Regional news

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

WESTERN

Bristol: A new southern entrance is being considered for Temple Meads station.

Cullompton: Mid- Devon Council has £ 68,000 available to prepare an outline business case for reopening the station, as well as nearby Wellington. But it will have to ask the Government for nearly twice as much again for the project to go forward.

Exmouth: The town’s popular seafront miniature railway is back in business.

Heathfield: Teignbridge Council is submitting an application for funding to investigate reopening the surviving four- mile southern section of the Newton Abbot- Moretonhampstead branch to passengers.

St Erth: Redundant materials from the station refurbishment have been offered to the Helston Railway.

Swindon: The borough council is planning to bring the sorry story of the Mechanics Institute to a happy conclusion by compulsorily purchasing the derelict Grade 2- listed building. The estimated cost for its restoration is £ 24 million.

EASTERN

Boston: Sleaford-Skegness services were suspended on March 22, after an unexploded wartime bomb was discovered beside the line at Sluice Bridge. It was successfully removed.

Doncaster: The main concourse is be fitted with art deco lighting, assisted by a £46,000 grant from the Railway Heritage Trust.

Pelaw: Double-tracking the three Tyne & Wear Metro bottlenecks to Bede will be possible following the Government’s promise to part-fund the Metro Flow with £ 95 million from the Transforming Cities Fund. This will provide extra capacity for 30,000 passengers a day, plus quicker recovery from major disruptions.

Sheffield: The Sheffield Supertram route could be diverted from its awkward position at the back of the station, to enable the alignment to be converted into an inner relief road. There would be new stops at Granville Square and Sheaf Square for tram users, and a better service to Sheffield Hallam University and the bus station. The works, to take place between 2026-33, would cost £1.5 billion.

Steeton & Silsden: Developers have set out a case for a second new 220- space station car park, in addition to the new multi- storey that has passed the planning stage. Most of the customers will be users of the nearby Airedale Hospital.

MIDLANDS

Bakewell: The Grade 2- listed Midland Railway building at Bakewell, most recently used for offices and which is on the Peak Railway’s Monsal Trail, is

for sale for £ 320,000. It comes with a ten- space car park.

Elstree & Borehamwood: A new 100- space cycle storage facility has cost £190,000.

Studley: Local councillors have objected to new housing which would have required the demolition of a former Redditch- Evesham line bridge that is used as a public footpath. The works would also need an embankment to be levelled.

NORTH WEST

Bury: Thieves stole brass and copper locomotive fittings from the East Lancashire Railway’s Baron Street workshops, within hours of it closing on March 20 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Hebden Bridge: The signal box is to be repainted prior to being handed over to a preservation group. The Railway Heritage Trust has offered £ 29,000 towards renewing the box gutter between the station and the canopy.

Heywood: A new link road has been provided to the East Lancashire Railway station, to save visitors having to negotiate congested local streets. Rochdale Borough Council has met the £100,000 cost.

Moorside: Only a month after completion of the modernisation of the Manchester- Wigan line station’s ticket office, a fire started in rubbish

bins has caused extensive damage estimated at £ 500,000. Passengers had to be diverted to Swinton for four weeks from February 17.

SOUTHERN

Clapham Junction: Network Rail is drawing up a ‘ Draft Strategic Outline Business Case’ for presentation to the DfT this summer. This may take into account two new entrances and a ticket hall for Crossrail 2. Kew Bridge: Better access to the station has been approved by the government.

Robertsbridge: A 65ft turntable recovered from Hither Green depot has been delivered to Rother Valley Railway.

ANGLIA

Cromer: Norfolk County Council’s application for the main M& GN station building to be granted Grade 2 listing has been turned down by Historic England. It was most recently a pub/ restaurant, and the Norfolk Community Rail Partnership would like to occupy it.

LONDON

Lewisham: A much greater role for the station is envisaged in the DfT’s decision to spend £ 5.5 million in design and development work. If the Bakerloo Line extension comes to fruition, business could double to 18,000 passengers in the morning peak, and that’s before factoring in a new connection with London Overground.

New Cross Gate: London Underground is pleased that proposals for a large housing development on the old Sainsbury’s site have been cancelled. It wants to use the site as its main construction base for its Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham, and later to build a new station there.

SCOTLAND

Banchory: Three miles of the former Great North of Scotland Railway Aberdeen- Ballater branch into the town is being prepared for tracklaying. The

Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society will have to replace the missing bridge over the Burn of Bennie, but the cost of its construction has already been sponsored.

Invergarry: The Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway is preparing for its first passenger operations, albeit only with a brake van at this stage. Construction of a signal box with a lever frame recovered from Tyndrum Upper is taking place, alongside track and platform work.

Kintore: The £14.5 million Inverness- Aberdeen line station and its 168- space car park are close to completion. The opening is scheduled for May 17.

RAPID TRANSIT HEADACHES

( years Items ago) from this column from 10, 20 and 30

Newcastle ( April 1990): Fare rises of up to 25% were implemented on the Tyne & Wear Metro - the third increase in 12 months.

■ North East commuters were being treated harshly, because the annual rate of inflation was only around 8%. Bristol ( April 2000): A light rail route through the city to Bristol Parkway station and Bradley

Stoke was envisaged by 2005. It simply awaited the government’s nod to commence construction work.

■ Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott did indeed give approval in 2001, but the £194 million scheme was cancelled three years later. There have been several new proposals since, but with little progress. Luton ( April 2010): Seven of the eight prospective parliamentary candidates for Luton and Dunstable opposed construction of the 7.2- mile guided busway between the two towns.

■ The projects still went ahead, taking over the route of the former railway which Network SouthEast had once earmarked for electrification as a commuter feeder direct to London. The build cost was £ 91m, some £40m over budget.