WorthValley, Chinnor, SouthDevon andBodmin innew ‘ reverse Beeching’
SEVERAL heritagerailway venues are includedinanewshortlist of50 bids from MPsandcouncils in the secondroundof theGovernment’s£ 500millionRestoring YourRailway Fund.
In late January, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched the
£ 500 million fund to help restore lines closed in the 1960s after the Beeching report, and invited bids.
In May, the first round saw10 shortlisted applications awarded £ 50,000 towards a feasibility study.
One of the second round bids includes a daily all- year- round service for commuters on the Keighley & WorthValley Railway ( KWVR), ( a pre- Beeching closure). The plan was first suggested in 2011 but axed because the local authorities would not subsidise it. KWVR chairman Matt
Stroh said the bid was lodged just to ascertain at this early stage whether therewas now the political will to fund the massive cost that would be incurredby such a scheme.
Reinstatement
Theshortlist also includesthe reinstatementof theBodmin to Wadebridgelineandassociatedworks, andincreased serviceprovisionbetween BodminGeneralandBodminParkwayon theBodmin& WenfordRailway. Also, the rebuilding of theGWRbranchbetween AshburtonandBuckfastleighto extend theSouthDevonRailway is listed.
An extension of the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway to Aston Rowant, which could serve M40 traffic; the restoration of services on the Anglesey Central Railway between Gaerwen and Amlwch, a long- held aim of revivalist group Lein Amlwch; the completion of the Swanage Railway’s ProjectWareham link; and the use of the Mid- Norfolk Railway betweenWymondham and Dereham also made the list.
An extension of the East Somerset Railway from Mendip Vale to Shepton Mallet and the extension of main line services to Goodrington and Churston stations on the Dartmouth Steam Railway, asmentioned last issue, will also be looked at.
The reinstatement of the longmothballed Radstock to Frome branch, an ambition of the North Somerset Railway, and that of the Stratford- upon- Avon to Honeybourne line, intact as far as Long Marston, and originally a target for the GloucestershireWarwickshire Railway, will be considered too.
TheHawes toGarsdale western end of theWensleydale route also makes the list. The station buildings and platforms were refurbished at Hawes station, which is nowpart of the Dales Countryside Museum, and on a short length of track stands Robert Stephenson& Hawthorns
0- 6- 0T No. 7845 of 1955, repainted in BR livery as NER G5 No. 67345, which hauled the last passenger train out of the station in 1959.
Next step
ThePrimrose Line, thenamefor the GWRSouth Brent toKingsbridge branch, andanearly target forpreservationists beforethey chose the Ashburton/ Buckfastleigh line, isalso in the list, which waspublishedonJune 30.
The 50bidswill nowbe examined by experts to seewhich should be given the funding for a feasibility study. The successful schemes are set to be decided by late summer.