Regional News

WESTERN

Abbey Wood: The temporary station building has been offered as a gift to anyone prepared to take it away.

Bristol: While suggestions of an underground public transport system for the city have been dismissed as unrealistic, the results of a feasibility study for a surface tramway are eagerly awaited.

Dawlish Warren: The new owners of the former Great Western Railway Association holiday park have applied to Teignbridge Council for planning permission to let out their eight converted coaches all year round.

Didcot: The Great Western Society took over the former Great Western steam depot 50 years ago last month, on November 4 1967. It transferred its headquarters from Taplow.

Kemble: Princess Anne has officially opened the new station car park. The £1.4 million scheme has provided 333 additional spaces, doubling the capacity.

Yatton: Spearhead fencing to the original Great Western design has been installed on the upside approach road to the station.

EASTERN

Cleethorpes: The central portion of the station building is being converted into a cycling facility.

Durham: Although it was only repaired in 199293, the roof over the former parcels office on the station’s northbound platform has had to be fixed again, at a cost of £ 92,000. It has suffered water damage, and will be reopened as a licensed bar.

Headingley: A new internal lift enables visitors to charity Sensory Leeds to access the upper floors for the first time in its three- year occupancy of the station building.

Leeds: The city council has opened public consultation on a £ 500 million redevelopment of the station area and its surroundings for shops, offices and restaurants.

Lincoln: Extensive repairs costing almost £1 million have been carried out this year on the roof of the 1848 station, including new leadwork, replacement slates and guttering, and stone works. Further internal restoration is now planned.

Morpeth: Next year, restoration of the Grade 2- listed 1847 George Hudson station should be complete, after almost a decade. Following roof repairs, the portico entrance is being reinstated with new business units and a cafe. The Railway Heritage Trust has given £ 250,000 towards the £1.7 million project. Newcastle: The latest five Tyne & Wear Metro stations being refurbished are all on the Airport line at Bank Foot, Callerton Parkway, Fawdon, Kingston Park and Wansbeck Road. Work started in October and will take six months.

South Shields: Construction of the new Metro and bus interchange within the £100 million town centre redevelopment will start in the spring.

MIDLANDS

Arley: A sizeable amount of rotten stonework has been replaced at the Severn Valley Railway station, to match the original outline.

Euston: The future of the four distinctive stone Time Benches, commissioned by BR from Canadian sculptor Paul de Monchaux for the 1990 Gateshead Garden Festival, has been secured by the Railway Heritage Trust. The information plaque has been restored, and poor repairs to one of the benches made good.

Ironbridge: The former power station at the end of the lengthy branch from Madeley Junction, decommissioned in 2015, has been named as a possible site for new housing. It covers 350 acres.

Market Harborough: The former goods shed has been demolished as part of the scheme to eliminate the tight curves on the Midland Main Line, and to make improvements to the station.

Wellington: The ambitions of the station’s friends group include bringing redundant buildings back into use and improvements to the approach road.

NORTH WEST

Helsby: Network Rail has surveyed and cleared out the near- derelict triangular island platform building with a view to returning it to use, possibly as a commercial let.

Lancaster: The £ 50,000 conversion of a small space on Platform 3 into a cafe has revealed an original ceiling of the 1852 Lancashire & Carlisle Railway building. Liverpool: Hamilton Square, which along with James Street is the oldest deep underground station in the world, is benefiting from £10,000 of Railway Heritage Trust support to refurbish the glazed frontage canopy, clean brickwork, restore windows, and clean up the frontage.

SOUTHERN

Guildford: The developer appealing against refusal of planning permission to build 438 homes, as part of the £150 million rebuilding of the station, claims that it is being discriminated against in an area where there is a desperate shortage of accommodation.

Longcross: New housing is being built on the former Ministry of Defence site, which until 2006 used to provide the South Western WaterlooReading line station with most of its business.

New Addington: A memorial service was held on November 11 for the seven victims of last year’s London Tramlink accident. A stone plinth has been erected at the crash site at Sandilands Junction.

ANGLIA

Beam Park: A new station has been proposed between Rainham and Dagenham Dock to serve the area once occupied by the Ford motor factory, which is now covered with new housing. Ely: The station has a new 128- space car park.

Ingatestone: Greater Anglia has been looking for a tenant for the main station house. The Up side platform building, until recently rented by a builders’ merchant, has been extensively restored with a facility for a cafe. There are ongoing discussions about whether it is possible to save the former crossing keeper’s house, which has been left in a sorry state. Total cost of the works carried out so far is £430,000.

Pitsea: Small improvements to the c2c station include a new platform shelter and secure cycle shed. Wolferton: The part of the Royal station on the former King’s Lynn- Hunstanton line that housed the ticket office has been on the market for £1.49 million. One of four properties that were created after the withdrawal of passenger services in 1969, it has five bedrooms and three bathrooms.

SCOTLAND

Blairhill: The North Lanarkshire station’s new ticket office and waiting area on the Glasgow- bound platform was officially opened on October 31.

Dumbarton: The Armed Forces Veterans Association has run out of space on the northern platform of the Grade A- listed Central station, and taken up another room for displays and storage. The cost of the restoration was £106,000.

Gorebridge: The former Borders Railway station house is to be converted into a cafe, gallery and office space.

Kintore: The Scottish Government has given approval for the compulsory purchase of land for the new Aberdeen- Inverness line station and car park. Its opening is now scheduled for December 2019, a year later than intended.

Newtongrange: The main station building is to be turned into a community centre.

WALES

Bala: Discussions are taking place with a local farmer to acquire the last 80 yards of trackbed needed to take the Bala Lake Railway into the town. Some 1,200 yards on the edge of the town’s rugby club have recently been acquired for £42,800, and approval has been given to demolish buildings on what will be the new terminus station site.