Letter: Station Redevelopment Does Not Comply With Transport Strategy

Published on: 28 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 28 Oct, 2019

Click on image for the Transport for the South East website

From Alistair Smith

chair of the Guildford Society

Transport for South East has just issued a draft Strategy on Transport for the region up to 2050.

Key proposals include enhancing the services on the North Downs Line, including extra Cross Country Services and the Southern Link to Heathrow Airport (planned to run from Guildford).

The Solum Development, with a 100-year life, is being built on the basis it won’t constrain rail operations up to the year 2034 just 9 years after the completion of the scheme. Transport for South East is now proposing significant extra train services over the next 25 years.

The scheme starting this week fails on mass and scale, placemaking, as a transport interchange, and constrains rail growth by stopping new platforms on the east side of the station.

It is a major failure that the planning system has not properly responded to the opportunities presented by a major transport interchange servicing a key town, five rail routes, accessing two major airports (Gatwick already, Heathrow in future), near the strategic road network and providing a site for an innovative and exciting development.

A case of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing?

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