As part of last weeks Budget it was announced that funding of up to £50,000 would be made available from the Restoring Your Railways Ideas Fund for investigations into re-opening the railway line between Middlewich and Gadbrook Park.
This comes after a long campaign by local residents and Middlewich MP, Fiona Bruce who sponsored the bid to the Fund.
The Department for Transport will now work with local stakeholders to progress plans further.
Fiona said “I am thrilled by this announcement. This funding in crucial to driving forward plans for Middlewich Railway Station. It has been an issue I have worked on locally with residents and in Parliament since the moment I became MP for Middlewich in 2010 and this is another step forward into securing the rail connectivity Middlewich should have.”
Back in 2013 Fiona helped collect and presented a petition in the House of Commons signed by over 2000 residents calling for the reopening of the Sandbach to Northwich branch line and the reintroduction of passenger services at Middlewich station along the line.
The campaign was spearheaded by the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign Group, which Fiona met with many times, and has been on-going for nearly 30 years and in the past has even been supported by celebrity rail enthusiast Pete Waterman after Fiona invited him to the House of Commons to discuss the scheme.
As part of this long running campaign Fiona has raised several questions and speeches in Parliament and held extensive discussions with successive Rail ministers to ensure that this project was always on the radar of Government.
Further, this is not the first time funding has been secured to progress this project with Fiona Bruce MP having securing money from Government to put together a business case for the reopening of the line to passengers in 2018 after which a Strategic Outline Business Case was put together by a group of local stakeholders including resident campaigners, the local Council, LEP and the MP which was subsequently presented to the Department for Transport.
Fiona also met with the Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris MP, earlier this year to press for Middlewich’s bid for funding and emphasise the importance to the local area.
Fiona concluded “I know that Middlewich residents have been waiting a long time for plans to fully materialise on this and want them to know that I am committed to the opening of a new station at Middlewich to passengers. This latest announcement is a further indication of the confidence Government have that this work should proceed and I look forward to further developments.”