County plea to help fund £200krail link study

The authority is asking for half the £200,000 needed for the next phase of a feasibility study, to look at what work would be required to re-open the existing freight line from Shirebrook to Ollerton to passengers.

Coun Kevin Greaves, chairman of the transport and highways committee said the authority was willing to invest a further £100,000 - some 50 per cent of its 2014/5 budget, but wanted the Government to match it.

He said: “Unfortunately, because of reductions of almost 50 per cent in the government’s Integrated Transport Measures capital grant, from which the Council is committed to spending £50,000 to improve the Nottingham to Lincoln service, the availability of funds to support work on the Robin Hood Line as well is much less likely.”

A letter has been sent to MP Claire Perry, under-secretary of state for transport, asking for the cash to show the Government’s commitment to the idea.

Coun Greaves added: “We have, however, been very encouraged by recent statements made by Claire Perry in which she said she would assist in putting together a business case for extending the Robin Hood Line, which could be put to Government.”

The Council invested £6 million to reopen the Robin Hood line from Worksop through Mansfield to Nottingham in the 1990s, which now carries more than one million passengers a year.