3:00pm Friday 30th July 2010
By James Durkin
AFTER decades in the sidings it looks like full steam ahead for the £3m Swanage Railway reconnection project.
Purbeck District Council agreed yesterday to officially support the scheme to reconnect with the mainline – almost certainly guaranteeing Swanage reclaims its place on the national rail map. It follows a decision by Dorset County Council last week to also back the project.
Network Rail needed an assurance by today that the £3million would be available when planned Poole to Wool re-signalling work starts in 2012.
Now county transport bosses will be in a position to give that assurance.
District council housing and social issues spokesman Cllr Beryl Ezzard said: “The proposal helps to underpin one of the targets set out under the council’s priority of ‘Helping all people access services locally’.
“It has been a long journey to get to this point, but we can now progress to once again linking the district by rail, which will have enormous benefits for residents, commuters and visitors, and relieve congestion in the district.”
Campaigners, councillors and Purbeck business leaders have pushed for the reconnection since British Rail closed the Purbeck branch line in 1972.
The county council will now confirm to Network Rail that the reconnection will be included in the Purbeck Transportation Strategy, a blueprint for transport around the district.
Local transport chiefs say the money will come from an existing fund, paid into by developers building within county boundaries.
The £3million costs could be split across three years, therefore lessening the impact on financially-stretched local authorities.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk