Railways in the News

[76026]

[quote="the green mile" post_id=121 time=1580285494 user_id=70]
More news this week regarding a £500m fund to look at reversing some of the Beeching cuts of the 1960's.

I was looking yesterday at the list of bids to the 'Restoring your Railway' fund, and noticed that one of them sought funding to 'restore the line to 'Gravity Innovation Campus'. I've never heard of this before, but perhaps that's becasue I live out of area. A search led to https://thisisgravity.co.uk/campus-info/, from which it looks to me that the intented site is the former ROF depot at Puriton, and the line to be restored is the branch that used to connect the RoF to the Bristol- Taunton line.

Sounds like a long shot to me (sorry!).

[the green mile]

Not sure what you have done there but you appear to be quoting me as saying something I did not say, apart from the first line.

Roy

[76026]

Roy, this is my (extremely late running) apology. I did indeed quote you as saying something that you didn't. At my end, the process of including a quote in a reply doesn't seem to work the way it used to. Pah! Technology, eh?

I stand by the comments that I inadvertently attributed to you, i.e. I still doubt that the bid for funding to reinstall the former ROF branch to Puriton will get very far.

On a more optimistic note concerning the reopeneing of closed routes (albeit out of area), I am pleased to see that trains have been running to Okehampton for staff route knowledge purposes

[StrawberryLine]

I was looking yesterday at the list of bids to the 'Restoring your Railway' fund, and noticed that one of them sought funding to 'restore the line to 'Gravity Innovation Campus'. I've never heard of this before, but perhaps that's becasue I live out of area. A search led to https://thisisgravity.co.uk/campus-info/, from which it looks to me that the intented site is the former ROF depot at Puriton, and the line to be restored is the branch that used to connect the RoF to the Bristol- Taunton line.

You are indeed right, Gravity is the redevelopment site for the Royal Ordinance Factory at Puriton, nr. Bridgwater which was at one time served by a goods only branch off the Main Bristol-Exeter Line near Dunball. Living locally we have been getting PR material about the site proclaiming it is going to get the link re-instated for passenger trains. Personally think it's a bit pie in the sky, it would involve a reversal off the main line for any train heading to Bristol and similarly a reversal back onto the main line for anything heading south. With it currently taking about an hour to get from Bridgwater to Bristol stopping at all stations, how long would that take to get to Bristol. One saving grace on the infrastructure side is that the single track bridge over the M5 is still in existence so the freight be reinstated but what commodities would go by rail? Junction 23 of the M5 is at the front door anyway. Have seen some talk somewhere about a "Parkway" Station for Bridgwater, I suppose it could be incorporated into that perhaps using a people mover type link. Bit off topic for the Bristol Railway Archive, sorry.