Fletton branch

[Mvann]

According to the nene valley railway website, there is a consultation paper out for the transfer of the fletton branch from brb residual to the nene valley railway. A flyer has also gone out from the friends of nene valley railway to raise funds towards the costs of the transfer of the transport and works act.

 

[MK Tom]

Do they have plans for the line? Or is it just that BRB want it off their hands?

It's always been a mystery to me why the NVR doesn't have any planes to extend west towards Oundle.

 

[IanD]

Do they have plans for the line? Or is it just that BRB want it off their hands?

It's always been a mystery to me why the NVR doesn't have any planes to extend west towards Oundle.

Perhaps they don't have room for a runway

 

[NIMBUS]

Do they have plans for the line? Or is it just that BRB want it off their hands?

It's always been a mystery to me why the NVR doesn't have any planes to extend west towards Oundle.

The answer that I've always had from TPTB are that the amount of work/cost to reinstate the formation, bridges, culverts etc would be too great.

The current alignment at Yarwell Mill takes the old Nassington line and, I think, that the new station platform fouls the old Oundle route. I always thought that that was a short-sighted move (much like the failure to promote a DMU commuter service from Wansford, "A1 Parkway", into the city - which could also have competed with the bus from Oundle, if the line had been extended).

At the Oundle end the A605 works have intruded upon the original formation.

In recent years the NVR seems to have become happy to rest on its laurels and doesn't seem to have any ambition to expand. Probably just as well, given their limited resources - the signalling at Woodston Wharf/PNV was put in in the mid-1980s and is still not operational! Sadly it's a railway that doesn't, for some reason, attract a significant number of younger members - many of the faces there I have known for over thirty years and they are now reaching the age where there are fewer and fewer of them each time I visit.

 

[Mvann]

With regards to a comuter or park and ride scheme, for this to be successful, you would have to run every day and would either need a lot of volunteers or more paid staff. Swannage seems to have made a good job of it to a certain extent, weardale have tried and given up, keighley and worth are still looking in to it, the last I heard. As to extending either to oundle or heading towards seaton junction, it's going to be expensive both in the extending and the running and maintaining of. Oundle maybe just about viable, but being on the edge of the town, would need a decent amount of land available for parking. Going to nassington and kingscliffe would be good for the enthusiasts as there are decent gradients on that stretch, but wether kingscliffe is a viable destination, I don't know.