IVANHOE LINE - CONSULTATIONS Submitted by 4th Mar 2008

Consultants have been called in to find out exactly what it would take to reopen an historic rail route.

The county council is funding a study into how much money and how many passengers would be needed to revive the Ivanhoe Line, now known as the National Forest Line.

Regular train services between Leicester and Burton on Trent, via Coalville and Ashby, have long been seen as a way to slash traffic congestion.

County Hall believes the railway line could be used to regenerate parts of north west Leicestershire and cope with housing growth in the coming decades.

Councillor Nicholas Rushton, county council cabinet member for transport, said he is "very serious" about the rail service.

He said: "The potential to reopen the Ivanhoe line to passenger traffic presents exciting opportunities, if the financial figures can be made to add up.

"An earlier study showed significant cost implications but the new agenda for housing growth and the need to tackle traffic congestion mean that it is timely for us to look at it again."

Transport experts will be brought in to work out the cost of upgrading the line to passenger standards.

They will also work out how many people would use the line and how far people would be willing to travel to stations.

The railway is used by freight traffic despite being closed to passengers. If the figures add up, the council says the earliest it could be reopened is 2014.

County councillors voted to shelve the passenger scheme in 2000 after being told that rail privatisation had made it too costly.

It was revealed that, even if County Hall received more than £13 million to launch the service, an annual subsidy of £2.2 million would have to be found towards running costs.

However, eight years later the council wants to look again.

The county council says it cannot reveal how much the new study will cost because it is still negotiating with suitors.

If all goes to plan work will start in April and the report ready by autumn.

Sean Sheahan, county councillor for Forest and Measham has campaigned for a feasibility study.

In November he presented a petition to the council asking for such a study.

He said: "I am delighted that at last the county council is taking seriously what some of us have been saying all along that the National Forest Line will bring considerable benefits to north west Leicestershire including tourism, regeneration and a reduction in traffic congestion."

Souce Leicester Mercury 4th March 08

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