Better Transport

Getting a station or line re-opened is not easy. There’s no central strategy for rail re-openings and not many have opened in the last few years.

The Government’s recent Rail White Paper says that the Government does not “envisage reopening lines” in the next couple of decades.
> The Rail White Paper

But don’t lose all hope! Reopenings do happen.

If you wish to reopen a line or station you will need to work with your local authority or passenger transport executive, which oversees public transport in many parts of the country. Many of the line and station re-openings in recent years have been due to their efforts, probably because they recognise that railways bring major social, economic, regeneration and environmental benefits to an area:

• The Robin Hood line re-opening between Nottingham and Mansfield through the former Nottinghamshire coalfield area in the 1990s was largely driven by Nottinghamshire County Council. The council had an important role in the leasing, funding and operation of the line. The 32-miles line cost £28 million to re-open to passenger trains
• Horwich Parkway station opened in 1999 on the Manchester-Preston line at a cost of £3.1 million. It was built to serve a new shopping complex and football stadium as well as to provide a park-and-ride facility. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive was the main funder with help from local developers
• Warwick Parkway station, opened in 2000, was mainly a commercial initiative by Chiltern Railways, although the local authorities did provide 20% of the £5.2 million capital funding.

> See if your area has a passenger transport executive

Probably the biggest block to rail reopening is cost. East Sussex County Council was interested in reopening the Lewes-Uckfield rail line and put the aspiration in its local transport plan for the period 2000-2005. But at the end of that period, the aspiration still hadn’t been met. Cost was blamed for lack of progress:

“Funding and ‘buy in’ from the rail industry are major constraints on the promotion of new station proposals. Developer funding is considered the only viable way of achieving the support needed for construction. Significant new development provides extra potential patronage, and this makes a station a more attractive proposition to the rail industry.” (East Sussex county council website)

But the council hasn’t given up on the idea. Its current local transport plan, covering 2006-2001 still refers to the project:

“The Rail Development Strategy… identifies a number of priority areas including … reinstatement of rail services between Lewes, Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells. The Strategy commits the County Council to a continuing role in exploring the feasibility of these improvements and lobbying for them with other local authorities and the rail industry.” (East Sussex county council website) 

The lesson from East Sussex is that developer funding and joint working are increasingly important in any reopening scheme.