Regional News

WESTERN

Broadway: Wychavon Council is considering taking over land from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway to create a car park for the new station. The authority will keep the fees to meet the running costs.

Iver: Three passenger lifts are to be installed at the West London station over the next year. The ticket hall is also to be replaced.

Langley: The Elizabeth Line ( Crossrail) station is to receive extensive improvements. There will be three new lifts, plus a refurbished ticket hall and information screens.

Ludgershall: Local MP and former Transport Minister Claire Perry supports the reinstatement of passenger services over the seven- mile branch to Andover, to serve some new large housing estates. The line remains open for sporadic Ministry of Defence freight traffic.

Newton Abbot: There are proposals to demolish a railway building at the entrance to the Brunel Industrial Estate, to create space for a supermarket.

EASTERN

Alnmouth: The three- mile North Eastern branch from Alnmouth closed 50 years ago on January 29. It is currently being reinstated by the Aln Valley Railway.

Boulby: The future of freight traffic over the Middlesbrough-Saltburn line is under review, because the owners of the potash mine say that supplies will be exhausted by June. It is intended to produce polyhialite instead, but a third of the workforce will be lost.

Durham: The arches of the East Coast Main Line viaduct are to be permanently lit up from November.

Harrogate: Plans for 3,000 homes at Green Hammerton have been approved. The strengthening of Leeds-York trains may be the result.

Queensbury: Bradford Council is supporting the revival of the disused tunnel, and work could begin on the 1.4- mile structure this summer. To abandon it completely would cost £ 3 million.

MIDLANDS

Aylesbury: The refurbished footbridge has been returned to full use, and the temporary structure removed.

Dudley: Efforts are to be made to complete the latest extension of Midland Metro a year early, following Birmingham’s successful bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It is hoped that the new city centre to Five Ways services will also be up and running by that time.

Luton: VolkerFitzpatrick- Kier has won the £119 million contract to build the Luton Airport rail link.

Norton Bridge: The Stafford-Stoke line station was officially closed on December 10, although trains have not called since May 22 2004. The bus subsidy will continue until March next year, to allow Staffordshire County Council to decide its long-term future.

Wolverhampton: The West Midlands Combined Authority has allocated almost £ 50 million towards the new transport interchange, which includes a new station building connected to the extended Midland Metro and a new car park. The total cost of the project has risen from £ 51m to £ 81m.

Wolverton: Milton Keynes Council has approved a planning application to build 375 homes on part of the former LNWR works site. The rest of the land will be retained for industrial use.

NORTH WEST

Blackpool: The two new Flexity trams required for the £ 22 million tramway extension to Blackpool North station ( 017 and 018) had arrived at Starr Gate by mid- December, from Germany via Hull Docks.

Dinting: Network Rail has given permission to the Friends of Guide Bridge to turn the station into a museum. The owner of the derelict former Midland locomotive shed is also being consulted with a view to its renovation.

Liverpool: Lime Street station was closed on

January 14 for emergency repairs after severe corrosion was discovered in a gantry over all four tracks. It was not safe for trains to travel underneath.

Manchester: The commissioning of additional electricity sub- stations since November has allowed double- headed Metrolink trams to run to Altrincham and Bury. These two routes generate more than 40% of the system’s business.

Preston: The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership is critical of the condition of the station, despite a recent £ 2 million improvement programme. It says it creates a poor first impression of the city.

SOUTHERN

Eastleigh: Ownership of the 50- acre works site passed to a corporate pension fund for £ 20.6 million, it was announced on January 8. Property company St Modwen acquired it in 2002, and most of the buildings are let to Arlington Fleet Services. Herne Hill: The new booking office was completed at the end of 2017, six months behind schedule. Portsmouth: The under- strength bridge carrying the Portsmouth Harbour-Southsea line over Burnaby Road is to be replaced between February 12-17, at a cost of £ 2.7 million. Sheffield Park: The Bluebell Railway has replaced the superstructure of Poleay Bridge. Twickenham: Extensive alterations to the station over the next few years will include a housing block built over the tracks. The 1950s entrance and booking hall closed last summer, and the footbridge has also gone.

ANGLIA

Cromer: Although boarded up and currently not for sale, the original M& GN station building is a target for the North Norfolk Railway as a possible terminus for its steam services over Network Rail metals from Sheringham. The building has been unsuccessfully used as a restaurant and pub in recent years.

Hoveton & Wroxham: Network Rail has declared that a footbridge linking the Bittern Line with the village is unsafe, and wants its early replacement at a cost of around £120,000.

Theobalds Grove: The flood- damaged booking office has been renovated.

Waterbeach: The north of Cambridge station could be relocated and expanded if plans proceed with a new development of 10,000 homes.

SCOTLAND

Broughty Ferry: Platform extension is taking place to accommodate longer East Coast trains. It is one of ten locations getting similar treatment. Corstorphine: February 5 was the 50th anniversary of the final closure of the two- mile branch from Haymarket West Junction. It had remained open to freight after the withdrawal of passenger services at the beginning of 1968.

Edinburgh: The recently refurbished Caledonian Hotel next to Waverley station has been sold for £ 85 million to an Abu Dhabi investor.

Glenfinnan: The lattice signal post that is now housed in the station museum is from the Down Home signal ( RAIL 842). The line runs mostly eastwest, so the signal was westbound ( Down).

WALES

Cardiff: Construction of the new bus terminal next to Central station is about to start, featuring shops, offices and 400 new homes. Modernisation of the station will follow at a total cost of £180 million.

Chepstow: The plan to create a footpath on the alignment of the former GWR route to Tintern ( closed in 1964) has been resurrected, after five years on hold. Monmouthshire County Council supports the Wander Path project, which will require a new footbridge across the River Wye.

Porthmadog: The cost of expanding the Ffestiniog Railway’s Boston Lodge works to place every coach under cover has been stated as £4.5 million, and the Diamond Jubilee Appeal will make a major contribution. At the same time, the present 19th century buildings require extensive refurbishment.