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Since the 1960s, the nine-mile-long Maid Marian Line between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire has only served freight trains. But, because it connects the Robin Hood Line from Nottingham to Worksop with the Erewash Valley line, local leaders have argued that bringing back passenger trains would ‘dramatically improve’ travel across the region.
A campaign to return passenger trains back on the Maid Marian Line has been ongoing since before the pandemic. Ashfield and Mansfield District Council and Derbyshire County Council completed a joint feasibility study and an outline business case report in 2020.
The plans were put to the side for several years but have now reemerged as the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA) seeks to commit £150 million to regional transport projects over the next three years.
A total of £500,000 of that funding has been allocated to carry out a new study, develop the business case for the Maid Marian line and enable the proposal to ‘be considered as an option for capital funding in the later years of the programme’. The study would looks into things like what passenger demand could look like, how services might operate, what infrastructure would be required and how much a full reopening could cost.
The investment is by no means a guarantee that the line will reopen, though. Claire Ward, the East Midlands mayor, said: ‘We’ve had a series of different investments that we want to put in, including looking at the Maid Marian line, considering the feasibility of it. It’s not an agreement to do it, it’s not funding to do it. It’s simply to update that business case and see what the options are.’
She added: ‘There always has been an argument that we should extend those lines (the Robin Hood and Maid Marian Line), whether it be that or other lines across the region.
‘But obviously, we need to have a really good case to spend money and to decide what the business case is. Will it bring more people into the region? Will it help people travel around? Will it create that economic growth that we’re looking for? So we need to understand what that business case is.’
If the plans go ahead, the line would be reopened to passenger trains between between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Pye Bridge in Derbyshire and councils say that stations along the line could get significant upgrades.
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