York bids for cash to reopen Haxby Railway Station (From York Press)

York bids for cash to reopen Haxby Railway Station

8:31am Thursday 14th March 2013 in News By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

YORK’S bid for Government cash to reopen Haxby Railway Station is competing against 13 other applications from across the country.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said a cross-industry panel was assessing the 14 bids for funding from a £20 million pot, with an announcement expected later this month.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the interest in the stations fund showed the Government was right to introduce it.

“There have already been calls for the scheme to go further and we will certainly be looking at how we can develop it in the future,” he said.

A station has been proposed at Haxby for many years, and the last initiative to reopen it foundered as recently as 2010, when funding was withdrawn.

But with increased rail usage nationwide and a heavily congested road network, City of York Council made a bid for a share of the funding last month.

The proposed station would cost between £5.3 million and £7.4 million, with the council meeting about 25 per cent of the bill.

A DfT spokesman said the fund was being targeted at “shovel ready” projects which could be delivered quickly to provide long-term benefits to passengers and the economy.

He said bids included a parkway station near Worcester, and stations at Kenilworth in Warwickshire, Ilkeston in Derbyshire, Low Moor in Bradford and Warrington West.

It is estimated that a new station at Haxby would provide better rail links for more than 22,000 people within a three-mile radius.