Regional News

GREAT WESTERN

Newbury: The station will receive extensive improvements following the signing of a £ 52 million contract to build 232 homes and create a new shopping area. There will be additional car parking, a new concourse, and bus station. Construction is programmed to begin before the end of the year, and be complete in 2021.

Norton: The new Worcester Parkway station is to be on target for opening next year. The main building, 500- space car park and footbridge over the Birmingham- Gloucester line were part- complete in early October, as well as the road access.

Taunton: Improvements to the station are included in a transport development scheme jointly developed by Somerset County and Taunton Deane Borough Councils. They also include working up the proposals for a new station at Wellington, and electrification.

Torrington: A ten- year lease on the main station building and the Puffing Billy tearoom on the old LSWR Barnstaple- Halwill line is on the market for £ 65,000. The site is part- occupied by the Tarka Valley Railway, which obtained a lease on a quarter of a mile of trackbed from Devon County Council in April.

EASTERN

Brighouse: Network Rail has indicated that the West Yorkshire line station may receive substantial improvements to reflect a 48% growth in passenger numbers over the past seven years.

Darlington: The closure of the town’s cattle market will free up land for improvements to Bank Top station. Work has commenced on a new pedestrian/ cycle bridge linking the station with the new Parkgate business development.

Idle: It was 50 years on October 7 that the last remaining ( northern) section of the former GNR Low Moor ( Bradford) -Shipley line closed, with the end of freight traffic. Passenger services had been withdrawn in February 1931, and nothing now remains of the station building.

Middlesbrough: The current freight avoiding lines have been earmarked for a third station platform that will be needed for the proposed direct services to London in two years’ time. It will cost £ 20 million to undertake the conversion.

Scunthorpe: A new station footbridge and two lifts will be completed by next March.

Sherburn- in- Elmet: The Harworth Group has submitted its outline planning application to Selby District Council to redevelop the Gascoigne Wood colliery site ( closed in 2004) into a 276- acre rail freight terminal. The plan has widespread support.

South Shields: The Tyne & Wear Metro line to Chichester is closed for five weeks until November 3, to enable track and signalling replacement in readiness for completion of the new interchange station in August 2019.

MIDLANDS

Digbeth: Despite many local protests against the decision to demolish one of Birmingham’s oldest pubs ( because it stood in the alignment of HS2), the early removal of the derelict 200- year- old Fox

& Grapes took place on September 15 because the fire- damaged, boarded- up building was structurally unsafe.

Hillmorton: Rugby Borough Council is pressing for fresh government funding for the new parkway station. Construction did not start last May, as had been expected.

Leamington: Warwick Council is bidding for a £1 million government grant to improve the station forecourt with a new bus interchange, improved pedestrian access and space for 240 cycles.

Loughborough: The Great Central Railway has raised £ 250,000 towards the rebuilding of the cast iron bridge over the Grand Union Canal, which represents half the total cost. The project forms part of filling in the gap between the northern and southern sections of the former NottinghamLeicester line.

Telford: Telford & Wrekin Council supports the Telford Steam Railway’s proposed £400,000

extension to Doseley, the first stage of a larger project to reach the World Heritage Site at Ironbridge.

Wolverhampton: The old British Transport Police building is the first part of the station to be demolished as part of the £150 million creation of a new transport interchange. The works will be complete in summer 2020, when the northern extension of Midland Metro will also be operating. NORTH WEST

Blackpool: A new 144- bed Holiday Inn is to be built next to the North station, to coincide with the tramway extension. The Government is also investing £100 million to upgrade the resort town.

Rossendale: The borough council has joined forces with Lancashire County Council to commission a study into tram-trains for the RawtenstallManchester corridor, and accessing Manchester Metrolink at Buckley Wells in Bury or via the Castleton curve. There is also an ambition to return the East Lancashire Railway to the national network.

Shotton: The disused 1907 Grade 2- listed offices and clock tower at the former rail- served steel terminal is in the top ten of UK buildings at risk, in a new list compiled by the Victorian Society.

SOUTHERN

Carshalton: The station approach is being modified to provide step-free access, to save disabled users having to make the two- mile journey to Sutton to alight and disembark.

Cranleigh: The town’s chamber of commerce has commissioned Sustrans to assess the cost of providing an all- weather surface for the former LBSCR Guildford- Horsham line ( closed in June 1965). In the longer term, the business body would like to see the railway reinstated.

Tooting: October 1 marked the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Tooting Junction- Merton Park and Streatham South Junction- Wimbledon routes ( jointly owned by the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway). Part of the former alignment is now occupied by the A24 road. ANGLIA

Haverhill: The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is calling for a new £ 2.5 billion metro or light rail system to provide a new fixed link into Cambridge and beyond.

Newmarket: Redoubling the line to Cambridge and reinstating the west curve has been proposed by the East West Rail Consortium, as well as passing loops for freight at Bury St Edmunds, and platform capacity improvements at Cambridge, Newmarket, Norwich and Ipswich.

Twenty Foot River: More than 35 years after the closure of the March-Spalding ‘Joint Line’, the Up line semaphore signal is still in place outside the level crossing house ( now on private property). The girder bridge that marked the northern limit of Whitemoor yard has been replaced by a foot crossing, and the trackbed is lost in deep undergrowth. SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: Replacement of the station roof has begun. Network Rail has confirmed that it is willing to fully support the return of steam services to the city next summer, if the turntable at Ferryhill shed is commissioned in time.

Cleland: The Shotts- Glasgow line station is receiving a new footbridge and better disabled access. North Lanarkshire Council is pressing for similar upgrades at Holytown, Bellshill, Uddingston and Hartwood.

Law: Money generated from new housing development is not to be used to reopen the Carstairs- Glasgow line station, but instead will go to North Lanarkshire Council to maintain a road serving Garrion Bridge near Wishaw.

Stranraer: The railway south to the port town from Ayr seems to be assured of a future for at least 20 years, following a decision by Transport Scotland to find ways of improving it.