New Station Fund

[The Ham]

I don't know if this was picked up in any of the treads, but there is going to be fund for creating new stations:
http://www.rtmjobs.com/rail-news/article/2562-ilkeston-could-benefit-from-20m-new-stations-fund/

http://www.transportxtra.com/magazines/local_transport_today/news/?ID=31672
(part artical from a subsription service)

As such are there any locations which would benefit from a new station?

 

[MK Tom]

Where to start? Skelmersdale... Kenilworth... Middlewich... Roade... the list is endless!

 

[scandal]

As stated at the time Ilkeston is likely to get the nod, I'm slightly put off by the £20m figure which would indicate some 4 stations in total for what appears to be the foreseeable future...isn't there a XC Parkway near Leamington that often gets talked about?

 

[Tiny Tim]

Whilst I applaud the opening of more stations, isn't this another 'back door' funding of a supposedly privatised railway? If all the money that is pumped into the system through these means is added up it makes the whole privatised business laughably uneconomic. I'd be laughing if it wasn't my money.

 

[The Ham]

I'm slightly put off by the £20m figure which would indicate some 4 stations in total for what appears to be the foreseeable future.

I would have thought that the fund would not fund the whole cost of the station, or if it does then when future housing was built the transport section of the Section 106 payments (developer contributions to the highway authority for public transport improvements) would repay part of the costs, topping up the fund again.

 

[D365]

Didn't Network Rail build (or at least design) a station for only half a million? It's still very expensive though...

 

[scandal]

I would have thought that the fund would not fund the whole cost of the station, or if it does then when future housing was built the transport section of the Section 106 payments (developer contributions to the highway authority for public transport improvements) would repay part of the costs, topping up the fund again.

It depends on the site, for example the proposed 10,000 properties on the site of Filton airfield does not have any CIL plans for a station or to even bring into use the Henbury loop, this is being seen as independent through major scheme grants. I factored in your arguments about the cost of local contributions through CIL/106 based on the cost of recent station reopenings, Corby was for example £8.3m for a modular NR standard design station, despite there being a platform available from an earlier reopening in 1987. The recently announced package of funding for Kirkstall Forge and Apperley Bridge is £16.9m for both stations, so again a cost of about £8m each, DfT grant for funding was some £10.3m for two stations. Realistically at current prices from the £20m capital grant funding I'd be amazed to get anymore then 4 or 5 stations. Trying to get developers and local authorities to spend the local transport contribution on rail based solutions is often harder then it appears....

 

[D365]

Sounds rather like the Alconbury Airfield, an "enterprise zone" being developed by Urban&Civic. They want to build a [brand new] loop off the ECML, but with the flyovers needed and extending the 4 tracking, I'd say the station is the least of their worries!