Regional news

What’s happening near you.

WESTERN

Bodmin: Bodmin General station is to get a new second platform, at a cost of £ 295,000. And the missing canopy over the front entrance is to be replaced with a new one ( to the original design).

Bristol Parkway: The new fourth platform was officially opened on April 4.

Keynsham: The former rail- connected Frys/ Cadburys chocolate factory, which once employed 5,000 people and closed in 2011 after production was shifted to Poland, has been turned into a retirement home and shops complex called the Chocolate Quarter. It was officially opened by HRH Princess Anne on April 13.

Penzance: The station had to be evacuated on the evening of April 17, after a fire broke out on a train parked under the main roof.

Truthall: The Helston Railway station was formally reopened by the Duke of Gloucester on April 5.

EASTERN

Chester- le- Street: The North Eastern Railway viaduct has just passed the 150th anniversary of its opening ( on March 2 1868). The 11- arch structure is still in everyday use as part of the East Coast Main Line. Newcastle: It will cost an estimated £40,000 to clean off widespread graffiti from the pedestrian walkway on the High Level Bridge, which was only restored in 2008 at a cost of £40 million.

MIDLANDS

Broom: The razed platforms of the meeting place of the Stratford & Midland Junction Railway and Ashchurch- Barnt Green routes, plus more than two acres of adjoining land, has been on the market for £ 300,000. The buildings were demolished after closure on October 1 1962, and the site’s last role was as a Warwickshire County Council highways depot.

Leek: The Churnet Valley Railway has secured planning permission from Staffordshire Moorlands Council for its double-track northern extension into the town from Leekbrook Junction. Reinstatement of the northeast curve will also create a triangle to allow east access to the Cauldon Lowe line, and for locomotives to be turned.

Nottingham: The repairs to January’s fire damage at the station will be completed by July.

Oswestry: Restoration of the original Oswestry South signal box has been completed by Cambrian Heritage Railways. It incorporates a lever frame recovered from Wellington.

NORTH WEST

Ainsdale: The Merseyrail station’s new ticket office opened on May 2.

Horwich: Demolition of part of the 130- year- old former Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway works has begun, to enable building of the first 112 of a total of 1,700 homes.

Kents Bank: The South Lakes station’s friends group has completed a two- year renovation of the badly neglected station, and improved its overgrown gardens. Manchester: Manchester United Football Club’s plans to increase capacity at its Old Trafford stadium to more than 80,000 are on hold, because the railway line behind the stand earmarked for extension is an obstruction.

Poulton- le- Fylde: The Blackpool line station is now fully functioning, after an extensive refurbishment that has included new lifts. The cafe has also reopened. Slaithwaite: The station platforms were extended over the weekend of April 21/ 22.

SOUTHERN

Clapham Junction: Management of the UK’s busiest through station has been taken over by Network Rail, because its £150 million redevelopment will go beyond the life of the current South Western Railway franchise.

Lewisham: Signalling control for the area, as well as

Hither Green, was transferred to the Three Bridges centre in early May.

Ryde: Permission is to be sought for a new platform layout at St Johns station, to allow the introduction of a new 30- minute interval service and to provide improved access for Hovertravel passengers. Operator South Western also wants to have newer trains by 2020.

Sevenoaks: Network Rail has carried out major repairs to the tunnel over the Easter and May Bank Holiday periods, stemming leaks, improving drainage and upgrading the signalling and power supply.

Tonbridge: Construction of the former South Eastern Railway main line to Sevenoaks was completed 150 years ago on May 1.

ANGLIA

Clare: A £1.5 million Heritage Lottery grant has been awarded to renovate the southbound platform buildings and old goods shed of the former Colchester- Cambridge line station. They are situated within the Clare Castle Country Park, and a short section of track is to be laid for visual impact.

Frinton: The small museum that includes the old signal box has been named the Trevor Bright Railway Museum, after its founder who died last year aged 64. He was the last to shut the old crossing gates in 2009 before they were decommissioned and erected at the station entrance.

Ingatestone: Overhead line equipment between the station and Liverpool Street was renewed by Network Rail over the Easter period.

SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: Ferryhill steam depot’s £ 86,000 refurbished turntable was installed on April 26. But the celebration was marred by the death three days later of the preservation group’s secretary George Clucas, at the age of 72.

Inverness: There will soon be a better public interchange facility, following the Royal Mail’s £ 6.6 million decision to relocate from its current site to the west of the station. This releases land for redevelopment.

Kintore: Network Rail has formally submitted its planning application to Aberdeenshire Council to build the new station on the Inverness- Aberdeen line, serving a population of almost 5,000. Artist’s drawings show it having two platforms, a footbridge and lifts, and it should open next year.

Kittybrewster: The main platform of the longdisused station has been removed as part of the Aberdeen- Inverness line upgrade. It closed to passengers in May 1968.

Maud: Thieves have stolen nearly 100 cast iron rail chairs from the station railway museum. They were stacked on a pallet, and had been intended for a small track extension this summer.

North Queensferry: The collapsing 459- yard sealed tunnel on the old line from Dunfermline just north of the Forth Road Bridge ( closed to freight in 1954) has been made safe by reinforcing it with 21,000 polystyrene blocks.

WALES

Blaengwynfi: Removal of a 2ft concrete seal has opened up a major ventilation shaft on the 3,443yard Rhondda Tunnel, allowing work to start on its reopening as a footpath and cycleway.

Corwen: A water tower is being constructed at the Llangollen Railway’s new western terminus.

Prestatyn: The redundant LNWR signal box has been reprieved from demolition, following a petition. With the support of Network Rail, it will now be converted into a community centre, possibly linked to the footpath on the Dyserth branch. Rhyl and Abergele & Pensarn boxes are already listed structures.

LONDON

Crouch Hill: Reconstruction of the bridge at the station could delay the introduction of the new service over the Gospel Oak- Barking line by three months.