a parking nightmare and Audley end or Whittlesford end you
up on the Liverpool street line

But who wants to go to London any more? Huge spend for a stressful and
uninteresting experience.

[Tim Ward]

Post by The Natural Philosopher
But who wants to go to London any more? Huge spend for a stressful and
uninteresting experience.

I have never "wanted" to go to London. But from time to time I got paid to.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Post by Tim Ward

Post by The Natural Philosopher
But who wants to go to London any more? Huge spend for a stressful and
uninteresting experience.

I have never "wanted" to go to London. But from time to time I got paid to.

Oh I used to go to museums, concerts, clubs.
Not any more.

Khan has a lot to answer for.

[Roland Perry]

Post by Tim Ward

Post by The Natural Philosopher
But who wants to go to London any more? Huge spend for a stressful
and uninteresting experience.

I have never "wanted" to go to London. But from time to time I got paid to.

Oh I used to go to museums, concerts, clubs. Not any more.
Khan has a lot to answer for.

I went to the Science Museum earlier this year, who have a special
exhibition of retro games machines. And then the Greenford Computer
Club (who had an Amstrad 464 40th-anniversary event).

[Roland Perry]

Post by The Natural Philosopher

Post by Roland Perry
've not seen the latest footfall data, but last year it seemed it was
abstracting passengers from Waterbeach, rather than generating much
additional use.

For people from West Suffolk needing to get to London its very
convenient - or would be if the ticket machines were replaced by
someone who had more intelligence than a Z80 - for the simple reason
that Waterbeach is a parking nightmare and Audley end or Whittlesford
end you up on the Liverpool street line
But who wants to go to London any more? Huge spend for a stressful and
uninteresting experience.

I now only go for special occasions, which by definition are
interesting. For example last month for the Blue Peter inaugural
trip from Kings Cross to York.

Apologies for inadvertently switching the camera to auto-focus/auto-zoom
which it didn't cope with very well.

[Tim Ward]

There's a "usenet was better than all this modern rubbish" discussion on
Mastodon right now.

@***@c.im