An unusual announcement for just before an election:
http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2015/04/09-government-rules-out-north-cotswold.html
http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2015/04/09-government-rules-out-north-cotswold.html
THE government has ruled out upgrading the North Cotswold Line linked with proposed restoration of the former route line between Stratford-on-Avon and Honeybourne as a strategic alternative to the route in South Warwickshire recently closed by a 350,000-tonne landslip.
Transport minister Clare Perry has told Jeremy Wright, who is Attorney General and was Kenilworth and Southams MP until the pre-election period began, that redoubling 17km of the line between Charlbury and Wolvercott, near Oxford, would cost £160 - £200 million before a diversionary route of sufficient capacity between Birmingham and Oxford could be created.
This price range is around twice the reported cost of redoubling almost twice the distance of the Cotswold line further west five years ago, but is significantly less than the options being actively considered by the government to provide a strategic alternative to the Dawlish route after last years disruption.
Of the North Cotswold Line, Ms Perry stated: There is no strategic case for this to be done adding that reopening the line from Stratford to Honeybourne (known as S2H) was a matter for local authorities to consider.
However, a report already commissioned by the local authorities from Arup has forecast that, with demand growing on the North Cotswold Line by 6.1 per cent a year, S2H reopening could have a benefit/cost ratio of up to 2:1.
Following the landslip-enforced six-week closure of the main line during February and March at Harbury, between Leamington Spa and Banbury, many freight services to between Northern England and the Midlands and the Port of Southampton had to be found alternative routes, mainly over the already-congested West Coast Main Line where essential overnight maintenance work, and a major engineering project at Watford Junction, had to be postponed.
One of the campaigners for S2H re-opening, Fraser Pithie, proposed to Network Rails chief executive Mark Carne on 6 February that the restored Stratford-Honeybourne route and an upgraded North Cotswold line could provide a strategic alternative to the route through Harbury which has been afflicted by poor ground conditions ever since it was built by Isambard Brunel 160 years ago.
In a reply on 23 February, signed by Network Rails Community Relations Executive Daniel Coles, Mr Pithie was told: We did not foresee the situation we now face as a result of the landslip and we need to consider carefully if the value of the (Cotswold) route as an alternative in events such of [sic] this can be assigned a value. To that end I have been advised that our Group Strategy Team will look at this example and consider if these matters would make any material difference.
He added: "This will form part of the West Midlands and Chiltern route study process that has just commenced.
But Mr Pithie has now learnt that just a month later, on 27 March, Transport Minister Clare Perry replied to Jeremy Wright MP, saying: I am afraid that doing this as a safeguard against future unforeseen unplanned blockages of the Chiltern Main Line is limited against very high costs.