MP steps up fight for Robin Hood Line extension
GOVERNMENT has been urged to release more than £20 million worth of funding for a proposed extension of the Robin Hood Line across north Nottinghamshire.
Under plans first drawn up by Nottinghamshire County Council in 2009, the existing line from Nottingham to Worksop could be extended to Ollerton by reopening an eight-mile stretch of a former freight-only branch from Shirebrook Junction.
High-level talks began in February 2016, in a meeting brokered by Sherwood MP Mark Spencer between NCC Leader Alan Rhodes and former Rail Minister Claire Perry. But they now appear to have broken down following last year’s unexpected General Election.
Speaking exclusively to RAIL, Spencer said: “My plan was to help deliver this before the 2020 election, but of course the Prime Minister decided that we were going to have a snap General Election. I suppose that has given me two more years to deliver it, but I feel like there has been a lot of warm words, but not many new trains on the track.
“All I can do is keep banging the drum, until it’s easier for [Secretary of State for Transport] Chris Grayling to give me a new railway line rather than putting up with my moaning. Everyone thinks this is a good idea, and it’s just a case of pulling all those threads together and making sure we do it.”
NCC’s proposal is to use part of the former Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast railway that ran between Chesterfield and Lincoln until its closure to passengers in 1955. The line was retained from Shirebrook Junction to High Marnham until the decommissioning of High Marnham power station in 2003, and kept open to coal traffic until the closure of Thoresby Colliery in 2015.
The track has been kept fully maintained by Network Rail, in order to access its Rail Innovation & Development Centre near Tuxford, which was opened in 2009 to test engineering and on-track plant.
NCC reports that between 200915 it spent more than £200,000 to fund six pieces of development work and feasibility studies.
To take the project forward, it is now seeking an additional £2m from government to complete this development work, and then approximately £23m to fund the construction of stations at Ollerton, Edwinstowe and Warsop, to complete associated signalling and trackwork, and to make alterations to NR’s test track.
It says that an annual subsidy of approximately £1m would also be required to make an hourly service viable for the operator of the next East Midlands franchise [due to commence in August 2019].
According to Spencer, the lower-than-average house prices in Ollerton and the surrounding area of his constituency make private funding from developers an unlikely proposition.
The social value of the scheme remains high, however, due to its potential to help regenerate this part of the former Nottinghamshire coalfield.
He added: “Pound for pound it must be the cheapest new rail project anywhere in the country, and the lowest of low-hanging fruit. If we’re going to invest in rail anywhere in the country, then surely this is the right one to do?
“What I’m saying to the SoS is: why not just give me temporary stations and let’s road-test it to see how it works? This has to be government-led, so I also need the DfT to say that they’ll pumpprime this service for three years, and then it will be down to the community to support it and make the numbers stack up.
“I’m desperate to see improvement in rail services and public transport to help these communities aspire and to boost access to employment, and I’m hopeful that when the new franchise starts in 2019 that this will be included.”
The plan has also attracted the backing of campaign groups Railfuture and the Campaign for Better Transport, following the success of the existing Robin Hood Line (which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, having opened in stages between 1993-98).
Railfuture’s East Midlands branch Chairman Dr Ariadne Tampion told RAIL: “The track is there and we think services should be run on it as soon as the minimal additional infrastructure is in place. Of all the issues we are campaigning on, this one could be the closest to becoming a reality.”
CBT Chief Executive Stephen Joseph added: “The Robin Hood Line has helped demonstrate the contribution that railways can make to improving connectivity around cities and the economic development in an area hit by pit closures.
“There’s a strong case for the Ollerton extension linked to wider economic development plans in the area, but it may need national support to make it happen.”
“If we’re going to invest in rail anywhere in the country, then surely this is the right one to do?” Mark Spencer, Sherwood MP
■ See feature, RAIL 853.