So it’s some relief that we now have a date for the opening of our new station. Forgive me for starting so negative but will this date happen?
Time will tell but one thing is for sure: it’s not 2014, the original opening date. It feels like a lifetime since we were told we were getting our new station.
While it’s obvious there have been many challenges, there has also been a distinct lack of information forthcoming from all parties involved in the planning and construction of the station.
Let’s hope we are now past all that and we will be catching trains again from Ilkeston very soon.
Four years on from the 2013 announcement that trains will be returning to Ilkeston it seems impossible to believe we are still waiting for it to open.
How will it change life in Ilkeston? We will see.
Who will use it and for what? Commuting to Nottingham or Sheffield are the obvious journeys you would expect but what else would people use the station for?
Shopping? Socialising? As a first step on longer journeys? I guess all are possible and likely but will they make enough journeys to keep the station viable.
As far as putting Ilkeston on the map as a place to do business I find this hard to believe. Why would any business choose Ilkeston now just because it has a train station?
Maybe I am looking at this too literally but the link feels to tenuous when there are big cities less than ten miles away. There will be peripheral benefits I am sure: a more attractive place to live for instance, but I see that as a benefit of access outwards rather than inwards.
We have to ask our local authorities what is being done to make the most of the new development. It’s not close to the town centre, so will provision be made for free transport from the market place to the station?
Will onsite parking be charged for? I suspect so, and if this is the case will it remove any financial incentive to use the rail network rather than our overly congested road network into Nottingham?
I regularly cycle to Nottingham for work, but the station will give me another option when this isn’t available due to weather or other reasons. I hate the fact it takes between 45 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes to drive in to Nottingham during rush hour, and then you have to pay around £4 to park all day.
The bus isn’t much better with respect to duration – actually worse when you add on the walking at each end of the journey – so will the train tempt me on the days that I don’t cycle? Well I hope so, but that will depend largely on pricing.
So will the station be a success? It would be a travesty that the station doesn’t succeed because of an attempt to recoup the “cost” through high train fares or parking prices. We will see what happens but clearly we have a very relevant comparison in Long Eaton.
Currently it’s £4.70 return to Nottingham from Long Eaton when bought on the day through the trainline.com website. Same journey time, same county as Ilkeston, same type of train. It would be difficult to argue with those comparisons..
The Cycling Commuter