RAIL REOPENINGS
MOTHBALLED FREIGHT LINE MAY CARRY PASSENGERS AGAIN
With a focus on potential railway openings through the Restoring Your Railway programme, Fraser Pithie, who has been involved in the Stratford-upon-Avon to Honeybourne bid progressing through the DfT’s process, looks at a Devon freight branch where new technology could bring passengers back after a 60-year gap.
One line in the South West proposed for reopening is the former freight-only branch to Heathfield, which last saw traffic in 2015. A pair of Class 56s, led by No. 56078, approach the timber stack at Teign Bridge prior to going to run round at Heathfield in March 2015.
ALL PICTURES: PETER DOEL (UNLESS STATED)
VERY light rail train technology could be the key to a redundant Devon railway line reopening. Rolling stock company Eversholt Rail is actively considering a currently disused railway line connected to, but segregated from, the national rail network at Newton Abbot main line railway station.
Reopening the line could provide 30-minute frequency rail passenger services between Newton Abbot and Heathfield, and serve a potential new station for Kingsteignton situated near Teignbridge level crossing, where considerable housing development has occurred in recent years.
The Heath Rail Link Group (HRLG) has welcomed the news, which follows an approach by Eversholt. The railway leasing and technology company is developing new forms of light rail transit (LRT) stock to provide diesel-electric hybrid powertrain type vehicles ideal for short branch lines.