Plans
It was announced in December 2005 that stations in the Thames Valley region were to be upgraded.
Network Rail has plans to redouble the track between Swindon and Kemble in order to improve rail services between Cheltenham/Gloucester and London, and to allow for maintenance work in the Severn Tunnel when Swansea services are diverted via Gloucester. When originally laid in 1842 the line was double-track throughout, however some 121⁄4 miles (20 km) of the second track were removed in 1968/69. As of July 2008, the Office of Rail Regulation was receiving submissions to restore this project (previously omitted) to Network Rail's plans for 2009-2014. The project cost was estimated at £50.2 million and received backing from the South West Development Agency and others but stalled when it was left out of the new Coalition Government's Spending Review in October 2010. The project still has strong support from local MPs who are continuing to lobby DfT Ministers.
On 1 March 2011, Philip Hammond MP, the UK Coalition Government's Secretary of State for Transport announced that he had resumed plans for electrifying the Great Western main line west from Didcot through Swindon to Bristol and Cardiff at a planned cost of £704 million. The DfT's statement confirms that new electric trains would be procured from Hitachi, manufactured in a new factory in the North East, in the related £4.5 billion InterCity Express Programme (IEP). The electrification project had first been announced by the previous Labour Government's Transport Secretary, Lord Andrew Adonis, on 23 July 2009.
In February 2011, Wiltshire County Council and Wessex Chamber of Commerce jointly commissioned Network Rail to evaluate construction of a new station at Wootton Bassett, west of Swindon, to serve the Interface Business Park. The station would be built on the site of the previous station which closed in 1965.
Read more about this topic: Swindon Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word plans:
“Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“A father ... knows exactly what those boys at the mall have in their depraved little minds because he once owned such a depraved little mind himself. In fact, if he thinks enough about the plans that he used to have for young girls, the father not only will support his wife in keeping their daughter home but he might even run over to the mall and have a few of those boys arrested.”
—Bill Cosby (20th century)
“The fellow parent you are scared to call is as appalled by the clique’s plans as you are. . . . The other parent is as happy to hear from you as you would be to hear from him.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)