Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Leamside Line Campaign Gathers Pace - 5903/10247
Written by Lee on Wednesday, 20th February 2008

[quote author=Lee link=topic=491.msg2228#msg2228 date=1165496626]
[quote author=Lee link=topic=491.msg1552#msg1552 date=1159781518]"Growing The Railways" is about to face its first major challenge (links below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/5398068.stm
http://www.transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=327

"Re-open the Leamside line ─ to complement both passenger and freight services on the East Coast Main Line and as a diversion route during its closure for engineering and maintenance work."

Network Rail wants to remove all track from the Leamside Line , which runs from Gateshead to the East Coast Main Line at Ferryhill , near Durham.

The line has not been used since 1991 , when a freight terminal at Washington , near Sunderland , closed.

But the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) said the line had "huge potential for growth".

There are also hopes the line could be used to transport coal imported into Tyneside to power stations in Yorkshire.

Now PTA bosses and officials from Nexus , which runs the Tyne and Wear Metro , are appealing to Network Rail to halt the plans.[/quote]

According to the link below , the track will still be lifted , but the land wont be sold.
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2006/12/hopes_raised_that_rail_line_wi.html#more
[/quote]

Tyne and Wear transport executive Nexus commissioned a report into the possibilities of reopening the line, with trains running between Middlesbrough and Newcastle

Re: Leamside Line Campaign Gathers Pace - 5903/10516
Written by Lee on Monday, 3rd March 2008

Network Rail has previously cold-shouldered the plans for the new Tyne-Tees railway, which would see the reopening of the disused Leamside line, at a cost of more than

 
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Save the Train was the campaign to bring an approriate train service back to and through Melksham.

Most big contributors are still around writing at the Coffee shop forum where new members are very welcome.

The train has been saved - sort of - we have stepped back up from an unusable service to a poorish one but it's doing very well. We did that through setting up the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. That fulfilled its early objectives; it has been taken over by local and regional government types who are now doing medium and long term work. The team from this forun can also be found at the Melksham Rail User Group (which was the Melksham Rail Development Group at the time these articles were written and we had no users.

We mustn't loose sight, though, that the train service remains poor and needs our community support in marketing and campaigning to keep it going in a positive direction ... and all the more so when we're expecting to find a different normallity once we get out of the Coronavirus Pandemic and head for zero carbon via the climate crisis. Yes, it's saved ... it's now a key community facility ... the need for enhancement and the strong and near-universal local support remain, and the rail industry and goverment remain slow to move and provide the enhancements even to level us up with other towns. Please support the Melksham Rail User Group - now very much in partnership rather than protest with the rail industry and local government, including GWR, TransWilts and unitary and town councils. And please use the trains and buses, and cycle and walk when you can.

-- Graham Ellis, (webmaster), February 2021


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