Last updated 16:00, Wednesday, 07 May 2008

A NEW rail strategy aims to make major new investment in the West Cumbrian rail links.

One of the aims of the plan is to solve overcrowding on Sellafield commuter services.

Upgrading rail links to the Sellafield nuclear complex and re-doubling the London Road Junction at Carlisle are among the recommendations of Network Rail’s draft Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for Lancashire and Cumbria.

And the chairman of the Furness Line Action Group, Alan Ball, has welcomed the prospect of improvements on the Sellafield services, but he says the removal of the Sellafield subsidy on the service is less than helpful.

Mr Ball said: “The government has allowed Northern rail to have extra carriages, so that would enable them to add an extra carriage to all the busy services.

“But it is a shame I cannot see any direct mention of bringing back the Sunday service. It would only take a one-off capital spend on automatic level crossings. Then the fares would cover running costs for a Sunday service.”

According to the new Network Rail RUS many towns and cities in the region have poor rail links and current timetables do not suit the needs of commuters and tourists. It says the introduction of the new West Coast Main Line timetable in early 2009 presents opportunities for improvements in Lancashire and Cumbria which could make it easier for passengers to change trains at key interchanges.

The RUS identifies a number of problems with existing rail services around the Cumbrian coast. Peak services into Sellafield currently suffer from overcrowding and Network Rail says there is a business case to strengthen this service with additional rolling stock. It also recommends that the Monday-Saturday timetable on the Cumbrian Coast is rationalised and further use made of the additional units needed for peak strengthening, to provide, as far as timetabling and infrastructure allow, hourly services between both Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness with good connections at Barrow and with West Coast Main Line services at Carlisle and Lancaster.

Network Rail says re-doubling London Road Junction at Carlisle would be a relatively simple infrastructure reinstatement which would provide performance and capacity improvements. It calls for this scheme to be developed with the aim of early implementation.

Network Rail has given no indications of the possible timescale for the RUS proposals becoming reality.