A useful TEAMS call today with Nick Wilcox, Deputy Director, Restoring Your Railway at the Department for Transport and Christian Irwin, Director of Rail Investment & Centre of Excellence at Network Rail, re the process for developing and achieving agreement for new rail schemes. This followed an offer I made to Secretary of State Mark Harper who I met at the Northumberland Line Opening announcement ceremony, where I said the current process took too long and was too expensive. The meeting was constructive and I hope at least some of the points I made will filter through. In particular we discussed what the process is for pursuing schemes where either the Restoring Your Railway funding pot is inappropriate, or has been declined, but local stakeholders still want to carry forward utilising potential alternative forms of funding. With regard to the proposed Newcastle – Berwick local service for example, there should not be any significant capital cost (if the construction of new stations such as Belford is treated as a subsequent phase) and we know from the Feasibility Study that the service will be commercially viable. So how do we get it implemented? Nick promised to get back to me on that one to clarify the correct process, and I look forward to receiving his response.
