Cambrian Heritage Railways was awarded up to £50,000 in October 2021 by the Department for Transport under their Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund (round 3) scheme. This award was to fund the preparation of a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) for the development of a Community Rail service utilising the Oswestry to Gobowen railway corridor.
Roger Date (for the Cambrian Heritage Railway – CHR) is the Proposer for the project, and the North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan is the supporter within the application framework.
As part of the governance process requirements a Steering and Working group was established to deliver the SOBC made up of representatives from the following –
- Shropshire Council
- National Highways
- Oswestry Town Council
- Oswestry BID
- Selattyn and Gobowen Parish Council
- Network Rail
- Department for Transport
- Office of the Rail Regulator
- RJAH Hospital Gobowen
The groups worked during Jan / Feb 2022 to establish governance, prepare and deliver the required tender documentation and agree a list of appropriate consultants that could deliver the SOBC, subsequently inviting tenders within a strict timeframe.
Tenders were received in April 2022 and appraised with the successful consultants notified. the contract for the SOBC was awarded to Stantec and AllanRail who had demonstrated considerable previous experience with other Restoring your Railway projects in previous rounds and a sound understanding of the opportunities that could be achieved from a community rail scheme.
Work during the Months of May/June/July was devoted to consultation with the public and partner organisations, this included visits to view the infrastructure, possible modes of transport both innovative and existing service models that were relevant to the project.
During this period the management teams met fortnightly to assess progress and ensure the project was able to be delivered on time.
A draft SOBC document was presented by the consultants at the end of August 2022 and was considered, discussed and appraised by the management teams.
The document was again appraised and updated during subsequent weeks with the final SOBC document formally agreed and signed off by the management team on the 20th September 2022.
The DfT rules within the scheme required the formal submission of the SOBC to be made before the 30th September 2022. The management team achieved this target date.
The next steps for this project are –
The DfT appraise the submitted SOBC at a future internal team meeting when a cross section of the rail industry and transport ministers will consider whether the proposal justifies further support.
A positive outcome will deliver funding to support and commission an Outline Business Case (OBC) for the project which will involve an in-depth assessment of details and costings of the various elements and components within the project –
Infrastructure, Accessibility, Connectivity, Financial and Administrative matters.
We are currently awaiting the decision from the RYR team.
Roger Date
January 2023
