We have been given clearance to give a public update on the work that's been going on with Network Rail and the reopening of the Ivanhoe Line.
You will recall that Network Rail received government funding from the Restoring Your Railway programme in June 2022 to further develop the Ivanhoe project and that this work is proceeding on schedule. This Development stage will conclude around the end of the year, with the selection of a preferred option and the production of an Outline Business Case. This will be considered by Network Rail and the Department for Transport to determine whether to allow the project to continue to the Design stage.
To put the work to reopen the line into context we must remember that the reopening would be funded by the government's Restoring Your Railways (RYR) Programme. This Programme has given us the first realistic opportunity in decades to have the line reopened. We are very well placed to benefit from the scheme because the case that we have presented is so compelling. But we must be realistic about our goals
To qualify for support from this program the proposed work must meet the government's parameters:
Successful schemes must be ready to start work on the ground before the next election. This means the detailed design work must be fully complete and costed. Also the benefits must be identified, quantified and clearly demonstrate that they meet the government's criteria. If all this isnt done and work cannot be started before the next election we will not be considered for funding,
The total budget for the whole programme is £500m. The Dartmoor line and the Northumberland line projects have already been funded from this budget.
To be successful in getting some passenger trains running on the Ivanhoe line using this precious opportunity we must make sure that our proposal complies with these parameters. If it does not then we will not get any passenger trains running on the line.
Part of the focus over the last 12 months by Network Rail has been on the application of Minimum Viable Product principles, revisiting the aims of the project and the target train service to best balance cost and benefits. This approach will maximise the chances of passenger trains running on the Line again.
As a result of this the project will now concentrate on connecting the key towns in the corridor at Coalville, Ashby and Swadlincote / Castle Gresley to Burton-on-Trent. Additionally, the project will aim to extend the service north to Derby to provide direct connectivity to job and education opportunities. Current thinking is for an initial hourly service in each direction from Derby to Coalville.
The benefits of getting to Leicester are not enough to justify the costs of the track work, at this time. And we have always been aware that the connection at Knighton to the mainline would rely on the proposed remodelling of Leicester mainline being completed, and that this would not be carried out within the RYR timeframes already described.
Whilst CRIL are very pleased that the railway to Coalville would be reopened to passengers under this project, our aim is to get services restored to Leicester main line station. CRIL fully supports this initial scheme, but we will continue to Campaign for a separate future project to complete the job. This would then be a much more attractive proposition when the results of the initial Ivanhoe service provide a concrete demonstration of the demand for rail travel along the corridor.
Experience on the two most recent passenger railway reopenings in the UK (The Borders Railway and the Dartmoor Line) has shown that the actual usage of the lines has greatly exceeded expectations. This together with the inevitable impetus to the lines credibility caused by trains actually running between Derby and Coalville will make it easier for CRIL to make the case for the to be extended to Leicester to the next government after the election.
CRIL will be carrying on campaigning for the full reopening and build on this initial opening, working with councils and politicians and the support of the public. We will be announcing more details on this Campaign through this page as we develop it during the autumn.
The plans for the locations of the stations at Coalville, Ashby and Gresley (for Swadlincote) have already been discussed with local councils. Network Rail have proposed several options of station designs to the local councils, and the selection of the best site will be decided through local consultation. The stations will be a minimalist design providing disabled access to the platform which will have a shelter, train indicator boards and ticket machines. As these will be relatively low cost additional stations could be built after opening when there is more time to build the cases and real usage data would be available to more accurately predict the demand for additional stations. CRIL would be keen to work with local communities (such as Drakelow and Moira/National Forest) to propose such extra stations.
There is a lot to digest here. We do have more detail to share with you about the proposal, the future new campaign, the station locations and how to demonstrate the essential local support needed to get this first stage over the line. We will do so through a series of posts on here over the next few weeks.
This is all very exciting news, tinged of course with sadness that we can't reopen the whole line in one step. However right from the very start of the Campaign we knew we could find ourselves in such a situation. We discussed it when the late Geoff Bushell was in the chair. He reminded us of several similar campaigns elsewhere which had refused the opportunity of a partial opening and are still waiting to get anything done for their communities. We agreed at that early stage that a partial opening would be a fantastic catalyst to getting passenger trains running on the whole line.
