Cottam Power Station to close on 30th September 2019

[Rail Ranger]

The Energy Live News website is reporting that "Nottinghamshire Power Station to Close". This refers to Cottam Power Station. The news will have an effect on rail traffic.

https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/02/07/nottinghamshire-coal-fired-power-station-to-close/

EDF Energy has announced it is set to close its coal-fired power station at Cottam in Nottinghamshire.

The energy supplier said the closure of the 2GW plant – six years earlier than expected by unions and employees – reflects the “challenging market conditions over the last few years and the context of the drive to decarbonise electricity generation”.

It proposes to cease generation on 30th September 2019, following which Cottam “will not be economically viable”.

Construction of the power plant began in 1966 and it started generating electricity in 1969.

Plant Manager Andy Powell said: “When the power station was built, it was designed to operate for 30 years. It’s a credit to our people, the engineering and EDF Energy’s investment that it has operated for more than 50 years. There has been an aspiration to move away from coal for a long time now and we have prepared thoroughly for the closure.

 

[mwmbwls]

What are the rail implications - which trains and routes will be impacted?

 

[Rail Ranger]

The closure of the coal-fired power station at Cottam will probably lead to the closure of the 3-mile branch line to the power station from Clarborough Junction on the former Great Central Railway Retford to Gainsborough line. Rail traffic which will be lost includes imported coal from Immingham, limestone from Tunstead in the Peak District and gypsum to Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. Limestone is used in the flue gas desulphurisation plant at the power station and gypsum is a by-product of this process. There is also a gas-fired power station at Cottam but that does not require rail access.

 

[The Lad]

We obviously do not need the capacity from coal to the extent we did but it seems an odd time to close it on the approach of winter.

 

[Rail Ranger]

30th September is the end of the 2018-2019 period covered by the Government-funded capacity market scheme and Cottam was not successful in gaining any payments for following periods. Incidentally this scheme is currently in abeyance due to a European Commission ruling that it left renewables at a disadvantage. The UK Government is trying to get this judgement overturned.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

We should bear in mind that this power station was designed for a 30 year operating life.

It's now done 50 years, so the railway has benefited from 20 extra years worth of freights to it that it wouldn't not have otherwise had.

 

[Mugby]

The line to Cottam once formed a through route to Sykes Junction on the Doncaster - Lincoln line, (just north of Saxilby)

In it's time, it offered a much shorter route between Retford and Lincoln by virtue of by-passing Gainsborough.

 

[Welly]

The closure of the coal-fired power station at Cottam will probably lead to the closure of the 3-mile branch line to the power station from Clarborough Junction on the former Great Central Railway Retford to Gainsborough line.

Correction: It will lead to the closure of that branch.

The line to Cottam once formed a through route to Sykes Junction on the Doncaster - Lincoln line, (just north of Saxilby)

In it's time, it offered a much shorter route between Retford and Lincoln by virtue of by-passing Gainsborough.

Only because Great Central wanted it's own route to Lincoln from it's own ex-MSL line. Basically it was a line from nowhere to nowhere via nowhere! It closed completely as a through route in November 1959 due to the condition of the bridge over the River Trent at Torksey - the bridge is still there today! The eastern half from Sykes Junction was re-opened sometime in the 1960s to serve an oil distribution depot at Torksey - rail traffic ended in the late 1980s with the branch being dismantled by the early 1990s. The oil depot itself closed in the 1990s.

 

[NSEFAN]

When was the last railtour down this branch? Perhaps there will be one before closure, or shortly after.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Correction: It will lead to the closure of that branch.

Not necessarily. For example Longannet Power Station closed in 2016 but TALGO are looking to build a train manufacturing facility on the site if they get the contract for the trains for HS2.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Only because Great Central wanted it's own route to Lincoln from it's own ex-MSL line. Basically it was a line from nowhere to nowhere via nowhere! It closed completely as a through route in November 1959 due to the condition of the bridge over the River Trent at Torksey - the bridge is still there today! The eastern half from Sykes Junction was re-opened sometime in the 1960s to serve an oil distribution depot at Torksey - rail traffic ended in the late 1980s with the branch being dismantled by the early 1990s. The oil depot itself closed in the 1990s.

Torksey Viaduct is now walkable under the care of Sustrans and Railway Paths. https://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/historic-torksey-viaduct-opens-link-communities

It would be good if the branch could be preserved for walking and cycling use, at least as far as North Leverton, and the path reconnected to Torksey Viaduct.

 

[Welly]

Not necessarily. For example Longannet Power Station closed in 2016 but TALGO are looking to build a train manufacturing facility on the site if they get the contract for the trains for HS2.

Cottam is in the middle of nowhere (I live not far away) so I cannot imagine any manufacturing facility needing rail-borne traffic be proposed for the site.

 

[DarloRich]

What are the rail implications - which trains and routes will be impacted?

The line to the power statuon will close.

 

[takno]

Cottam is in the middle of nowhere (I live not far away) so I cannot imagine any manufacturing facility needing rail-borne traffic be proposed for the site.

To be fair, you get to Longannet by going to the middle of nowhere and then carrying on for another10 miles or so.

 

[alangla]

Also the political embarrassment of SAK closing after only 10 years of operation. In truth, the AK bit and on to Dunfermline probably should close as it’s basically used for the SRPS Forth Circle tours and the odd supermarket container train when Stirling to Dundee is shut for engineering. The SA bit, recently electrified, would probably grow even more if it was doubled with 2-4 TPH all day split between Edinburgh & Glasgow