Four North Staffordshire MPs are hailing the Chancellor’s decision to fund a feasibility study and strategic outline business case for restoring services to the mothballed Stoke-Leek line. Under the Government’s Restoring Your Railway (RYR) fund, £50,000 has been awarded to the MP-sponsored bid promoted by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, Staffordshire County Council, and Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Karen Bradley, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, is proposed as chair of a delivery board to commission a full study of a range of options for reopening the line, restoring passenger services to Leek for the first time since the 1950s. The study will look at how and where intermediate stops between Leek and Stoke could be provided, with Endon, Milton, Birches Head/Abbey Hulton, Bucknall and Fenton Manor likely to be the leading contenders – covering all three of the Stoke-on-Trent seats and championed by Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, Jo Gideon, MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, and Jack Brereton, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South. This is the second success for Jack Brereton, with Meir already advancing through the Restoring Your Railway programme from a previous round.
Karen Bradley MP said: “I am delighted. We have done everything we can to make our united case for the Stoke-Leek line – what I prefer to call the Leek-Stoke line – and bring the Queen of the Moorlands back onto the rail network. It is extremely important that we consider all the possibilities for how we do this, and fully investigate how much it might cost – and the Restoring Your Railways fund is the ideal opportunity to do this. It is, perhaps, the last chance we will get to reopen the mothballed line to public transport use. I now look forward to working with colleagues in local government across North Staffordshire to get things moving.”
Jack Brereton MP said: “Having secured funding to investigate the reopening of Meir station in a previous round of RYR, I was determined we would win for the Stoke-Leek line, too. Our revised bid took a great deal of work and I am so pleased it has been successful. There is real interest in the rail industry for reopening this line – they, and we, know it will have to work for residents. 30% of local households live without a car yet our roads are still congested. This funding for a comprehensive study will help us get the public transport alternative right, with massively reduced journey times.”
Jo Gideon MP said: “A public transport revolution is what Stoke-on-Trent needs and we are determined to deliver one. We worked together to secure £29 million from the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF), currently being delivered. Now we have worked together to win funding for a proper study into how we can reconnect communities from Leek, and through the city, to Stoke station – which is being improved as a key public transport interchange under the TCF.”
Jonathan Gullis MP said: “When I presented a petition to Parliament in support of reopening the Stoke-Leek line, I knew this evidence of local support would be key to winning the bid for a feasibility study and I have worked hand-in-glove with my colleagues to deliver this. Communities in Stoke-on-Trent North that have been off the rail map for decades could now see public transport services into Stoke station – and Leek – restored. We must now work with those communities to ensure this works as well as it possibly can.”
