Wendy Morton, Rail Minister, has announced funding worth £15m to develop 9 Restoring Your Railway schemes, aiming to reopen disused lines and stations.
The Restoring Your Railway scheme has already seen success after the Dartmoor Line was reopened, with communities now connected thanks to the rail services by Great Western Railway.
This new round of funding will see the continuation of early-stage development of the projects.
The schemes receiving funding are:
- Aldridge station and line upgrade in Walsall
- The Barrow Hill Line between Sheffield and Chesterfield
- The Ivanhoe Line between Leicester and Burton on Trent
- Meir Station between Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire
- Haxby Station on the York to Scarborough Line
- Reinstating the Fleetwood Railway Line
- Ferryhill Station in County Durham
- The Mid Cornwall Metro, connecting Newquay, Truro and Falmouth
- Devizes Station between Pewsey and Westbury in Wiltshire
Rail Minister Wendy Morton said: “This funding will reconnect communities long cut off from the railway.
“The last time you could catch a train from Haxby Station was 1930, George V was on the throne and The Times had just published their first-ever crossword. But now, thanks to this funding, communities across England could be reconnected to our railways once more.”
“This fund is a great example of how we are committed to helping communities across the country level up and reconnect people and businesses to new opportunities.”
Nothing in the west country ,oakhampton to bere alston stil closed despte dawlish always being flooded wake up network fail
Don’t hold your breathe to see any of these schemes come to fruitition any time soon! Reopening of the line to Portishead in Somerset was announced back in 1988 but work has still not commenced even though the funding is in place and this is a priority to reduce the severe traffic congestion. The procedures for reopening closed railways are much too complicated (and hugely expensive) and need to be streamlined.
I think it’s about time that Fleetwood in Lancashire should have it’s own railway line and railway station back. And with the new line to be electrified and a new station to serve Fleetwood.
What about Lichfield to Burton/Derby?
I was thinking about electrification from Lichfield Trent Valley to Burton-on-Trent but I don’t think it will ever happen.
Not a mention again of the colne to Skipton.,
I believe that Colne- Skipton is in a different category as funding for development of a business case was announced some time ago.