Plans to extend the historic steam Kent and East Sussex Railway (KESR) from Tenterden to join the main operating railway line at Robertsbridge are getting some people all steamed up – with two local Members of Parliament on opposite sides of the tracks apparently, and a Rother District Councillor seeming unable to get her facts right.
Tenterden (though in Kent) is not far up the road from Rye, and indeed there is a bus service which (when I lived in Rye Harbour) went right through to Tenterden, which had two decent supermarkets. As a result, while waiting for the bus back, I learned about the KESR.
And, as a newcomer, I took myself (as well as visiting family and friends) on the railway, stopping off both to visit Great Dixter gardens and Bodiam Castle – though we never took the opportunity to boat on the River Rother.
The KESR, like the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, was therefore part of the visitor experience in the Rye area – and the railway was infinitely preferable to apparent endless traffic jams on the A268.
Personally therefore I welcome the proposed extension of the KESR for a couple of miles into Robertsbridge to link up with the Rother Valley Railway and main line trains – particularly in light of recent bus service cuts. But check out KESR for yourself if you have not already.
KESR offerings in coming months include an ale and cider festival with bands and barbecue on June 15/16, a vintage bus rally with trips to local villages on Sunday June 24, and a Hop Festival weekend on September 8/9.
These are, of course, all weekends, not weekdays, and the railway used to cross the A21 with a level crossing in the past when it was a railway (dare I mention it) under public ownership.
Rother District Councillor (RDC) Sally-Ann Hart, of Perryfield House, Udimore, and apparently responsible for tourism on the RDC, said in a letter published recently: “The A21 begs for dualling, rather being made even worse by a level crossing which will disrupt traffic reportedly eight return journeys a day – that is twice per hour during a typical day.”
However the local Member of Parliament Huw Merriman has pointed out that when RDC gave planning permission for this they “put in place conditions regarding the A21 which included no trains to run at peak times between 7am and 9am and 5pm to 7pm Monday to Friday, including Bank Holidays.
“The maximum amount of services crossing the A21 (to and from Robertsbridge) would be around 10 a day between April and October,” he concluded.
So the level crossing (which used to exist)
- will only open and shut at most 10 times a day
- and not during the rush hours,
- and not for most of the winter months,
- and mainly at weekends,
- which is what happens now at the existing level crossings on the existing KESR line.
But Hastings and Rye MP Amber Rudd also has it in for level crossings. They can be dangerous, she said in a recent statement, have damaging environmental effects, cause congestion, limit tourists’ accessibility, and limit opportunities to achieve economic growth – and it was vital to get the dualling of the A21.
However no mention of the level crossings around Rye, and the need – since the1980s and before – for a bypass around Rye though the sheer volume of, and type of, traffic suggests a great deal of economic activity (somewhere).
Robertsbridge locals though might want to see some economic growth there now, and more than a few have drawn attention to an existing light-controlled pedestrian crossing near the proposed re-instated level crossing which closes the A21 daily (and at peak times) 10 times more than the steam trains will ever do.
But politicians tend to focus more on future promises (for which they can’t be held accountable) rather than present-day actions for which they might be held responsible.
In the meantime visitors provide much local employment and linking KESR to the main line may take more cars off the road while increasing the number of visitors – which might help Robertsbridge, and indeed Rye, today.
Photo: KESR
Am I alone in seeing a logical contradiction in Amber Rudd’s objection to a level crossing (which is designed to facilitate what would be a major tourist attraction) on the grounds that it might somehow ‘limit tourists’ accessibility’?
If nothing else, a connection to Robertsbridge would enable Londoners to use (what remains of) mainline rail services to access the KESR, something which they have been unable to do post-Beeching. That means fewer cars.
As for a local councillor preferring to see the A21 widened, I am not surprised. I recently overheard a local councillor (yes, I was earwigging) promise that Rye will be ‘unrecognisable’ in five years – this, apparently being due to something called ‘progress’, which is, we are told, ‘inevitable’. They appear to relish this prospect.
I do agree with everything Charles Harkness says about the proposed level crossing. I have not seen any difficulty with the far more frequently used level crossings at Battle, Shorham on sea, Chichester etc., all main line. I think Amber Rudd has been poorly advised. Maybe she thinks the duelling of other parts of the A21 will soon extend to the Robertsbridge roundabout?
Thanks to all the debate on BREXIT I doubt any further alterations to the road are in the political timeline.