Object

Representation ID: 10507

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Catherine Tolmie

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

And one further comment. Is the further EWR rail line even necessary now? Rail travel is down by around 40% and no evidence that rail travel will ever recover to the same level. I had to go to London today for work and I have never seen business travel so quiet (even during the school holiday period).
The business I work for is on a 4/5 week office rotation (in the office once every 4 or 5 weeks for a week). I suspect that may come down to a 1 in 3 ratio but unlikely we will return to the office 100%. Apparently some council, public service and Government offices are in even less than that. Not honestly sure how they can work efficiently out of the office for such long periods (as well as training and mentoring the young in particular)but either way, train travel will be massively affected by these ratios.
So, there really is no need for the EWR Bedford to Cambridge route and this situation makes for even less evidence that it needs to go further North and cut through countryside. Existing stations and infrastructure should be used as otherwise the cost benefits are not even negligible they are absolutely negative.