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Swanage Railway beats recession – and gets £3-million for main line project

Despite the cutbacks being made across the country to stave off the effects of the recession, Dorset County and Purbeck District councils have together pledged up to £3 million for vital main line re-signalling work by Network Rail to keep the door open for a permanent year-round train service to run from Wareham to Corfe Castle and Swanage.

Purbeck approved the upgrade of the connection of the heritage railway to the national rail network as part of its Purbeck Transportation Strategy at a meeting in Wareham yesterday, Thursday, while last week county council also voted to support the project costing up to £3 million.

Up to £3 million across up to three years will come from a transport development fund which property developers pay into,

the money being collected by Purbeck District Council and spent by Dorset County Council as the transport authority for the Isle of Purbeck.

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Steve Doughty said: “We are absolutely delighted at this important once in a generation opportunity and long-term commitment to the development of public transport in Dorset.

“It keeps the door open for an all-year-round community train service and so deliver one of the Swanage Railway’s original goals from 1972, when the last daily service ran. We still have a long way to go but this is the most important step without which the project could not move forward,” he added.

Network Rail plans to resignal the main London to Weymouth line between Poole and Wool during 2012 and if Worgret Junction is resignalled at the same time it will cost only £3 million. If the junction is re-signalled at a later date, it could cost up to £10 million.

The next step is for the Swanage Railway to take responsibility for the three and a half miles of Network Rail single line between Worgret Junction, Furzebrook and Motala which is the start of the Swanage Railway tracks to Corfe Castle and Swanage.

 Once acquired, the Swanage Railway would upgrade the three and a half miles of single line, currently only used by occasional charter trains from the national railway network, to the standards required for a regular train service to Wareham.

The Swanage Railway carries more than 200,000 people a year on the six-mile line between Norden and Swanage which has been rebuilt from nothing since 1976.

Steve Doughty explained: “Thanks to this vital funding decision by the Dorset county and Purbeck district councils, we are finally turning the tide of the Beeching era of the mid-1960s when so many railway lines in Dorset were closed and their tracks lifted for scrap.

“With an annual turnover of more than £2 million, the Swanage Railway is recognised as contributing £10 million a year to the Purbeck economy and we are already meeting the need for public transport thanks to the Norden ‘park and ride’ facility as well as discounted fares for Purbeck residents.

“Everyone involved with the Swanage Railway congratulates Dorset County Council and Purbeck District Council on their vision in these difficult economic times and I would like to thank all parties in the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership for their support for the project.

“I would also like to thank all those people who have worked on the project to secure this re-signalling funding – money that will be paid to Network Rail in instalments as work proceeds as well as the many people who have written letters and lobbied on behalf of the Swanage Railway, he said.

The Purbeck Community Rail Partnership discussion forum is made up of the Swanage Railway, Dorset County Council, Purbeck District Council, Swanage Town Council, Network Rail, South West Trains, British Petroleum and the Borough of Poole.

The £3-million funding commitment is needed by the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership to pay Network Rail in increments during 2011 and 2012 for the re-signalling and other works at Worgret Junction, a mile west of Wareham.