Bridging the gap at Loughborough
 

New £15m plan for East Midlands heritage rail link

Fresh plans are being made to rebuild the bridge at Loughborough to link the two bits of the Great Central Railway.

A company has been formed.

There was quite a long report on the project on "East Midlands Today" yesterday (Wednesday). If you didn't see it it may be available on i player.

Best wishes,

John H-T

This will be great news if it happens but an obvious question - why will it cost such a phenomenal amount of money???

A while ago ATOC published a request for comments on reopening certain closed stations on main and secondary lines. One was Clay Cross in Derbyshire. The proposed site was south rather than north of the original junction but at least this meant it would only be a simple two platform affair. The estimated cost? £3million.

The Victorians got a gang of men to build a real station, rather than a modern bus shelter affair, for a tiny fraction of that sort of money in real terms. Now we don't seem able to do anything without a vast team of people in offices doing studies and loads of managers in yellow jackets standing around on site checking that thousands of directives are being adhered to.

I won't go ranting on for ever but can anyone see a way out of this wasteland of expense so that we can do things safely, cheaply and quickly again?

Well perhaps it's better to be safe than sorry. The first Tay bridge was a great example of just that and look what happened.

This, as I understand it, will be more than a heritage railway, but a commuter line too and heavey freight carrier. I have long supported the idea that heritage railways could well do that so this is a step in the right direction. The gap being bridged shall not be along the lines of modern rubbish that plagues our country, but viaducts of blue engineers bricks and stations and track of a decent standard, or so railway publications would have us believe. I trust their judgement.
Rail Magazine has commented on the subject, and that must be true seeign as their managing editor is the project Chairman Nigel Harris!

Really hope it happens, will be a 'fine' railway when it does, but these prices being quoted, not just on the GCR but the railway in general are outrageous to say the least

As usual, some journo has taken the top price from what was originally quoted as "£10-15 Million pounds" and run with it as the headline. If you read back through the story elsewhere, a figure of Seven million was quoted.

Regards, 62440.

Commuter line I think not!:confused:.
The line will only run from Ruddington(3 miles south of Nottingham City Centre) to Birstall(Leicester North) (2 Miles North of Leicester City Centre)
Loughborough Central station is about a mile from the centre of Loughborough & even further from the main industrial estates.

And on the opposite side of town to the university, which claims to be the town's largest employer........

Regards, 62440.

In this months (soon to be last months) steam railway publications the railway eventually wishes to extend north as far as popssible to link up with the proposed tram route, which could techincally make it work.
Extending south as far as the space centre would also equal things out.
GCR(N) already carries freight from East Leake and the mountsorrel branch is proposed to be used once more to relieve pressure on the Midland Mainline). It is this contract that is hoped might fund part of the project.
Chester station is outside the city centre that it serves, but a free bus link to the centre operates every few minutes. Perhaps thats an option at Loughborough.

Free? In Loughborough? Hah! The only thing free around this town is the air that we breathe, but even that ain't too clean!

Regards, 62440.