Regional News

WESTERN

Charfield: A new attempt is to be made to reopen the South Gloucestershire main line station as part of the MetroWest system, following approval of a £ 300,000 business case study. Closely linked is another £ 200,000 worth of research into two bypass roads linking Coalpit Heath with Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell with Winterbourne.

Chilcompton: Reconstruction of the former Somerset & Dorset main line station has been ruled out, after opposition from local residents concerned about the invasion of their privacy.

Gloucester: Plans for the station include a new underpass and a redesigned forecourt. However, the £ 3.75 million required for the work will not be available until April 2020.

Shepton Mallet: Mendip District Council has allocated £ 320,000 towards developing a business case for a parkway station. The current nearest railhead is at Castle Cary, more than seven miles away.

EASTERN

Newcastle: A new western entrance at Central station is a key feature of a £ 5.2 million upgrade announced on February 16, and work could start this year. A multi- storey car park is planned on the old Forth goods yard by 2023, probably financed by the sale of some of the site for new homes and offices.

Richmond: Conversion to a shopping centre has safeguarded the North Eastern Railway terminus, which lost its passenger services from Darlington 50 years ago on March 3. The track was cut back to Catterick Bridge.

Tynemouth: Tyne & Wear Metro services between Wallsend and Monks Eaton were due to be suspended over the weekends of March 2/ 3 and 9/10, to allow the £ 2.5 million replacement of the life- expired bridge in Beach Road, and also at Burnside Road ( Cullercoats).

MIDLANDS

Kirkby- in- Ashfield: Ashfield District Council is pressing for the introduction of a full passenger service to Nottingham via Pinxton, Selston and Langley Mill.

Stratford- upon- Avon: The station is in line for £1.5 million worth of improvements that include new waiting and seating areas, and better shops.

Tring: The Hertfordshire station is receiving a new footbridge and new lifts to serve all five platforms, at a total cost of £4.5 million.

NORTH WEST

Blackpool: Work is now advanced on the tramway extension to Blackpool North station, with the installation of overhead poles taking place in early February and a start made on the single- platform stop in Talbot Square.

Bootle: The closure of the Liverpool-Southport line from February 18-22, for station platform improvements, provided an opportunity to renew a bridge over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

Bury: Manchester Metrolink T68 tram 1003, withdrawn in November 2013 and now owned by the Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service for training exercises, was employed on February 15 in a simulation of a collision with a heavy lorry, with several people ‘dead and injured’.

Fleetwood: Lancashire’s Labour Group is calling for cross- party support to re- establish the town’s passenger rail link, as well as reopening Coppull and Midge Hall stations, for which studies have already been carried out. However, Network Rail contends that reconfiguring the track layout on the West Coast Main Line would be prohibitively expensive.

Little Sutton: The Railway Heritage Trust has awarded a small grant to investigate restoration of the Merseyrail station.

Liverpool: Three stone platform slabs from the original 1836 Liverpool Lime Street station, uncovered during the recent £140 million upgrade, have been put on display on platforms 1, 3 and 5.

Manchester: The sum of £18 million will need to be

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SOUTHERN

Chertsey: This year marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the ( Grade 2- listed) station by the LSWR, on the extension to Virginia Water and Reading.

Gatwick Airport: Wider platforms, improved entrances and new lifts have been priorities for discussion by Crawley Council.

Herne Hill: Local residents are being asked to come up with ideas for using the station’s disused grand upstairs waiting room, which may become a community centre.

ANGLIA

Great Yarmouth: The town’s ambition to be the terminus of long- distance services from Stansted Airport has been thwarted by Abellio Greater Anglia, which is planning to run as far as Norwich as part of its franchise commitment, but no further until at least 2025. Lowestoft: New tenants are being actively sought for unused parts of Central station. Rooms unused since the 1970s, and the former buffet and bar building, have been stabilised with a Railway Heritage Trust grant.

Saxmundham: A £ 58,000 grant has been confirmed by the Railway Heritage Trust towards the cost of replacing the original Francis Thompson building, which was destroyed by arson in February 2018.

SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: Further station improvements planned include new glass wall panelling and more shops.

Dumfries: A local community group is helping to renovate rooms at the station, to turn them over to community use.

Glasgow: The city council is considering selling off the freehold of the Riverside Museum, which holds many transport exhibits including locomotives, and leasing the building back. It is desperate to raise £ 500 million, and this will be a contribution.

Stirling: A listed building application has been submitted to restore the station’s entrance canopy to its original size and condition.

Stonehaven: Aberdeenshire Council has thrown out ScotRail’s station improvement plans. It considers they are insufficient for passengers and do not respect the main building’s Grade B- listed status.

Thurso: Network Rail says there were 40 defects on the 6½ miles of track it renewed to Georgemas Junction, as part of its £11 million renewals on the Far North Line over the past two and half years. A total of 36 miles of rail was replaced along the route.

WALES

Abertillery: Cost of a new light rail or busway link from the Ebbw Vale Line at Aberbeeg has been estimated at around £12 million. Two services an hour to Newport are intended by 2021.

Capel Celyn: An unofficial mural on a wall next to the former Bala- Blaenau Ffestiniog line has been restored, following an attack by vandals. It commemorated the flooding of the trackbed in 1965, for a reservoir to meet the needs of Liverpool.

Cardiff: An overhaul of Central station’s clock tower has revealed that the structure was initially only intended to be a ventilation shaft, and only later had four faces built into it. GWR drawings dating back to 1933 also show that the gloomy booking hall roof was intended to be clear- glazed, and was only later slated over.

Felindre: Following a meeting with local councillors on February 7, Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns says he is committed in principle to establishing a new £ 20 million Swansea Parkway station at junction 46 of the M4 motorway.

Pontypool & New Inn: The proposed new housing development at Mamhilad is seen to justify creating a park and ride facility at the station, with parking for 200 cars.