Regional

WESTERN

Bourne End: Network Rail has declined to reinstate the chord that would allow passengers to reach Maidenhead without having to change.

Didcot: A new footbridge is being constructed to link the station with the multi- storey car park. Platform 2 is also being extended.

High Wycombe: The Brunel engine shed next to the station is to be acquired by Wycombe District Council for community use. The Grade 2- listed building is currently in a poor structural state.

Highbridge: Burnham Town Council has applied for a £ 30,000 grant from Great Western Railway to replace the station’s lighting columns, signage, and the bicycle shelter. However, over £1 million will be required to expand the car park, install a bus stop, and establish a ticket office or cafe.

Totnes: Although only 30 years old, the station footbridge will be removed when a £1.5 million disabled-friendly replacement structure with lifts is completed.

EASTERN

Biggleswade: Railfuture East Anglia is pressing for the addition of passenger lifts to an extended footbridge at the East Coast Main Line station. It is currently a struggle for passengers because the entrance is on a higher level.

Eaglescliffe: A house constructed for the Yarm branch of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1840 has been put on the market for £155,000. Formerly occupied by a manager at the Hole of Paradise coal depot, it has not been in railway use since 1871.

Ellington: Large- scale housing development is proposed for the site of the former colliery.

Middlesbrough: Funding has been found for further station refurbishment work beyond Network Rail’s current £ 2.7 million programme, which included reopening the former main entrance earlier this year. Sorting out the frontage along Zetland Road is a necessary intermediate step to bringing the parking area back into public use.

Nast Hyde: A woman’s handbag and its contents, stolen in a mugging incident almost 40 years ago near the site of the Great Northern station on the former Hatfield-St Albans line ( closed in 1951), has been successfully returned to its owner after being unearthed in a flower bed. The part- restored halt is now part of a public cycleway and footpath.

Scarborough: The station’s former parcels office, now in private use, is to get a new entrance in keeping with the building’s historic status.

MIDLANDS

Cannock: Several public bodies are contributing £400,000 to a study into upgrading the Chase Line station’s current basic facilities. Luton: A proposed new commercial development close to the airport’s parkway station is expected to bring up to 2,000 jobs. Rugeley: There are plans to build 2,000 new homes on the site of the former rail- served power station, which closed in 2016. St Pancras: The new Wetherspoons pub below the station’s Southeastern platforms has been christened The Barrel Vault, to commemorate the area’s former role as the storage area for Burton beer barrels.

NORTH WEST

Burton: After several years off the agenda, a revival of passenger services over the Leicester line via Ashby and Coalville ( withdrawn in September 1964) was discussed at a public meeting held in December.

Castleton: A new study has confirmed the viability of a passenger service to Rochdale, running over East Lancashire Railway metals to Rawtenstall. Further north, Stubbins and Heap Bridge are being considered as park- and- ride sites. It is now up to Transport for the North to take things forward.

Irlam: A new museum of signalling is to be created in the 1884 Midland Railway box recovered from Keighley station. The building has needed a new home since it was rendered redundant in 1995 to prevent further deterioration.

Threlkeld: A £ 7.9 million funding package has been agreed to enable work to start on the final phase of reconnecting the Keswick to Threlkeld Multi User Trail, which was severely damaged in Storm Desmond three years ago.

Warrington: Good progress was made on the new Warrington West station during a line possession over the Christmas holiday period. The December work programme included installation of the footbridge and lift shafts. The opening date is the middle of the year.

SOUTHERN

Bournemouth: The East Cliff Funicular Railway, damaged by a landslip in April 2016, will stay closed until further notice because the borough council does not have the funds for its repair.

Dungeness: More than 80 years after its closure to passengers, the remains of the windswept single platform station are still to be seen close to the terminus of the narrow gauge Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. While the wooden platform has almost completely rotted away, the concrete foundations of the rudimentary timber building are still in evidence.

Kingsnorth: Network Rail has ruled against a new station on the Ashford- Hastings line to serve a new housing development. It says it would simply abstract passengers from Ashford International rather than generate new business, and also increase journey times on the route.

Richmond: January 1 was the 150th anniversary of the opening of the West London Joint Railway’s line to Addison Road station ( now Kensington Olympia). Parts of this are now the London Overground.

SCOTLAND

Aberdeen: Reinstatement of the mothballed Waterloo freight branch is reported to have been completed to a high standard.

Aviemore: Highlands and Islands Enterprise ( HIE) has taken over the running of CairnGorm Mountain snowsports centre and funicular railway, after the business went into administration during November because of cash- flow problems.

Faslane: The Ministry of Defence and Rhu & Shandon Community Council are discussing reopening the old platform close to the naval base.

Grantown- on-Spey: The former Great North of Scotland Railway station at Grantown East, closed to passengers on November 2 1968, has been reopened as a culture centre complete with a short section of track.

Stonehaven: Planned improvements to the station include full refurbishment of the buildings and underpass.

Tweedbank: Scottish Borders Council is considering the speculative £10 million purchase of a site close to the station, to sell on for £150 million for 300 new homes and industry. As well as making a profit for ratepayers, it says it strengthens the case for the Borders Railway extension to Hawick and beyond.

LONDON

London Underground: Reduced revenues have forced Transport for London to scale back on making its stations fully accessible. It will be summer 2024 ( two years later than planned) for work to be completed at Boston Manor, Burnt Oak, Debden, Hanger Lane, Ickenham, North Ealing, Northolt, Park Royal, Rickmansworth, Ruislip, Snaresbrook, Sudbury Hill and Wimbledon Park.

Colindale: London Underground’s Northern Line station is being prepared for demolition, to make way for a new £ 22 million building largely funded by the construction of 350 homes nearby. Work could start in 2021 and be completed in a year.

Old Street: Changes are being made to the layout of the roundabout that has the Underground and Great Northern stations on the centre of it. It will then be safer for bikers and pedestrians.

South Woodford: London Underground’s Central Line station will have step-free access by the summer.