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Britain’s best known rail author backs Flintshire’s £36m Round 2 bid to the UK Levelling Up Fund for the Wrexham-Liverpool Borderlands line

Published: 25/08/2022

Britain’s best known rail author, Christian Wolmar, has joined MPs, Senedd Members, business and local authority leaders from North Wales and North West England in backing the £36m bid to Round 2 of the UK Levelling Up Fund (LUF) from Flintshire County Council for investment in the Borderlands railway line between Wrexham and Liverpool via Bidston.

Christian Wolmar visited the line as the guest of cross-border rail campaign Growth Track 360 in October 2021 and wrote about his experiences in his RAIL magazine column.  In his letter of support for the LUF Round 2 bid, Mr Wolmar says that during his visit he “was struck by the strength of the improvements that were being proposed…..to this excellent but underused railway line”.

The two investment schemes within the LUF bid are proposed to accelerate progress towards higher frequency, faster and more reliable rail services on the Borderlands Linea that will attract more passengers:

• Deeside Industrial Park station – a flagship new station with a large 200+ space car park, bus interchange and active travel facilities; and
•  Padeswood Hanson Cement works connection – new sidings and improved access arrangements from the main line to eliminate competition for track capacity between passenger and freight trains.

The LUF focuses on capital investment in local infrastructure with the aim of having a visible, tangible impact on people and places and supporting economic recovery.

With the support of local authorities and business organisations in the cross-border Growth Track 360 alliance, Flintshire Council submitted an initial bid for LUF funding for the Borderlands line in June 2021.  Learning from UK Government feedback on this bid and now with extensive work by Transport for Wales and detailed input from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, expectations are high of a positive response to the Round 2 application.

The new bid contains formal priority letters of support from local Westminster Members of Parliament Christian Matheson MP (Labour, City of Chester), Mark Tami MP (Labour, Alyn & Deeside) and Justin Madders MP (Labour, Ellesmere Port and Neston) and supporting letters from Dr James Davies MP (Conservative, Vale of Clwyd) Chair of the Westminster Mersey Dee and North Wales All Party Parliamentary Group, Sarah Atherton MP (Conservative, Wrexham) and Mick Whitley MP (Labour, Birkenhead) as well from the Welsh Government, seven Senedd Members representing North Wales, businesses, rail trade and user associations, and local authority leaders from across the region.

Growth Track 360 Chair, Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West & Chester Council, said:

“Improvements to the Borderlands railway will support the UK and Welsh Governments’ shared desire to tackle climate change with alternatives to the car by seamlessly connecting Liverpool City Region and Cheshire with the future North Wales Metro, providing our citizens with access to a wide range of job opportunities, skills training, educational and leisure facilities regardless of which side of the Wales-England border they live.”

Leader of Flintshire Council and Vice Chair of Growth Track 360, Councillor Ian Roberts, said:

“Flintshire, Growth Track 360 and our supporters learned a great deal from our first application to the UK Levelling Up Fund for the Borderlands railway.  With great support from Transport for Wales, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the private sector, we have now produced a superb bid for Round 2 which, if approved by the UK Government, will accelerate the transformation of the Wrexham-Liverpool line and assist in unleashing the full economic potential of our cross-border region.”