The Campaign to Twin Track the Hereford to Worcester Line
March 2008
The current train service from Hereford is good. It takes the maximum amount of trains that can be run (though more evening trains are possible), given that it is single track from Shelwick Junction (just east of Hereford Station) to Worcester. If the track were doubled from Hereford to Worcester more trains would be possible. The Worcester to Birmingham line is twin track already and there is a firm plan to twin the track all the way through from Worcester to London (some sections are still single).
The Hereford to Ledbury line, about 13 miles, used to be a twin track up until 1982 when one track was removed to save the wages of signal men.
If Hereford is to expand, as is currently proposed, the current population of 65,000 will rise to 90,000 or more. With this amount of people the trains will be congested, they are now, but they will be even more so in the future. We must take the opportunity that the extra housing presents, of expanding the rail service by twin tracking the line.
Each house will bring with it a developer levy of £5,000 a house or more, plus the Government will give money to help with infrastructure. The current Council will use this money to (i) build a bypass around Hereford and (ii) get itself out of financial difficulties. If the money is used in this way, it will add to climate change, by committing people to road travel, and by building a road on open countryside. If this is where the resources are going it will encourage people to travel by car, rather than by rail, bike, bus and foot. A great opportunity to expand the rail track and ease rail congestion will have been lost and Hereford will be locked into car travel. With rising oil prices and diminishing oil supplies, plus the need to preserve farming land to grow our own food, building roads is a foolish and retrograde step. On the other hand, expanding the rail service by expanding the track is sensible and logical.
Some of the 18,000 houses could be built in Leominster or Kington or places in between, if the railway line that was closed in 1964 was re-opened. Building railways does not need to be expensive, it depends on the situation. Compared to roads it is very often the cheap option. Roads are currently costing between £4m a kilometre (the Rotherwas Access Road) to £24m/km (the A14 Ellington to Fen Ditton road widening scheme) or even more. Railways going through open countryside costs in the region of £1.25m a kilometre, it is only more if there are towns or river crossings to negotiate.
To Join Our Campaign
Please write to The Local Development Framework, Forward Planning, Herefordshire Council, P O Box 4, Hereford, HR4 OXH, or email: udp@herefordshire.gov.uk, or Tel: 01432 260500, stating that you would like the Forward Plan 2011 to 2021 to include Rail as the central part of the transport network for a future Herefordshire. Say that firstly twin tracking the Hereford-Ledbury section should be central to the plan, and secondly that one of the redundant lines (e.g. the Kington-Leominster line) should be re-opened as a development corridor for housing. Please also join our organisation and come along to meetings. You will be very welcome and help us in our campaign to getter better transport for Herefordshire.