Published April 22, 2024 | By GCR Admin
Great Central Railway reveals dramatic new design and launches appeal for next phase of ambitious ‘Reunification’ project.
The Great Central Railway is preparing to submit a planning application for it’s ambitious Reunification scheme. A new image has been released of the urban viaduct section, which will carry the line linking the two separate halves of the Great Central Railway back together.
The project will create an eighteen mile heritage line stretching from the north of Leicester to the south of Nottingham, centred on Loughborough.
General Manager of the Great Central Railway Malcolm Holmes said, “We’ll be submitting our planning application in a matter of weeks, so we want to tell people about our plans. The new image shows a train running on the proposed viaduct. Originally we had expected to build an embankment around 300 metres long but the space we have available would have made that quite complex. Our new plan needs 100 metres of embankment, then 200 metres of viaduct. It should be slightly cheaper and simpler to construct.”
This section of railway will also include two steel bridge spans, one to carry the railway across a culvert, the other to take it over Railway Terrace road in Loughborough. The full designs will be included in the planning application along with the necessary reports.
Malcolm continued, “After we have submitted our planning application we’ll need to spend around half a million pounds taking the design documents and turning them into construction and engineering blueprints. Those documents are essential – as is planning consent – before we can build again. While we have £2m already raised for the project, we want to protect as much of that fund as possible for actual building work. Our new appeal for half a million pounds is to fund the vital next steps and get this epic project ‘shovel ready.’ The more money we raise, the sooner we can build again and the more we can achieve.”
Everything else we need to build, to connect the half of the line in Nottinghamshire to the section in Leicestershire needs planning permission first. Putting together the paperwork has been quite the task. It includes expert reports on everything from flood risk to ecology.
It will take some time for determination to be reached but we hope you will be able to support our application.
The project promises much to the local economy through improved tourism and the ability of the railway to offer itself as a venue for filming and testing of railway vehicles.
We wont be idle whilst we wait. We now need to carry out technical surveys on the land. Weve begun an appeal for this next phase which we estimate will cost £500,000. So far, thanks to your generosity we have raised £50,000 which in a couple of months is terrific, Thank you. If everyone who received a copy of Soar Valley life was able to donate a couple of pounds at www.gcrailway/unify the total will shoot up.
Subject to the planning application being successful, the more we can raise the sooner we will make more progress on the ground.
Finally a look ahead to a really exciting event at the Great Central in August on the 10th and 11th.
Make a date for our ‘Railways at Work’ gala which this year will bring 1966 to life! Look out for football supporters, police, porters loading trains, new fangled diesel locomotives shunting and much more. It’s the closest thing you can get to time travel by train.
All our events can be found at www.gcrailway.co.uk and as always we look we look forward to welcoming you.
N.B By the time you read this the Great Central will have submitted its planning application for the Reunification project.
Donations can be made online at gcrailway.co.uk/unify or via post with a cheque made payable to ‘David Clarke Railway Trust’ marked ‘Reunification’ on the back. Cheques can be sent to Lovatt House, 3 Wharncliffe Road, Loughborough, Leics LE11 1SL.
