The Anonymous Widower

East West Rail Plan For 900 Bedford Parking Spaces

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.

This is the sub-heading.

Plans for 900 new parking spaces across three car parks in Bedford have been proposed as part of the East West Rail (EWR) project

These two paragraphs add more detail.

East West Rail Company (EWR Co) said 70% of the spaces would be to the east of Bedford station in a six-storey car park and a surface car park, both on Ashburnham Road.

The remaining spaces would be in a car park off Ford End Road.

My first reaction is borrowed from the incomparable John McEnroe and is “You cannot be serious!”, as why would the East West Rail Company need car parks, when they aren’t running trains, due to union opposition.

This Google Map shows the location of Bedford’s two stations and the proposed new car parks.

Note.

  1. Bedford station is in North-West corner on the map.
  2. Bedford station is served by Thameslink and Midland Main Line services.
  3. Ashburham Road, where two car parks will be located, is to the East of the station.
  4. Ford End Road, where the other car park will be located, is to the South of the station.
  5. Bedford train depot is also South of the station.
  6. Bedford St. John’s station is in South-East corner on the map.
  7. Bedford Hospital is t the West of Bedford St. John’s station.

Does Bedford have a planning problem because of the River Great Ouse running through the middle?

The BBC article does have an, impressionist-style visualisation of the Ashburham Road car park.

Will the actual car park be as tasteful?

 

 

 

October 1, 2026 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Could A Highview Power CRYOBattery Be Mounted On An Offshore Platform?

In the early days of North Sea Oil and Gas, I was asked to help two Cambridge University engineering professors, with the mathematics and some of the problems, they were having with a revolutionary design of oil or gas platform.

I was convinced it would have worked, but sadly they were unable to sell the design to even a single customer and the company folded.

I have been following a company called Highview power and their CRYOBatteries, which store electricity as liquid air.

I just wonder, if the Cambridge design could be adapted to hold say a 50MW/300 MWh CRYOBattery, which could then be erected alongside the wind turbines in a wind farm.

This battery would then smooth the output of the wind farm.

October 1, 2026 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , | Leave a comment