Regional news

Find out what’s been happening on the rail network in your area

WESTERN

Bristol: The site of the old Bath Road diesel depot, next to Temple Meads station, is now earmarked for three tower blocks for the University Campus. This follows the abandonment of earlier plans to turn it into a theatre.

Newquay: The branch had to be closed at the end of October, so that Balfour Beatty contractors could attend to subsidence between St Blazey and Prideaux Viaduct. A replacement bus service to St Austell was provided.

Tetbury: The GWR goods shed has been converted into a thriving community centre, exhibition hall and theatre. The building became derelict after a serious fire in 1995, but has been restored at a cost of around £ 500,000. It is close to the public footpath and cycleway that will eventually run over the full length of the former trackbed to Kemble ( closed in 1964).

EASTERN

Fellgate: Shuttle buses to the Tyne & Wear Metro station have been promised by the developer seeking permission to build an initial 600 new homes at Laverick Park ( and eventually five times that number). South Tyneside Council is considering the application.

Hartlepool: The station is getting a new waiting room and better seating.

Sunderland: The station is getting a cosmetic refresh of the main concourse, and new staff accommodation to provide a greater level of Grand Central presence. The city council has announced that it would like to see it completely replaced.

MIDLANDS

Leighton Buzzard: Tracklaying has begun on the Leighton Buzzard Railway’s new half- mile extension, which should open in early 2021.

Stechford: The £ 3.9 million station reconstruction is on target for completion at the end of the year. The footbridge and lifts were installed during October, and the new waiting shelter is being built.

NORTH WEST

Brampton: The Carlisle- Newcastle line station has been adopted by the children of Lanercost Primary School, following a visit to the Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership Office in Haltwhistle to learn about rail safety. They designed a mosaic that hangs in the waiting room.

Golborne: A petition has been started calling for the re- establishment of Golborne South on the West Coast Main Line, possibly linked to the Leigh guided busway.

Levenshulme: The Railway Heritage Trust has awarded a second grant to Levenshulme South station, this time towards interior works. Its new role is as a cycle hub and community cafe.

Liverpool: Liverpool Football Club says it will be able to expand its facilities to host more music concerts if a station close to the ground is approved. It is part of a grander scheme to extend the Anfield Road end of the stadium by 4,000 seats.

Wigan: The Lancashire Union Railway’s direct route to Blackburn via Chorley, one of the principal lines in the area not to survive, would have been 150 years old on December 1. Absorbed into the Lancashire & Yorkshire company, it closed to passengers in January 1960, and entirely in stages between 1966-71.

SOUTHERN

Bursledon: Most of the assets from the disbanded Hampshire Narrow Gauge Trust operation at the brickwork museum, closed at the end of the summer, have been transferred to the Hampton & Kempton Waterworks site in west London.

Edenbridge: The station upgrade has been completed. Most of the £ 500,000 has been spent on resurfacing the platforms and reducing access steps.

Wareham: Network Rail has run into opposition to its plans to replace the station’s level crossing with

a footbridge.

Welborne: Fareham Council has approved in principle a 6,000- home garden village, and also reserved land for a new station on the Eastleigh line between the town and Knowle.

ANGLIA

Cambridge: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough elected mayor James Palmer says the urgently needed Cambridge South station to serve Addenbrooke’s Hospital must be financed locally. Otherwise, it will not open until 2027, when the government- financed East West Rail is completed.

Harlow: Greater Anglia’s Grade 2- listed Harlow Town station has been spruced up with new coloured canopy fascias, as originally intended when it was opened in 1959- 60 to serve the new town.

Manningtree: The station car park is being extended. Wickham Bishops: England’s oldest surviving timber trestle bridge, which carried the BraintreeMaldon branch until 1966, has been placed on Historic England’s Buildings at Risk list. This is despite heavy repairs having been carried out in the 1990s.

SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: Regional transport body NESTRANS has committed £ 80,000 to a survey to investigate new stations on the south side of the city, including at Cove and Altens.

Alford: A volunteer group is trying to revive the narrow- gauge Alford Valley Railway on the former GNoSR branch from Kintore, which was officially closed in April on safety grounds ( public services ended two years earlier). Aberdeenshire Council has offered its support to turn it into a community project.

Insch: Attempts are being made to improve North East Scotland’s only station without step-free access to both platforms.

Inverurie: An amateur dramatics production is to be staged between December 7- 9 to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Great North of Scotland locomotive works. The plant is still honoured in the name of the town’s Highland League football club.

Kelso: The town has been pressing for five years now for a link to the Borders Railway ( at St Boswells) if it is ever extended southwards. Apart from the station site, much of the original alignment of the route from Berwick ( closed between 1965- 68) is still intact.

WALES

Bala: Five hundred yards of rails have arrived, for a start to be made on the Bala Lake Railway’s £ 2.5 million extension into the town centre. Land acquisition continues, as well as planning to allow the widening of a bridge over the River Dee and installation of a level crossing.

Corris: The Corris Railway needs £48,000 to construct a new terminus on the site of the original, which was demolished in 1968. The present headshunt will also be replaced by a run- round loop.

Corwen: The connection was laid into the Llangollen Railway’s new terminus at the end of October.

LONDON

London Bridge: Although only 50 years old, the concrete office block that includes a busy covered walkway from the station to the river is to be demolished. The grim- looking Colechurch House has been under threat of redevelopment since the mid-1990s.

Wapping: The service through the Thames

Tunnel to New Cross Gate began 150 years ago on December 7. It followed the conversion of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 1,300ft tunnel for horse- drawn vehicles. When built in 1825- 43, it was the first such structure under a navigable river and was taken by the East London Railway. It is now part of the Overground network.