15 May 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to instruct Ministers to ensure all former rail corridors are protected for use as transport corridors."
Details of Petition:
"To ensure countrywide protection in planning and development legislation of disused rail corridors. To provide for their re use as rail lines should circumstances permit. To facilitate their development as ‘Greenways’, or transport corridors for cyclists, walkers, horse riders and wheelchair users. To extend nationally the network of successful routes which have been developed by Sustrans in conjunction with Local Authorities and other bodies, such as the Spen Valley Greenway in Kirklees, West Yorkshire."
Read the Government’s response
The Government is committed to the growth and development of the railway. This is reflected in the White Paper Towards a Sustainable Railway (Cm 7176) which was published in July 2007 and commits to £15 billion in total Government support to the railway for the period from 2009 to 2014.
The Government’s priority over this period is to increase rail capacity. This is necessary to allow the network to cater for the steady growth which has seen the number of passenger journeys exceed a billion in each of the last three years. With this in mind, £10 billion out of the £15 billion promised in the White Paper will be devoted to measures designed to increase capacity.
The White Paper commits to a range of specific capacity-increasing measures including 1300 new carriages to be used on the most congested lines in the country and major improvements at a number of individual stations. It does not commit to any line reopenings because these are not the most effective way of securing the early capacity increases that are the most pressing need for both passengers and freight operators.
This does not mean that the Government is against the principle of rail reopening. Where local and regional authorities are prepared to take the lead in drawing up a proper business case for reopening a particular line or stations and identifying funding, the Government will carefully consider the case. Where routes are unlikely to reopen as railways, SUSTRANS and other organisations have done valuable work in making alignments available for a variety of public uses. The Government welcomes their contribution and recently announced a six fold increase in the budget for Cycling England, which will complement local authority spend. Their budget will double to £20 million next year and then rise to £60 million in both 2009/10 and 2010/11.
The Government’s planning guidance requires local planning authorities to consider the potential of disused railways for future transport use and procedures exist to ensure that, before redundant railway land is sold, its possible further use for transport purposes is properly considered.
Formal protection for all disused railway lines, on the other hand, is both potentially very expensive - because it may give rise to claims for compensation for blight - and may prevent economically desirable development on former railway land.