Moorlands and City Railway

Network Rail

 

How about the Office of Regulation of Railways (ORR)? Cross a public highway ( on the level, over or above) and you fall foul of the Railway & Other Guided Systems Regs (ROGS).

 

Ah right, I didn't realise NR/ORR would get involved in the issue of how many trains they would run on the track, I thought their interest was more strategic, for example ensuring that operating methods are correct/safe before services start to run. Not my area of expertise, clearly!
Why might these bodies want to impose such a low number of annual train movements, arguably making a route commercially nonviable from day one? Presumably they need to be able to publicly justify their decisions.

 

Only allowed up to the crossing and not into the station

 

How will the train run round at leek brook, will the loop be completed for then?

 

give the CVR office a ring..they will be able to help you more on that subject

 

Regrettably, I don't share your optimistic view that the CVR Office will be able to help you but I could be wrong of course. Please, give it a try and let us know what you are told.

I expect that the first trains will be top'n'tailed, as they were when the Cauldon trains first ran.

 

It's Network Rail property, MCR are just obtaining a lease to operate services. Don't know the facts, but this could be a trial? Prove you can operate these 12 days a yr OK and you can have the rest? All other services to date have been operated by CVR not MCR.

 

No runround loop is being built at Endon yet, so it's either that or the DMU...

 

I would suspect that it would stay no more than 12 days per year because it wouldn't make any commercial sense for the CvR to run any more, especially if these services have to run in conjunction with trains to Ipstones.

 

Deleted!

 

And the Draft Masterplan arrives, with the final consultation period being open until November 11th. You can send support/criticisms to the Council if you so desire. Whilst MCR/CVR will be doing all their developments themselves, they will need the Council's support for most of them and it's good to see a number of the projects being accounted for in this document.

http://www.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/pages/Final Draft Churnet Valley Masterplan with cover.pdf

 

How will this affect the plans mcr/cvr have regarding the railway, just thinking if that woman from Endon puts in an objection to the plans does that mean further hold ups to the project?

 

This doesn't affect Mrs Birks. Remember she wasn't objecting to the railways plans, she was objecting to the railway removing her illegal footpath. As this Masterplan doesn't cover the Endon section it wont affect her area.

In reality the biggest impact will be Leek, where it looks like the new station will be built as part of the Cornhill redevelopment. There was 2/3 possible locations identified, going off this document it looks the Council have made their decision on this. The document also says Cornhill will be the only project to require Council funds, all other developments are to be privately funded. As most of the projects regarding the railway have already been spoken of by people within the CVR, this document doesn't really change too much it merely shows where the Council support lies with regards to all the proposals previously spoken of.

 

Excellent news then and thanks for the quick reply

 

Interesting to note in the Masterplan that one of the possible improvements identified is to extend the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway " to north by approximately a mile and south to Leek". Such a shame there's a supermarket in the way that makes the joining up of railways either side of Leek Tunnel highly improbable!

 

There's also mention of "supporting investigations into the potential for re-opening of the former Cheadle branch railway between Cheadle and the Stoke-Derby line at Cresswell.", but also that " further information is required regarding a rail link to Alton Towers with regard to viability and feasibility as there are potential conflicts and impacts which need further investigation."

 

The masterplan doesn't seem very supportive of the railway to Alton as it appears to favour the present users of the trackbed and in the case of the Cheadle Branch it wants both a multi user path and a railway!

 

As I pointed out in a post that was deleted during the "great purge" in July, the trackbed at Cresswell was sold by BR thirty odd years ago to the owners of the railway cottages, so unless they can all be persuaded to sell back the land, the Cheadle branch seems to be a non starter.

 

Thanks Tim - I see on Google Maps that some of the former trackbed there now appears to be gardens. At least now, when people ask me about it, I can give them some information on progress (or lack of!)