Regional News

WESTERN

Exeter: An extension has been added to the station footbridge, to access the new rolling stock maintenance depot.

Teignmouth: A rediscovered 100- year- old clock has been repaired and installed in the ticket hall.

Washford: The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust is negotiating to stay at the West Somerset Railway station yard. Its occupation has been threatened several times - the lease was due to expire in February but has already been extended until August 2021.

EASTERN

Ferryhill: Durham Council has stated that it wants to see the early reopening of the Leamside Line to Pelaw ( closed in 1991), and consideration given to potential new stations at Ferryhill, Belmont

( park- and- ride) and Fencehouses. Although the track has been lifted, the alignment has been officially safeguarded against redevelopment and encroachment.

Horncastle: April 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Great Northern branch to Woodhall Junction, which had survived for freight following the withdrawal of passenger services in September 1954. BR took the opportunity to cut back the track where it joined the old Boston- Lincoln route as far as the British Sugar factory at Bardney.

Hull: A new wheel lathe is one of the major improvements carried out by Northern Rail to its Botanic Gardens train maintenance depot.

Leeds: The station’s long- stay car park can reopen this spring, following completion of the new Platform 0. It has been closed for over two years.

Norton- on-Tees: The East, South and West signal boxes around the triangle were closed together on February 5, with the modernisation of the Durham Coast Line. Other casualities included Belasis Lane, Billingham, Ferryhill, Greatham, and Ryhope Grange. The route is now controlled from York.

Tanfield: Nexus has donated 20 tons of redundant track, sleepers and control equipment from the

Tyne & Wear Metro’s South Gosforth depot to the Tanfield Railway.

MIDLANDS

Market Harborough: The Railway Heritage Trust is contributing £4,800 towards restoration of the station’s first floor windows.

Shrewsbury: The station was one of five buildings considered for the new headquarters of Shropshire County Council, but it was deemed not to be large enough. The authority has decided to move to the town’s Pride Hill shopping centre instead.

Stoke- on-Trent: The station could be at the heart of a new £ 75 million development of homes, a hotel and leisure facilities, under an initiative led jointly by the city council and private developers. The removal of ugly redundant industrial buildings on the formerly railway- owned freight site has been welcomed.

NORTH WEST

Manchester: Network Rail is spending £ 50,000 on the arches under the London Road approach bridge to Piccadilly station, which notably includes restoring the façade of the popular former Webb’s tobacco and sweet shop. The graffiti- covered roller shutter doors of what has most recently been a betting shop with be removed, and the ornate stone and timberwork will be reinstated.

Newton Heath: Northern’s modernisation of its train depot is almost complete.

Warrington: The borough council is progressing plans for expanding the facilities at Bank Quay station, as part of the wholesale redevelopment of the surrounding land.

SOUTHERN

Canterbury: The 1906 bridge carrying the

Dover- Faversham line over the A28 road has been strengthened and repainted.

Farncombe: The days of the 1897 LSWR signal box

are numbered, with the ongoing resignalling of the Guildford- Havant route. It was refitted with a panel in 1986, but is scheduled for demolition.

Tulse Hill: Improvements to the station have included a larger canopy, better seating, and installation of stair railings salvaged from Selsdon ( closed in May 1983). ANGLIA Attleborough: The Norwich- Ely route station now has 86 additional car parking spaces.

Audley End: Greater Anglia has overhauled the waiting room at the Cambridge- Liverpool Street line station. Clacton: The official date for the closure of the 1891 Great Eastern 52- lever signal box was March 14, with control passing to Colchester.

Liverpool Street: Work is well under way to extend Platforms 16 and 17.

Manea: Construction of a new 112- space car park at the Ely- March line station is set to begin this spring. Tottenham: The station waiting room is another of the three modernised by Greater Anglia at a total cost of £190,000. LONDON

Barking Riverside: The installation of slab track on the new London Overground extension has begun, with work almost complete on the new south and north concrete viaducts during March.

Beckton: The Docklands Light Railway is ready to let the contract for the expansion of the depot and upgrade of the electricity supply.

Chorleywood: The cutting on the Metropolitan Line to Rickmansworth has been stabilised.

Jubilee Line: A plan to increase peak- hour capacity by two trains per hour has been postponed, because of lower passenger numbers and lack of money. The upgrade scheme will be reviewed next year.

Old Street: The new access at the Cowper Street side of the Northern Line station is due to be completed this summer, and the new central entrance will open in autumn next year.

Stratford: The design of the new south western station entrance has been approved by Newham Council, with the aim of it being open in 2023.

Wembley Park: The station canopy has been refurbished. WALES

Pontypool & New Inn: Torfaen Council has agreed to make substantial contribution to the £ 7.1 million station upgrade, which includes a 160- space park- andride facility.

Swansea: The new Platform 4 that is under construction will be 14 yards longer and have two waiting shelters. IDEAS THAT CAME TO NOTHING

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

York ( March 1991): A total of 209 jobs will have to be shed when the BREL works closes because of a shortfall of orders.

■ Holgate Road Works enjoyed a short- lived revival from 1998-2002, when the Thrall Car Manufacturing Company took over the plant to build wagons for EWS. Much of the site has been redeveloped for housing.

Cardiff ( March 2001): The county council has been awarded £175,000 by the Welsh National Assembly to carry out a study into ULTra, an ultra- light rail scheme from Cardiff Bay station to the Assembly headquarters and County Hall. A test track could be established at Cardiff Heliport near Tremorfa. ■ In short, nothing happened. Skegness ( March 2011): Alliance Trains ( Arriva UK) says it wants to run four direct services to London via Sleaford from 2016.

■ The ORR said no to this idea, as well as King’s Cross to Scarborough, Sheffield, Grimsby and Middlesbrough, and Skipton. The proposals have not been resurrected.