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Porterbrook leases Long Marston site

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jimm

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Porterbook leasing has agreed to take over the running of the Long Marston site, on the boundary of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, from next year.

Network Rail has recently replaced the rickety old track on the branch from Honeybourne, so looks like it could get a lot busier in future.

Announcement on Porterbrook's website from last Friday.

Porterbrook today announced that it has signed a 15-year lease with St. Modwen that will see the rolling stock asset management company take over future-direction and development of the extensive rail-connected Long Marston facility in Warwickshire.

Today’s announcement secures the long-term future of Long Marston as a railway centre, connected to the national rail network, and will also put Warwickshire on the global map for rail innovation and expertise. The decision to secure and invest in Long Marston also reflects Porterbrook’s absolute commitment to developing and supporting Britain's railway.

The Long Marston site covers 135 acres and consists of 12 miles of storage sidings, a two-mile test-track loop, a short length of electrified line and a number of rail served light maintenance structures.

Management of Long Marston (also known as Quinton Rail Technology Centre) will transfer to Porterbrook by the end of Q2, 2021 and we look forward to working with Motorail to maintain the site’s current capabilities during the transition in management.

https://www.porterbrook.co.uk/news/porterbrook-to-expand-into-long-marston
 
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D365

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Looks like the penny has finally dropped for St. Mowden Properties. As idillic and peaceful as the area is, the site is in a pretty poor location for the previously mooted “eco-town”.

They’ve probably also realised that there is a genuine market need for secure railway storage facilities.
 

jimm

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Looks like the penny has finally dropped for St. Mowden Properties. As idillic and peaceful as the area is, the site is in a pretty poor location for the previously mooted “eco-town”.

They’ve probably also realised that there is a genuine market need for secure railway storage facilities.

It can be quite hard to follow the various development schemes for the Long Marston area, but the only one controlled by St Modwen relates to the former Royal Engineers site, of which the railway complex is just one part. St Modwen and Persimmon have built a lot of homes over the past few years at what they call Meon Vale - they have consent for just over 1,000 houses in total on what is the area that was linked to the eco-town proposal.

http://www.meonvale.co.uk

The adjacent Long Marston airfield site is separate, with Cala Homes developing a garden village scheme there, with the possibility of up to 3,500 houses eventually. Work on the first phase of 400 homes is about about to start. They have set aside land for a station site and offered to put in £17m to help reopen the line to Stratford but unless the councils in Warwickshire finally decide to get serious about the rail scheme, it will just make the less-than-ideal roads in the area even busier. The only transport link the councils seem interested in progressing at the moment is relief roads along the western side of Stratford that will eventually link the A46 to the A3400.

Planning approval is already in place for the first 400 homes, community facilities and employment space on the site which forms part of the proposed Long Marston Garden Village. It will also be supported by up to £13.4 million of funding from the Homes England Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) which aims to unlock key sites for development.

https://www.cala.co.uk/about-cala/n...o-start-on-first-phase-of-garden-village-site

There are expected to be more than 20,000 people living in the wider Long Marston area once all the houses have been built - that is something like two-thirds of the current population of Stratford-upon-Avon - this is not some small new rural community we are talking about.

Having cycled the route, that'd be a huge amount of work for what benefit?

How about linking up Stratford with Evesham and Worcester by rail and vice versa, with onward links to Birmingham, etc, that it would create at either end and providing a fast link between Stratford and London, via the Cotswold Line and Oxford, etc, etc... and enabling those 20,000 people to get around by means other than their cars or a sketchy bus service.

http://suawoox.com/index.html
 

D365

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It can be quite hard to follow the various development schemes for the Long Marston area, but the only one controlled by St Modwen relates to the former Royal Engineers site, of which the railway complex is just one part. St Modwen and Persimmon have built a lot of homes over the past few years at what they call Meon Vale - they have consent for just over 1,000 houses in total on what is the area that was linked to the eco-town proposal.

There are expected to be more than 20,000 people living in the wider Long Marston area once all the houses have been built - that is something like two-thirds of the current population of Stratford-upon-Avon - this is not some small new rural community we are talking about.

Ah, I wasn't aware that the plan for Long Marston was quite that substantial! I had assumed that it would just be piecemeal extensions to the existing Meon Vale development. That's going to be quite a change to the landscape.

How about linking up Stratford with Evesham and Worcester by rail and vice versa, with onward links to Birmingham, etc, that it would create at either end and providing a fast link between Stratford and London, via the Cotswold Line and Oxford, etc, etc... and enabling those 20,000 people to get around by means other than their cars or a sketchy bus service.

Fair enough, I did notice the reliance on cars when I lived out that way briefly. Again I had assumed that the purpose of the reopening would be to serve local communities, didn't really see the bigger picture.

The issue I see would be the need for grade separation as I assume Network Rail would hardly be appeased with the idea of reopening all those level crossings. But hopefully there'll be enough "big picture" minds involved.

In any case it's interesting to see that the medium term future of the QRTC is secured even with the housing developments that are proposed around the site.
 

jimm

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Ah, I wasn't aware that the plan for Long Marston was quite that substantial! I had assumed that it would just be piecemeal extensions to the existing Meon Vale development. That's going to be quite a change to the landscape.

Fair enough, I did notice the reliance on cars when I lived out that way briefly. Again I had assumed that the purpose of the reopening would be to serve local communities, didn't really see the bigger picture.

The issue I see would be the need for grade separation as I assume Network Rail would hardly be appeased with the idea of reopening all those level crossings. But hopefully there'll be enough "big picture" minds involved.

In any case it's interesting to see that the medium term future of the QRTC is secured even with the housing developments that are proposed around the site.

In Stratford, the plan would be to put a single-track line in a trench and underpasses, below the road level, from the end of the Greenway trail up to the station, so no level crossings - there is space to do this alongside the road that now uses the old trackbed. Study work has alreadybeen done previously that takes things up to Grip 2 or thereabouts in the Network Rail system.

There's never been any suggestion of building on the rail site, as there were plenty of other parts of the MoD depot to reuse for housing, and St Modwen has done very nicely out of leasing it out for various rail-related operations. It has been in use for rolling stock storage and repairs since 2005 - which came after about a five-year gap in use of the branch line since the last military-related traffic.

There are pictures going all the way back from this year to the latter years of MoD traffic in the 1990s on photographer Peter Tandy's website

http://www.petertandy.co.uk/longmarston page.html
 

Baxenden Bank

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Looks like the penny has finally dropped for St. Mowden Properties. As idillic and peaceful as the area is, the site is in a pretty poor location for the previously mooted “eco-town”.

They’ve probably also realised that there is a genuine market need for secure railway storage facilities.
St Modwen are happy to play a long game when developing their portfolio. The 15 year lease keeps the site ticking over in the meantime.
Are there any stumbling blocks to the next major phase of development eg major infrastructure? They are happy to wait until someone else (generally the public purse) pays for that infrastructure, claiming there is 'no demand' for their development then, as soon as the infrastructure is funded, as if by magic the shopkeeper (occupier) appears [a reference to the animated TV series Mr Benn for younger readers].
 

Baxenden Bank

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Haven't I read somewhere that they've already moved out? Or am I dreaming it (we all dream about vivarail, right? :E)
I had a dream about Vivarail. It involved a fleet of refurbished trains which, even with 50% spare capacity, still couldn't provide a reliable service. Then I woke up covered in sweat and my heart pounding.
 

The_Train

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I had a dream about Vivarail. It involved a fleet of refurbished trains which, even with 50% spare capacity, still couldn't provide a reliable service. Then I woke up covered in sweat and my heart pounding.

And sat on a railway station platform waiting for a vivarail train? :E
 

Royston Vasey

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Haven't I read somewhere that they've already moved out? Or am I dreaming it (we all dream about vivarail, right? :E)
That aerial photo shows how much of the site, whenever that was taken, is/was being clogged with unconverted D Stock with no home. And most of the rest with Porterbrook's 319s with no home.
 
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D365

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How does this affect Vivarail, if at all?

Vivarail have their own dedicated sidings, workshops and offices/portakabins on the west side of the site. As far as I'm aware, the production base will be moving to Southam, but I'm not sure if they will be moving their registered address (i.e. Mr Shooter's office) at this point.
 
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