A new dawn for rural rail services?

Supporters of Britain’s local and rural railways have given a resounding welcome to the Government’s new strategy for rural railways.

The Community Rail Development Strategy was unveiled on Monday 22 November 2004 by Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport.

The strategy sets out a framework for taking forward Britain’s local and rural railways forward as vital arteries of the local economy.

Transport Minister Tony McNulty met representatives of community rail partnership movement in Huddersfield as part of the launch and rode the scenic line between Huddersfield and Penistone and met members of the Penistone Line Partnership.

The line is one of the seven national demonstration projects for the strategy.

The Penistone Line Partnership has been one of the most successful rail partnerships and is famed for its music trains, community bus links and its management of a community car club. Passenger numbers on the line rose by 14% last year.

The federal body for rail partnerships, the Association of Community Rail Partnerships, hosted the minister’s visit to Huddersfield.

Over 60 community rail partnership officers and rail industry partners from all over the UK attended the meeting in Huddersfield Station’s Head of Steam railway pub.

ACoRP has given strong endorsement to the strategy. "We believe that this strategy will pave the way towards a strong, sustainable future for local railways enabling them to play and even more important part in the lives of their communities," said Dr Paul Salveson, general manager of ACoRP.

ACoRP has been closely involved in the development of the strategy and paid tribute to the Strategic Rail Authority and Department for Transport in launching an extensive consultation process.

"Over 300 responses were received during consultation on the strategy," said ACoRP chair Peter Roberts. "These well-informed and supportive comments helped to shape the final version of the strategy. We’re delighted with it and we are ready to play our part in making things happen straight away."

Mr Darling said: "Rural railways are important to many parts of the country. We want more people to use rural railway lines and the development of community railways is a vital part of that.

"The future of rural lines depends on effective partnerships between local authorities, community groups and, of course, passengers. The SRA's Community Rail Development Strategy clearly sets out how this can be achieved and the Government is extremely keen to see it implemented."

The seven chosen pilot schemes are:

St Ives Bay Line (St Erth-St Ives, Cornwall)
Looe Valley Line (Liskeard-Looe, Cornwall)
Tamar Valley Line (Plymouth-Gunnislake)
St Albans Abbey Branch (Watford Junction-St Albans)
Grantham-Skegness Line
Penistone Line (Sheffield-Huddersfield)
Esk Valley Line (Middlesbrough-Whitby)

The strategy can be obtained from the Strategic Rail Authority’s Community Rail Team on 0207 654 6279. It can also be downloaded from the SRA website (www.sra.gov.uk)

More info:
Paul Salveson 07971 884241
DfT Press office 0207 944 3248

Association of Community Rail Partnerships, Brian Jackson Centre, New North Parade, Huddersfield HD1 5JP. Tel: 01484 549737. Fax: 01484 544234. Email: paul@acorp.uk.com Website: www.acorp.uk.com