Latest news with #RestoringYourRailway
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Community 'in limbo' over Meir Railway Station reopening
A community has been left "in limbo" because of uncertainty around a £15m project to reopen a railway station, a councillor has Railway Station in Stoke-on-Trent, which closed in 1966, was among the projects included in the previous government's Restoring Your Railway (RYR) programme, which was scrapped after Labour took power last government said the individual projects would be reviewed, but councillors and residents have since raised concerns over the lack of a decision on the Meir Department for Transport (DfT) said the projects would be considered as part of next month's Spending Review. More than 570 people have since signed a petition calling for Stoke-on-Trent City Council to lobby the government to approve the station's councillor Faisal Hussain told the authority's housing, regeneration and operations scrutiny committee the scheme was feasible and would help to address Meir's transport issues."When the Chancellor made her speech on the cancellation of Restoring Your Railway, she did say she would look at each individual scheme and make a decision based on progression," he told Thursday's meeting."She left us all in limbo as to what that meant." 'We need funding' The Meir South representative urged the Labour-led council to ask the government to "rethink its decision and restore funding for Meir Station".Labour councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker said the RYR was a "great aspiration", but described it as a "pipe dream" under the previous Conservative government."We share your aspiration to have Meir station reopened but we're in the same situation as the previous administration - we can't do it alone and we need the funding," he council wrote a letter to the government in March asking for a final decision on the project and Mr Gordon-McCusker agreed to write a second letter.A DfT spokesperson said it was committed to delivering transport infrastructure that would "boost growth and opportunity" across the country."The government inherited an extremely challenging financial position, and these projects will be considered as part of the upcoming Spending Review," they said. This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
14-03-2025
- BBC News
Okehampton Interchange railway station will open Devon 'gateway'
Work has begun on a new railway station that will "open a gateway" to Dartmoor Line has been closed to allow a week-long "intense period of work" at the new Okehampton Interchange, during which track has been moved to allow a new platform to be as accessible as station is being built on the eastern edge of Okehampton, about 2.2km (1.4 miles) away from Okehampton station, which reopened in 2021 after 49 years as part of the then government's Restoring Your Railway Rail manager Alex Phillips said: "This is going to be a new one-platform station that is going to open so many doors for the people of Devon and connect into the wider railway network." Network Rail programme manager Daniel Parkes said work due to be finished by the spring of 2026 would allow "real connectivity" in north track had to be moved one metre (3.3ft) as it was on a "really tight curve", to make sure the stepping distance was "sufficient " for the train. The station will have a footbridge with a lift to make it "fully accessible", with a bus stop linking to a new housing stretch of the Dartmoor Line behind Exeter Road Industrial estate, on the edge of Okehampton, is a hive of activity, Network Rail says, and work is being done as quickly as possible to reduce the impact on commuters who already use the Dartmoor Line.
