Railtrack Property has a critical role to play in rail reopenings. It can make or break them.
That is one of the reasons its director Bob Hill was chosen as guest speaker at the RDS conference on rail reopenings to explain Railtrack's role in the process.
The conference — at the White Swan Hotel, Halifax on Saturday 28 June - also focussed on the Halifax to Brighouse and Huddersfield scheme which has recently been granted funding.
Ruth Annison of the Wensleydale Railway Association was also due to talk about the importance of the voluntary sector.
RDS has been having talks with Railtrack's Mr Hill in an attempt to ensure that the procedures for reopenings are clear and the costings realistic.
RDS President Michael Caton, Robert Wakefield and Ken Davies were involved.
Railtrack is working on a prototype core station which can be adapted to meet different needs. When costing a station, future maintenance costs will be an important factor.
Prefabricated stations could also reduce disruption to existing train services. Plans can go out to tender for various companies to design and build. Train operators could achieve big savings by ordering in bulk - say, 15 a year over two years.
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