Transport Minister (): Today (20 June 2022), I
am pleased to announce further development funding for 9 rail
schemes under the Restoring Your Railway Fund. This brings
communities in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, County Durham and beyond
one step closer to being reconnected to the rail network, with
the transformational levelling-up opportunities for jobs, homes
and education that public transport provides.
The Restoring Your Railway Fund is making substantial progress to
restore previously closed rail lines: the £500 million commitment
is supporting the development or delivery of over 45 schemes
across England and Wales, and we have already reintroduced
services to the Dartmoor Line between Okehampton and Exeter.
I am today announcing further funding for schemes that entered
Restoring Your Railway as early-stage ideas, which have already
been supported through the fund to develop a Strategic Outline
Business Case and will now be progressing further. I am also
announcing funding for proposals at more advanced stages.
The 9 schemes receiving further funding with the potential to
level up and reconnect communities are: the Barrow Hill line
between Sheffield and Chesterfield; the Ivanhoe Line between
Leicester and Burton on Trent; new stations at Meir in
Staffordshire, Haxby in Yorkshire, Devizes in Wiltshire,
Ferryhill in County Durham; Aldridge station and line upgrade in
Walsall; reinstating the Fleetwood line; and the Mid Cornwall
Metro scheme for services between Newquay and Falmouth.
More than 50 years since the railways were radically reshaped
during the infamous Beeching cuts of the 1960s when thousands of
miles of both track and stations were closed, the Restoring Your
Railway Fund is now focused on developing and delivering the
benefits of the schemes within its portfolio.
If delivered, these lines and stations will make a real
contribution to levelling up the country, reinvigorating high
streets and breathing new life into previously cut-off areas.
Alongside this announcement, we are publishing a Restoring Your Railway
fund update, which sets out progress on all schemes that have
received funding, and will be placed in the libraries of both
Houses, as well as being publicly accessible online through the
GOV.UK website.
