Alrewas - campaign for station at National Memorial Arboretum

[whole diary]

[grahame]

To reinstate pax^▸ (passengers) services on Lichfield-Alrewas-Burton-on-Trent rail line,West Midlands,1,,,,

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Rail plans for Alrewas National Memorial Arboretum

A railway station could be built to serve the National Memorial Arboretum, under plans being discussed.

Currently, the site which holds 400 memorials as a place for year-long remembrance, is only accessible by car.

During a visit to the site on Friday, Rail Minister Wendy Morton MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) said there was a "strong case" for a station at the site in Alrewas, Staffordshire.

A decision on funding could be made by the government within the next two years.

Local MP Michael Fabricant said it would be part of a wider scheme to connect Birmingham via Lichfield to Burton-on-Trent.

The arboretum site attracts more than 300,000 visitors each year, and lies close to a rail line, with supporters calling for a station to allow more people to access the it.

Philippa Rawlinson, chief executive of the arboretum, said: "As the nation's place to remember, we need to be close to the nation and currently there is no public transport that gets people here to the National Memorial Arboretum."

"By me coming here...it gives me a better understanding of what the programme is, what the project is, and what I can say is it is on my radar," said Ms Morton, the parliamentary under secretary to the Department of Transport.

It makes sense to provide public transport ... 300,000 visitors equates to 600,000 journeys in addition to staff, and if 1 in 10 journey were by rail that would be perhaps 100 arrivals and 100 departures per day.  With the lines close by and within walking distance and very much accessible for all it could make sense - bearing in mind that visitor metric, it might be a little more than a bus shelter on a platform?

[Richard Fairhurst]

Slightly curious proposal.

The idea appears to be to put the station right next to the Arboretum on the Lichfield-Burton line.

There are currently no passenger trains on that line (save for occasional diversions). WMR^» (West Midlands Railway - website) Cross-City electric trains run as far as Lichfield Trent Valley, a couple of miles to the south, but the wires stop there so the services can't be extended.

So it means either stringing up a bit more wiring and extending the Cross-City trains, or running a diesel shuttle from Derby (?) to Lichfield. The latter could work, but six years of working and living part-time in Burton makes me think it wouldn't be particularly well patronised.

I know these things are rarely an either-or, but I'd prioritise the Ivanhoe line (Leicester-Burton) way above this.

[grahame]

There are currently no passenger trains on that line (save for occasional diversions).

On a technicality, Richard - my understanding is that there's a scheduled parliamentary service on that line - http://www.psul4all.free-online.co.uk/2022.pdf

Lichfield Trent Valley High Level - Wichnor Junction (056) CC02 Sundays:
1V48 0811 Leeds – Plymouth

which (I grant you) would be about as used as the Teeside Airport service if a station was opened and no more trains went that way.

[Celestial]

On a technicality, Richard - my understanding is that there's a scheduled parliamentary service on that line - http://www.psul4all.free-online.co.uk/2022.pdf

Lichfield Trent Valley High Level - Wichnor Junction (056) CC02 Sundays:
1V48 0811 Leeds – Plymouth

which (I grant you) would be about as used as the Teeside Airport service if a station was opened and no more trains went that way.

On a further technicality, is it a "parly", or a service to retain route knowledge for when services need to be diverted?

[grahame]

On a further technicality, is it a "parly", or a service to retain route knowledge for when services need to be diverted?

As I understand it, the original term "Parliamentary train" was a service that was required to run at least once a day at a cost to passengers of no more that 1d per mile and at an overall speed of not less that 12 m.p.h.   Sadly, there has been some price increase since, though trains are now faster.

The term has morphed to mean a scheduled service which keeps a line or station open - where it would need a complex procedure to close it, and so the service still runs, even though it might be a bit daft - cases like Newhaven Marine come to mind.

The line from Wichnor Junction to Lichfield Trent Valley, as far as I'm aware, falls into that "Parliamentary" category - still open for passenger traffic and there has to be a scheduled train through there.    I would suspect that, additional, it is a useful line for route knowledge purposes as you suggest.