Regional News

WESTERN

Bradford- on- Avon: The Bristol-Salisbury Line station footbridge may regain its canopy to the original design, if a local group can stir up enough interest. Network Rail supports the idea.

Hanwell: The West London station is to get two new passenger lifts, as well as improvements to the entrance areas and subway.

Oxford: The Government’s National Infrastructure Commission advocates the introduction of passenger services over the Cowley branch within two years. The idea is also included in Oxfordshire County Council’s transport plan.

Taplow: The Elizabeth Line ( Crossrail) station is to receive extensive improvements before the end of next year. They include a new footbridge and two lifts, plus a refurbished ticket hall and waiting areas.

Truthall: A GWR pagoda- style waiting shelter has been built on the platform of the Helston Railway halt.

EASTERN

Drax: A fire in a conveyor in early December has severely reduced output at the rail- served biomass power station. The repairs are costing its owners £10 million in lost earnings.

Huddersfield: New entrances and a multi- storey car park are part of Kirklees Council’s proposed £ 27 million scheme for the front of the station. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has the key to finding the money.

Newtondale: The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has relaid half a mile of track at Farwath.

Teesside Airport: One of the station platforms and the footbridge are to be taken out of use, to save up to £ 6 million in repair costs over the next four years. Only 30 passengers used the halt in the year up to March 2017, and Northern only operates one ‘ Parliamentary’ service a week in one direction.

York: A First Class lounge, two new shops and a better customer area are included in Virgin’s £1.5 million application to the city council to improve the Grade 2- listed 1877 station.

MIDLANDS

Hellidon: Work has started on conversion of the disused Great Central 2,997- yard Catesby Tunnel into an aerodynamic testing facility linked to a science park. The project has secured £4.2 million government funding, and will open next year.

Loughborough: The Great Central Railway has launched a new £475,000 appeal to renovate the single- span girder bridge over the Grand Union Canal just north of the locomotive shed.

Nottingham: An unofficial local poll on where Nottingham Express Transit should be extended to next has shown 25% in favour of the Kimberley, Eastwood and Nuthall areas, with 24% supporting to Carlton, Netherfield, Gedling and Arnold. East Midlands Airport came third with 17%.

NORTH WEST

Lancaster: Renovation of the station’s canopy ( just completed) has required the replacement of 70% of the timber structure and the glazing.

Wigan: It has taken 18 months and £1 million to repair the Wallgate station roof and canopied entrance. The work finished in December.

SOUTHERN

Bognor Regis: A home in Pagham that incorporates two 1885 Midland Railway wooden- bodied coaches is on the market for £ 500,000.

Carshalton: The Sutton loop station is to be converted to step-free under the Access for All scheme. Site work should start in the autumn.

Pagham: The Bluebell Railway took delivery at Horsted Keynes on December 20 of two rare South Eastern Railway teak carriage bodies that have been part of a bungalow for the last 80 years. The sixcompartment third dates back to the 1890s, and the two- compartment luggage brake was probably completed in 1877-78.

Woking: Work started on January 2 on demolition

of buildings in Albion Square, outside the station, to create a new public area.

ANGLIA

Attlebridge: Broadland Council may have to spend £150,000 on urgent repairs to the bridge carrying the Marriott’s Way over the River Wensum. It was once part of the M& GN Norwich-Sheringham line via Melton Constable. Other bridges along the Bure Valley in Brampton and Coltishall also require less urgent work costing £ 270,000.

Bassingbourn- cum- Kneesworth: There are outline plans to increase the population of the South Cambridgeshire village tenfold to 31,000, to take advantage of the revived Oxford- Cambridge rail link.

Bury St Edmunds: The search continues for tenants for abandoned parts of the 1847 station, following the £136,000 restoration of the Great Eastern canopies to the original specification, and the cleaning of the brick and stonework.

Sheringham: A 40- lever frame has been acquired from Brandon to increase capacity at the North Norfolk Railway’s station signal box, enabling Platform 3 to be used and removing the need to operate the carriage siding manually.

SCOTLAND

Ballater: Views are being sought on whether the reconstructed £ 3 million royal station should be painted in LNER green and cream when it reopens at Easter. Before the original building ( used as a tourist information office) was seriously damaged by fire in 2015, it was painted in non- authentic red and cream to make it more distinctive.

Glasgow: A study into a tram-train service from Central station to the Airport has warned that it could slow down existing services and take up valuable platform space. It also suggests that it might also be slower than taking the bus. However, Scotland Transport Minister Humza Yousaf still supports the £144 million scheme.

Innerpeffray: The station house on the former Perth- Crieff line, closed in October 1951 and now a three- bedroomed property, has been put on the market for £ 380,000. It sits on three acres of land.

WALES

Blaenavon: A generous bequest from late volunteer Eric Edwards will enable the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway to construct a new 300ft, three- road shed at Furnace Sidings.

Magor: Monmouthshire County Council has secured a further £110,000 to pursue the next stage of the process to reopen the South Wales Main Line station, hopefully in 2021.

Meliden: After 12 years in the planning, the £1.2 million conversion of the abandoned goods shed at the former Prestatyn- Dyserth line station ( closed in 1957) is under way. It will be known as the Y Shed community centre.

Trawsfynydd: Network Rail has revoked the licence issued to the Trawsfynydd Railway Company to reopen the seven- mile North Wales Line, because of what it says are serious health and safety and environmental breaches that caused damage to a bridge last summer. At the same time, the TRC announced plans to extend a further seven miles on the Bala line, which closed in 1961.

LONDON

Battersea: Wandsworth Council has approved the design of the station on the new Northern Line extension, which is scheduled to open in 2020.

Knightsbridge: The Piccadilly Line Tube station will become the 72nd on the system to become step-free within three years. New entrances are also being built on Brompton Road and Hooper’s Court. Transport for London has set a target of having easy access to 40% of the system by 2022.

Walthamstow: Capital & Regional, the developer behind plans for two residential tower blocks close to Central station, has said it will contribute £1.5 million towards a second entrance linking the northern side of the new shopping centre.