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Gloucestershire Parkway (ITEC)
Improving Gloucester’s connectivity and competitiveness.
Gloucestershire Parkway is a Gloucestershire County Council scheme for a new Railway Station and multimodal transport interchange. It is situated just to the north of the city and the project is known as ITEC (Integrated Transport at Elmbridge Court).
The proposed Gloucestershire Parkway Station will sit astride the Birmingham – Bristol – London intercity main line and a Park and Ride facility will link the station to Gloucester City Centre and Cheltenham Town Centre by express bus services. It is also adjacent to the M5 Motorway and other major roads.
The new Parkway Station will provide a high quality and distinctive arrival point for Gloucester and it will make the city a more attractive and competitive business location and support inward investment.
No-one wants to take buses into the center from a station- they are slow, and presumably will not be run by the council or network rail, but be given to a private sector bus company, most likely stagecoach who will then run it with ancient, dirty buses and charge fares that you would need a bank loan to pay for- which would be charging rail users twice.
Also, presumably bus lanes would be built on the surrounding roads. These would most likely not be built by widening the road and keeping the same number of general traffic lanes plus a bus lane, but instead simply by turning an existing lane into a bus lane. It doesn't take a genius to realise this would cause gridlock 24/7.
Also, what is the point of the station itself? Its purpose is to stop people in Gloucester from catching a train to Cheltenham to access cross country services. But people will still have to travel from Gloucester city center to this station, only they will have to do it by bus, not train. So whats the difference between traveling here and traveling to Cheltenham?
So the answer is a station on the railway triangle, in a dart shape, with platforms on the south wales-birmingham side and the mainline bristol-birmingham side.
Theres no point building platforms on the bristol-south wales side as very few passenger trains would use this side- at the moment they only use it to access central station, or when the severn tunnel is closed.
The triangle would then be developed make it part of the center, with parks, cafes and business and conference facilities.
Access from a triangle station to the existing central station could be maintained by having a dedicated shuttle service between the two stations, and also possibly by having Arriva stopping services from south wales calling at both stations. An additional possibility could be having most bus services to the city continuing from the central bus station to a new bus station at the railway station. Services from Brockworth and other eastern areas of the city would stop at this bus station on route to the center.
If a railway triangle station is not included in the regeneration and the area where a station should be built is instead used for other uses, then you may as well admit that Gloucester has no future with an endless future of poor rail services.
Posted on 28/Jun/2008
My only concern, is that I sincerely hope that these plans are not put in jeopardy by the renewed calls for a train station? From what I understand this development (LXB) is planned for the northern section of the site, if a station was to be forthcoming, could this be built within the remaining site. Slightly concerned by the confusion of what is happening or not!
Posted on 19/May/2008
We could rebuild the Gloucester eastgate loop track and station, in a tunnel to get around sections that have been built over.
Or we could keep the current station for services from wales and built a new main line station on the triangle for trains to Birmingham, London, bristol etc. We could have a shuttle between here and central station. This arrangement has worked for other cities which have two main stations eg. Cardiff- Queen street and Central or Bichester- town and north.
We could also as has been suggested many times on this page make the line 4 tracks and run commuter trains using the extra capacity, this could stop at both the redeveloped triangle and the center, plus serve Cheltenham and Gloucester suburbs and maybe some Gloucestershire towns and villages such as the five valleys, Haresfield, Bishops Cleeve, Ashchurch, Charfield, Wickwar and possibly even the forest.
This would give the potential also to provide some shuttle services to serve some new/existing park and ride sites at Quedgeley, Highnam / minsterworth for the forest and maybe even elmbridge court.
But we don't want to lose the central station yet, even if its just used for services from south wales.
Posted on 18/May/2008
Any new Station for Gloucester must be in the Barnwood Triangle. Gloucester Parkway would almost certainly lead to the closure of Cheltenham Station. I would like to see four tracks re-instated between Tuffley and Standish Junctions. This would help increase capacity and improve reliability by reducing conflicting movements between Swindon/Bristol Traffic. Four tracks between Barnwood and Cheltenham would serve a similar purpose and allow a shuttle service serving a re-opened Churchdown station and a new Park & Ride Station at Quedgely. A link from the Station to the City Centre should be provided, either by a Parry People Mover to a small platform at the present site (as with Stourbridge Junction to Town), or ideally a Light Rail System linking the Station, Bus Station, City Centre and other parts of the City.
Given that the oppourtunity to relocate the current cramped station at Cheltenham alittle further north at the lower High Street site (providing extra car parking/terminating platforms), is there any chance of re-laying track to the St James area?
As a Freeman of the City of Gloucester, I look forward to the day when we have a Transport Policy/System we can all be proud of. Given that the a Station at Barnwood was first proposed in the 1930s, I fear I won't live long enough to see it!
Posted on 9/May/2008
Posted on 4/Apr/2008
If the hunts grove development in Hardwicke goes ahead, the service could be extended to there.
I also would like to see trans and/or light rail services around the central and inner city areas to get people out of their cars. Or why don't we go big and build a proper metro system!
Posted on 31/Jan/2008
Posted on 31/Jan/2008
Possibly sources of money could be from the sale of the railway triangle or from contributions from all the housebuilders developing Kingsway. If £1 billion is being invested in this great city, surely some money could be found for a visionary scheme such as this.
Posted on 31/Dec/2007
Further to my earlier comments, the design plans for ITEC create a huge expanse of tarmac, covering many acres, for the many thousands of car parking spaces, buildings etc.
I wonder if anyone has given any consideration to run off rainwater?
If we suffer from another deluge of rainwater, as was experienced during last summer, also bearing in mind ITEC would be situated at the base of Chosen hill, where would this water go?
Sorry increased drainage does not work, anyone who witnesses the recent flooding in Gloucester, would have seen rainwater being driven up through the drains, not down them. Any additional rainwater from the proposed ITEC would simply have nowhere to go, except run off into the neighbouring areas.
Posted on 16/Dec/2007
Posted on 12/Dec/2007
Posted on 30/Nov/2007
Look at how many shoppers use Birmingham New Street to get to the Bullring (within walking distance). Many of them wouldn’t bother if they had to do some sort of park and ride system from a suburban station. There’s no point doing all this retail development in Gloucester if we’re not going to serve it properly by train.
Also, we should be discouraging people to make car journeys – an out-of-town station will encourage more car use.
Another suggestion – we should have more suburban rail stations for local services, eg a stop at Quedgeley/Kingsway .
Please don’t mess this up – get the station near town.
Posted on 26/Nov/2007
I personally believe the proposed ITEC at Elmbridge Court is an ill-conceived plan, which I personally believe will bring total gridlock and increased pollution to the Longlevens and Elmbridge area.
The whole problem seems to stem from the Strategic Railway Authority’s new timetable, of four minutes per station and that trains calling at Gloucester were not conforming to this, as it required the train to be reversed back out of the station.
My first point is a simple and obvious one, just alter the timetable and make an allowance for trains calling at Gloucester. After all, on a journey that is going to take many hours, what difference is a few extra minutes going to make? Gloucester station itself has had a recent face-lift and if my memory serves me correct has the longest platform in the UK, so terms of additional investment requires none. It is one of the few stations in the UK that is located right in the middle of the City/town for which it serves. Further more it is situated right beside the local bus station, which makes the train station ready accessible from anywhere in the county, let alone the city, in one simple bus journey. There is an excellent safe cycle network, which again due to its central location is ideal for this user group from anywhere in the city. If this is not environmentally and user friendly I don’t know what is?
So why not use the Barnwood triangle? It is after all a brown field site already owned by SRA, attracting subsidies from the government, still relatively close to the city centre, bus station and gets around the all-important issue of four minutes. The use of the proposed green field site when this brown field site is suitable and available is a travesty beyond compare. I’m sure this development would act as a catalyst for development on this side of Chosen Hill, which if the new fire station is approved could eventually set a precedent for future planning consent in the green belt, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. I understand at one stage this site was considered for a proposed new stadium for Gloucester Rugby club, but since the club has now constructed a new stand this obviously is no longer the case.
What really concerns me is the lack of any consultation with not only the local Councillors, but also with the local residents. According to the publication material these consultations have been going on for some 2 years. Sorry but I’m not aware of any communications from these planning bodies with regard to these proposals, or perhaps we are considered irrelevant by the County Council, South West Regional Assembly and the Strategic Railway Authority, all of whom I presume are the driving forces.
It is interesting how much Cheltenham Councillors are concerned with the ITEC at Elmbridge Court, having read their comments I can see why. Cheltenham station it appears has the highest volume of users in the region (of which 20% walk to this station) the design of the existing station already affects the frequency of trains stopping here and if the ITEC were to be built, it would have a further affect. As the SRA appears reluctant to invest in Cheltenham Station, could there be a more surreptitious aim of closing both Cheltenham and Gloucester stations with both communities then being served by the ITEC at Elmbridge Court, with just one stop for Virgin trains. The consequence of this increase in traffic on this area, as Cheltenham serves 1.14 million users per annum and the projected figures for ITEC is 42,000 per annum, does not bare thinking about. This whole project is quite seemly being driven by money, not by environmental concerns or access for the users; both issues to my mind are being used as a smoke screen.
The proposed Bus lanes would be another smoke screen; the car traffic in this area does not necessarily originate from the City, but from the trunk road network around the city itself. Putting bus lanes on these trunk roads would prove a huge bottleneck, as two lanes of traffic would now be trying to converge into one. You only need to travel towards London on the M4 to see the result, two lanes of stationary traffic and an empty bus lane. So question is why is the bus lane empty, quite simply because the bus is held up in traffic trying to converge into the two lanes! Like myself I’m sure there are many local people who already sit in the existing congestion in and around Walls, C&G and Elmbridge Court roundabouts, to remove one lane for use as a bus lane can only add to the problem, not solve it. I’m sure this will cause drivers to take a detours via, either along Cheltenham Road, or Elmbridge Road, possibly also Nine Elms, there by creating rat runs to avoid the resulting congestion on these roundabouts. I’m sure if we are not careful, all that will result is a huge gridlock!
I spoke several years ago with an official from the City Highways department, when there was proposals put forward to make Elmbridge road a Cul-de-Sac, I was told Barnwood Road was nearly running at full capacity then. I presuming after those preceding years it must now be running at or very near its full capacity, how on earth could it cope with that capacity halved, with the introduction of the bus lanes?
My next point is regarding the level of users of the from Gloucester using the railway in relation to the disruptions to local residents, road users and huge level of cost, when the railway itself is running at near capacity between Birmingham and Bristol. My last journey on a train was between Gloucester and Birmingham a few years back, were I spent the entire journey stood up in a crowded carriage, lets say for arguments sake there is a massive uptake of rail travel, how are they going to cope with these additional numbers? Will this require a massive investment to increase rail capacity through out the network in this region, causing yet more disruption to many thousands of people, time will tell I suppose on this point.
Posted on 24/Nov/2007
Posted on 9/Nov/2007
If a Parkway station is to be built please market/use it as an addition and not as justification for Cross Country trains to continue bypassing the city. When the Virgin XC franchise decided to delete Gloucester from its map in an insulting attempt to try and make punctuation figures add up questions should have been asked as to why these same services had ‘recovery time’ written into the timetables meaning they stood at Birmingham New Street for up to 25 Minutes, time which have been spent serving the county town. With the end of Virgin Cross Country now thankfully just around the corner surely its time for Gloucester’s MP to campaign for the new franchise holder, Arriva, to reintroduce a respectable and usable service to the city.
Posted on 3/Nov/2007
Gloucester is in dire need of boldness and imagination to really make a statement. I'm still not convinced we have the right people to take it forward in the 21st century. We still seem to be copying things from the 80s and 90s. Do the words 'style' and 'contemporary' ever feature in any plans?
Posted on 25/Oct/2007
Also, presumably, the actual lines at the triangle will still be required, so the amount to sell off is limited, plus the huge expense of a new station.
The answer is there right in front of our eyes. Look at the plan, and just imagine a station at the top right of the triangle, that is a 'dart' shape, that covers both lines. A tram service from the town or old station could run continuously up and down to the new station, and any spare land can still be sold off to developers, though not for shops, please, there will be enough of those soon.
Posted on 24/Oct/2007
Posted on 18/Oct/2007
A modern, contemporary station with a big sweeping steel, glass and concrete structure like some of the newer aiport terminals is what we need. Businesses and companies should be using Gloucester for conferences and meetings because of its fantastic location and ease of access. This is the market the city should also be aiming at. Gloucester is easy to get to from the Midlands, London, South West and South Wales but is not making the most of it because there are no facilities for business customers. How about a conference centre next to the station?
Posted on 8/Oct/2007
At present, Gloucester is a very sad and run down city, it needs new business to invest here and communication is absolutely key to this. Please lets everyone think more broadly and understand what attracts new business to a run down area!
Kindest Rgds
Karran
Posted on 3/Aug/2007
Secondly it's a green field site. The design looks very tacky lacking in total imagination. A glorified bus shelter surrounded by cheap tarmac. Who wants another cheapy, tacky Bristol or Didcot Parkway miles from anywhere if you're stuck there?
Finally, the main reason for the station is to stop trains backing out of Gloucester. Trains only by-pass Gloucester because they can. If the station stayed where it was and the original line just passed straight through when it was built we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.
How about spending the money on improving Gloucester station. It is a complete embarrassment and whoever is responsible for its upkeep should be publicly humilated. In equally drab King's Square.
Posted on 18/Jul/2007
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Posted on 10/Apr/2007