New rail services, including direct Halifax to Huddersfield trains should start next year in West Yorkshire. £4.5million is being spent, some of it to reinstate rail curves which have not been used for 10 years. The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority is subsidising the service for the first year. It will mean Brighouse is put back on the railway map. Northern Spirit will provide the trains by extending existing services.
Durham County Council is being urged to back plans to reopen the Leamside line from Ferryhill to Newcastle with stations at Fencehouses, Carrville and Ferryhill. Railtrack has already said it would like to reopen the line for freight to relieve the East Coast main line.
The RDS reopenings conference is being held at Walsall on Saturday 26 June.
Proposals to reopen Kenyon Junction station which was closed in 1961 are to be put to Warrington Borough Council by a property developer.
The Government has given the go-ahead for the first "privately funded" local authority road scheme. Essex County Council is also being given £92million for the A130 bypass near Chelmsford. Several other councils are queueing up to build roads, in Newport and Port Talbot (South Wales), Devon, Dorset and North Yorkshire.
Meanwhile the much-needed Thameslink 2000 scheme - which Railtrack promised to start building several years ago - is six years behind schedule and will not be completed until at least 2006.
It is clear from government figures that more money than ever is going in profits. In the year 1997-98, there was a 6% increase in passenger rail journeys and an 8% increase in "rail receipts".
Friends of Severn Beach Railway have proposed an S-rail route for Bristol which would integrate services from both Yate and Portishead to provide interweaving through services.
Help is needed to run our new office at Barbican, London. We welcome both regular (but flexible) help or occasional help with special projects. Contact Paul Krebs on 0171-727-8872 or paulkrebs@compuserve.com
Treasurer: We need a national treasurer who can chart RDS through the money maze. If you can help, contact Steve Wilkinson, RDS Chairman, 52 Manor Park, Histon, Cambs CB4 9JT
RDS lottery winners
February: Peter Wilson, Leeds £68, David Townsend, Oxford £42.50, W L Ebbett, Bath £25.50, C T Palmer, Epsom £17, D W G Davies, Ammanford £8.50, John Taylor, Castle Douglas £8.50.
March: John Eddleston, Ash, Hants £70, M J Savage, Cleethorpes £43.75, J G Willis, East Barnet £26.25, D J McCutcheon, Portsmouth £17.50, Bill Stoneham, Maidstone £8.75, S G Kay, Edinburgh £8.75.
April: Dave Fleming, Bolton £69.60, Mrs R V Monbiot, Henley £43.50, M J Savage, Cleethorpes £26.10, Owen Roe, Kings Langley £17.40, R Borrows, Hassocks £8.70, John Cowell, Leominster £8.70.
You can email Railwatch editor Ray King at editor@railwatch.org.uk (or just click on this link), e-mail Deltic Design with comments about the Railwatch Web pages, or visit their web site.
RiscPC