Plans for a new £21.8m railway station in Clay Cross have taken a step closer

NE Derbyshire District Councilor Charlotte Cupit announced the completion of the Clay Cross Railway Station Strategic Outline Business Case blueprint, which the Clay Cross Town Board recently considered the before rubber-stamping the plans which can now be used to bid for funding to make the plan a reality.

NE Derbyshire District Cllr Cupit – who is also a Clay Cross Town Board member, District Council Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group, and a Derbyshire County Councillor – said: “We now have an outline business case for the possibility of a new station re-opening.

She added: “Previously we did not have the documents to bid for this but we now do.”

Cllr Cupit also claimed that the 150 page report shows that a new station for Clay Cross would be a good thing and that it is a cost-worthy project.

NE Derbyshire MP Lee Rowley, who is also on the town board and is wholeheartedly supporting the station scheme, recently joined Cllr Cupit to welcome Transport Minister Huw Merriman to Clay Cross to discuss the plans at one of the potential sites for the station near to the A6175.

The feasibility study was compiled with £100,000 of funding through the Government-funded Clay Cross Town Deal regeneration project and the station blueprint can now be used to attract money for the proposed station scheme.

It is the first step towards any possible Government intervention and includes testing options, stakeholder engagement, design, an assessment of the potential railway station’s strategic fit, its commercial viability, its value for money, affordability and achievability.

There has been engagement with Network Rail, Northern Rail and East Midlands Railway to establish potential service patterns, deliverability, locations and costs.

Possible sites which have been considered include the former Clay Cross Station site, at Tupton, which ceased operations in 1967, a Clay Cross South Junction, the A6175 East, and A6175 Bay Platform.

The SOBC identified a need for a rail station after it found evidence of poor public transport connectivity in Clay Cross, and that a station fits strongly from a strategic perspective with the other proposals made within the Town Deal Town Investment Plan.

It also confirmed several options for service provision either through existing services on the Erewash Line, or through the Barrow Hill extension of the Restore Your Railway project.

The SOBC also established the potential to generate a very high value for money outcome, and that an A6175 station site could be adopted as the preferred location and it could be served by calling in the existing Leeds-Nottingham service.

Capital Costs for the station are in line with other similar projects and could fall within a range of £21m to £27m but the project average construction cost is thought to be around £21.8m.

Further work will be required by the Department for Transport and Network Rail with North East Derbyshire District Council to support the scheme with the viability of the Barrow Hill Line including a Clay Cross Station.