Regional news

What‘s happening in your area?

WESTERN

Begbroke: Establishment of a new station is a declared long-term ambition for Oxfordshire County Council. This replaces earlier proposals for Kidlington, which have always been a problem because of the lack of land space for car parking and poor approach roads.

Cullompton: Devon County Council has secured development funding for reopening the station.

Edginswell: A new station in Torquay appears to be back on the agenda, following the Government’s latest confirmation of £ 7.8 million for Devon transport investment.

Wincanton: Soil and waste from a construction site is to be dumped into the Somerset & Dorset line cutting, with the approval of Somerset County Council. Almost a thousand tonnes were deposited there last year.

EASTERN

Dewley Hill: Newcastle City Council’s refusal of planning permission for a new coal mine is a major concern for the UK’s steam railways, which have warned that English supplies will run out in 2021, and in Wales the year after. They will then have to rely on imports, which means considerable extra costs at a time when all are cash- strapped.

Retford: The station has been awarded Grade 2- listed status, to safeguard the rare 20th century floor tiles uncovered in the refreshment and dining rooms.

Sheffield: January 5 marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant passenger service withdrawals of the decade, over the electrified Manchester-Sheffield route via Woodhead Tunnel. Sheffield Victoria station was a casualty of this decision.

MIDLANDS

Brent Cross: Although land has been earmarked for a West London Orbital Rail platform at the site of the new £40 million station ( where the first of

135 piles was installed during October), Transport for London may not be able to afford the £1.4m construction cost. It has been warned that it may cost many times that sum if it is added on after the station opens in 2022.

Finedon: The roof of an infilled tunnel that was part of old ironstone workings has subsided for a third time ( the last occasions were 1976 and 1980).

NORTH WEST

Blackpool: Completion of the demolition of the old Wilkinsons store during December clears the way to complete the tramway extension to Blackpool North station. It will be 2022 before services begin.

SOUTHERN

Compiled by Howard Johnston Carlisle: The latest £ 20 million tranche of station investment will pay for major improvements to the main concourse. Greater use will also be made of the southern entrance by bus services, and where a new 423- space car park will be laid out.

Keswick: The rail trail to Threlkeld has reopened five years after it was destroyed by Storm Desmond. At a cost of £ 7.9 million, two bridges have been replaced, the surface stabilised and improved, and a short extension opened through Bobbin Mill tunnel.

Swinton: The Greater Manchester Mayor’s Challenge Fund has been asked to contribute to the £ 5.7 million cost of upgrading the 4.3- mile Swinton Greenway. Some of it is laid on sections of the former LNWR Patricroft- Molyneaux Junction line.

Whitefield: The Manchester Metrolink station car park is to be almost trebled in size during 2021, with 123 new spaces. Nearby Radcliffe is to get an additional 111. Bramley: Proposals from the Wey & Arun Canal Trust to create 1,000 yards of new waterway towards Shalford requires the takeover of a section of the Downs Line path, which uses part of the former Guildford- Horsham line. The trust says the waterway works would not prevent any reopening.

Canterbury: The city council is the latest in a long

line of local authorities to suggest that a light rail system is the answer to severe road congestion, particularly on the ring road.

Robertsbridge: An estate of 96 new homes is under consideration for the ten- acre site of Hodson’s Mill, which lost its rail connection 50 years ago on January 1. The landmark main building is safeguarded by Grade 2- listing.

Weymouth: Two on- road cycle lanes have been installed in the Harbour area, following removal of the tramway tracks and resurfacing.

Woolston: The South Western Railway signal box will be protected by new railings and a gate, thanks to a contribution from the Railway Heritage Trust.

ANGLIA

Cambridge: Although the proposed rail freight terminal at Chesterton has not yet materialised, the aggregates sidings remain safeguarded in the 2020 local minerals and waste local plan.

Soham: Construction of the new Ipswich-Peterborough line station began just before the end of 2020, with a target of receiving its first services towards the close of 2021.

LONDON

South Kensington: The replacement of escalators means that Piccadilly Line trains will not call at the station from late February until early spring 2022. Circle and District Line services are not affected.

Uxbridge: An 82- year- old London Underground roundel, with the original design and lettering, has been restored and installed outside the Tube station.

SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: The Railway Heritage Trust has awarded an £ 80,000 grant towards restoration of the north corner station building on Guild Street Bridge.

Edinburgh: Colinton tunnel on the former Balerno branch ( closed in 1967 and now a footpath) has a 150- yard mural commemorating Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem A View From a Railway Carriage.

The artwork has taken two years to complete and cost almost £100,000.

Strathpeffer: An appeal has been launched to speed up conversion of the Peffery Way, an offcycle path and footpath on the alignment of the former Highland Railway route to Fodderty ( closed in March 1946), and then alongside the operational Kyle of Lochalsh line into Dingwall.

WALES

Colwyn Bay: The North Wales Main Line station’s canopies and footbridge have been repainted as part of the £1.1 million refurbishment programme.