Cambridge to Colchester Rail Project - David Edwards, Paul Donno, Revd Malcolm Hill
A group that would like to bring a railway back to Haverhill is seeking funding to press on with their plans.
A group that would like to bring a railway back to Haverhill is seeking funding to press on with their plans.
Speaking at last Thursday’s (November 15) bestofhaverhill business networking event at the Days Inn hotel, Revd Malcolm Hill and David Edwards, chairman and vice chairman of the Cambridge to Colchester Rail Project, presented their plans and progress.
Haverhill lost its railway in 1967, and the group is now looking to show the need for a railway between Cambridge and Sudbury, ultimately extending to Colchester.
Haverhill had a population of 8,500 when the railway closed, and has around 23,000 today.
The group now wants to commission an engineering feasibility study, which would cost around £46,000.
It would contribute £3,000, and seeks to raise to remaining £43,000 from councils, businesses and donations.
The group has already had 12,000 people sign a petition supporting the return of the railway and commissioned market research showing 72 per cent of people would use a restored railway.
Revd Hill said: “Where there’s a will there’s a way and where there’s a need there’s a way.
“If there’s a need something can be done about it so we have to prove there’s a need.
“A railway would link the people of Haverhill to the rest of the nation and on to the world.”
He said that a railway line would boost employment and improve quality of life.
The group are not ‘pie in the sky advocates’ he added, and that successful schemes such as the Docklands Light Railway was originally rubbished.
Paul Donno, who chaired the meeting, said: “How on earth we could have closed our railway station I do not know.”
Speaking at last Thursday’s (November 15) bestofhaverhill business networking event at the Days Inn hotel, Revd Malcolm Hill and David Edwards, chairman and vice chairman of the Cambridge to Colchester Rail Project, presented their plans and progress.
Haverhill lost its railway in 1967, and the group is now looking to show the need for a railway between Cambridge and Sudbury, ultimately extending to Colchester.
Haverhill had a population of 8,500 when the railway closed, and has around 23,000 today.
The group now wants to commission an engineering feasibility study, which would cost around £46,000.
It would contribute £3,000, and seeks to raise to remaining £43,000 from councils, businesses and donations.
The group has already had 12,000 people sign a petition supporting the return of the railway and commissioned market research showing 72 per cent of people would use a restored railway.
Revd Hill said: “Where there’s a will there’s a way and where there’s a need there’s a way.
“If there’s a need something can be done about it so we have to prove there’s a need.
“A railway would link the people of Haverhill to the rest of the nation and on to the world.”
He said that a railway line would boost employment and improve quality of life.
The group are not ‘pie in the sky advocates’ he added, and that successful schemes such as the Docklands Light Railway was originally rubbished.
Paul Donno, who chaired the meeting, said: “How on earth we could have closed our railway station I do not know.”
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