Regional News
WESTERN
Cardiff: The Grade 2- listed 1840 Bute Road station is among the 2016 list of ten endangered buildings in England and Wales, compiled by the Victorian Society. It was used as a railway preservation centre until 1997, and is now earmarked for restoration and conversion into a military museum.
Marsh Barton: Network Rail has delayed a start on the new £ 7.4 million Exeter station from the end of this year to early 2017, because design and signalling issues need to be resolved. A second new station for the area at Cranbrook is in the land acquisition and design preparation phase.
Saltash: The town council says it intends to end the indecision over the future of the old station building by purchasing it itself for community and private use. It has not been fully used for over 30 years, and has changed hands twice in the past decade without any sign of being renovated.
Templecombe: The station footbridge that was only overhauled earlier this year has been closed again by Network Rail, after the discovery of rotten floorboards.
Yarnton: The petition to re- establish a rail link between Oxford and Witney by first re- opening Yarnton station was close to reaching its 1,000name target within a few days of its launch in early September. West Oxfordshire District Council has already dismissed the idea.
EASTERN
Cottingham: The Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership is seeking views on how the redundant Grade 2- listed buildings on Platform 2 should be converted for community use.
Killingworth: The former National Health Service distribution and storage facility has been renamed Stephenson Park after the railway pioneer, even though the nearest Metro station is over a mile away. The site will soon be occupied by 127 new homes.
Leeds: The Wetherspoons pub at the station could have a roof terrace added to it, as part of a major refurbishment.
Lincoln: Work started on August 30 to create a new £ 30 million bus terminus next to the station. It includes a multi- storey car park and new footbridge over the railway.
MIDLANDS
Leicester: A blue brick platform believed to be part of the city’s original 1832 terminus of the Leicester and Swannington Railway has been rediscovered in undergrowth. Leicester Industrial History Society wants it to be restored as a visitor attraction.
Leighton Buzzard: The official opening of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway’s brand new Pages Park terminus building is to take place at the end of the year. It was first used by passengers on July 23. Sutton Coldfield: The station’s platform signs have been painted gold to honour local Olympic hockey gold medallist Laura Unsworth. Winslow: Buckinghamshire County Council has purchased land for the planned East West Rail Link station and car park. It paid £ 900,000 for the 2½ - acre site. Wolverton: St Modwen, owner of the 38- acre works site, has refused permission for a memorial on the site to honour the 213 LNWR staff who died during the First World War. This is because of its impending redevelopment.
NORTH WEST
Rainhill: A new plaque is being exhibited at the town library, to commemorate the 1829 Rainhill Trials and the town’s status as the birthplace of passenger railways. It will be transferred to the station next year.
SOUTHERN
Bermondsey: Millwall Football Club is opposing a new 2,400- home development around its stadium and a new Overground station, but it may be too late as Lewisham Council has already approved the
compulsory purchase of the land.
Dymchurch: Five people were injured on the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway on September 10, after a train collided with a tractor at Hythe Road crossing. The locomotive and coaches, loaded with 50 passengers, came off the track and ended up on their sides. Haywards Heath: Events are being staged this autumn to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the opening of the station on September 21 1841. There is little history to be viewed, however, as the main buildings were completely replaced during the early 1930s electrification programme.
ANGLIA
Bishops Stortford: The waiting room on the London- bound platform has been modernised. Gidea Park: A new carriage washing plant is being installed.
Harlow: Abellio has confirmed a multimillion- pound upgrade for Harlow Town station. An award- winning showpiece when it was opened in 1960 to serve the new town, the main buildings are Grade 2- listed but in poor condition.
Higham: Ipswich- Cambridge line services were suspended on September 10 after fire gutted the station goods shed, and it was demolished the following day after being declared unsafe. Firemen managed to save the main Great Eastern station building, which is in industrial use.
Ilford: Major alterations being made to the maintenance depot, for it to handle new Class 345 Aventra electric multiple units, include demolition of the paint shop and the large ‘ B’ Shop to make way for ten new sidings and two through lines.
Norwich: A temporary wheel lathe will be installed at Crown Point depot to better cope with the leaf fall season, and to avoid the need for rolling stock to visit Ilford during its reconstruction. Shenfield: A new platform is under construction. Southend: Abellio Greater Anglia has begun work on improvements to the booking hall at Victoria station. They include new automatic doors, lighting and flooring. Additional seats are also being installed on the concourse. Wickham Market: The campaign to renovate the East Suffolk Line station serving Campsea Ashe as a community centre has now reached its financial target, and an application has been made to build a new platform canopy.
SCOTLAND
Ballater: The rebuilding of the former Royal station destroyed by fire in May 2015 can now start, following approval by the Cairngorms National Park Authority of Aberdeenshire Council’s plans for an identical replacement.
Edinburgh: The city council’s list of strategic projects for 2018-30 include tramway extensions to Newhaven and Granton, west to Newbridge from Ingliston, and south to Little France, Newcraighall and Queen Margaret University.
Edinburgh: The Gresley Society is organising the installation of a blue plaque outside the birthplace of LNER Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Nigel Gresley in Dublin Street. It will be unveiled on June 19 next year.
Glasgow: Renfrewshire Council’s outline business case for a tram- train service to the airport, using the Glasgow Central- Paisley Gilmour Street alignment, is expected to be presented towards the end of the year. The purchase of five tram-trains is included in the proposals.
Tweedbank: The Borders Line terminus is to be upgraded with a new catering facility and toilets for the beginning of next year.
LONDON
Piccadilly Circus: The Tube station is to house a memorial to Frank Pick, the head of London Transport in the 1920s and 1930s, who drove the newly merged different transport companies to adopt a single brand identity. It will be unveiled in an area once occupied by payphones on November 7, the 75th anniversary of his death.