Rail Minister Wendy Morton reveals that the reopening of the Ivanhoe line for passenger services has received approval to move on to the next stage.
The Rail Minister announced her support for 10 proposals which could see closed passenger lines reopen in England, one of which is the railway from Burton to Leicester which was put forward by The Campaign to Reopen the Ivanhoe Line (CRIL).
Network Rail will be providing funding to support the next stage of development work alongside CRIL and will be released in stages as the work is assessed and as it moves forward, supporting decisions for ongoing development and creating a full Outline Business Case with the decision to proceed with implementation.
The Department for Transport will work alongside CRIL and Network Rail as the scheme progresses and are in touch with Douglas McLay and Bruce Wakely of CRIL in regard to the next stages.
Wendy Morton said:
“The Department's assessment considered the strategic and economic case presented, deliverability of the scheme and infrastructure requirements, with a focus on the transport issue and strength of the case
for intervention. This scheme presents significant potential to improve connectivity for communities along the route of the Ivanhoe Line and I look forward to seeing it progress.”
CRIL Spokesman Douglas McLay said
“We are delighted with this announcement which brings the re-opening of the Ivanhoe Line much closer. Passenger services on the Line would provide real value for the relatively modest government investment needed. The reopening of this railway would give a real boost to the often forgotten populations of South Derbyshire and Northwest Leicestershire. We look forward to working closely with the Department for Transport and Network Rail to deliver a railway service which meets the needs of local people”
CRIL was created by the late Geoff Bushell in 2019, who tirelessly raised awareness and support in a bid to see the reopening of the Ivanhoe Line. Geoff gained public support for all nine first and second-tier local authorities on the line alongside all local MPs who all support the campaign.
If the Ivanhoe line joined up or became a tram line with Nottingham and onward too east midland airport and east midland parkway it would be even more favourable to Derby , Leicester and Nottingham.
That would be good to see Ivanhoe Line reopened to the public and East Midlands Railway to operate between Leicester and Burton-on-Trent with new stations added.
Instead of all the faffing, why don’t they get on and open it? The need is clearly there. The only thing that all the messing about will achieve will be to triple the cost.
they need to rebiuld several stations such as Coalville (Town) the station on this line it’s platforms where Demolished as early as 1965, the station simply don’t exist this and there moaning about it getting in the way Financaly with HS2 aswell
Someone with the ability to use networking principles could also re-instate the Walsall to Lichfield line and run a Shrewsbury to Leicester service that could connect with major North-South and North-East to Southwest services avoiding that dank hole of New Street and linking major towns including Walsall, Lichfield and Burton on Trent that are unreasonably disconnected by rail
I frequently travel from Shrewsbury to Lichfield. I invariably travel by car. Being able to get a train from Shrewsbury directly to Lichfield via Walsall would be brilliant.