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# Harbourton approves £48m plan to reopen the Riverside railway line
- URL: https://wire.happychases.com/harbourton-approves-plan-to-reopen-riverside-railway/
- Published: 2026-11-02T21:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-02T21:30:00.000Z
- Description: After a four-hour debate, councillors vote 38 to 11 to bring passenger trains back to the north of the city for the first time in more than fifty years. Funding is not yet fully secured.
- Author: Tom Fenwick
- Tags: City, Politics, #Import 2026-11-03 20:05

Passenger trains could return to the north of Harbourton for the first time in more than half a century after councillors approved a £48 million plan to reopen the Riverside railway line.

The decision, taken late on Monday night after almost four hours of debate, was passed by 38 votes to 11\. It allows the council to begin detailed design work and apply for the remaining funding needed to complete the project.

If that funding is secured, trains could be running between Harbourton Central and Northfield by 2030, with new stations at Millbrook, Riverside Park and Northfield Retail Park.

## What has been approved

The plan would see the four-mile line, closed to passengers in the early 1970s and to freight a decade later, rebuilt as a single-track railway with passing loops. Trains would run every 20 minutes during the day, taking around 12 minutes from Northfield to the city centre. The same journey currently takes up to 40 minutes by bus at peak times.

The council has committed £18 million from its transport budget. A further £30 million is expected to come from a regional transport fund, although that bid will not be decided until next spring.

"This is a once-in-a-generation decision," said the council's cabinet member for transport, Councillor Anita Moss, opening the debate. "For fifty years, the north of this city has been cut off. Tonight, we can start to change that."

## The case for

Supporters of the scheme argue that it would dramatically improve access to jobs, schools and hospitals for the roughly 40,000 people who live in the northern wards. Northfield has some of the lowest rates of car ownership in the city, and many residents rely on buses that are often delayed by congestion on Harbour Road.

The council's business case predicts that the line would carry around 1.2 million passengers a year within five years of opening, remove several thousand car journeys a day from the Harbour Road corridor and support new housing on brownfield land near the proposed stations.

Local businesses have largely backed the plan. The chair of the Northfield Traders' Association told the meeting that many shops in the area had struggled to recruit staff because of poor transport links. "We have vacancies we cannot fill," she said. "People can't get here."

> "For fifty years, the north of this city has been cut off. Tonight, we can start to change that." — Cllr Anita Moss

## The concerns

Opponents raised two main objections: cost and the future of the Riverside Path.

Several councillors warned that rail projects frequently run over budget and that the council could be left with significant extra costs if the regional funding bid fails. Councillor David Price, leader of the main opposition group, said the plan was "an expensive gamble with money the city doesn't have."

"Nobody in this chamber is against better transport for the north," he said. "But we have seen what happens to big projects when the numbers turn out to be wrong. Residents will pay for that, one way or another."

The council's finance director told the meeting that a contingency of 20% had been built into the budget, and that the project would not proceed to construction unless the full funding package was in place.

The other major concern was the Riverside Path. Since the railway closed, the old trackbed has become one of the city's most popular walking and cycling routes, used by an estimated 3,000 people a day. More than 2,500 people signed a petition calling for it to be protected.

Under the approved plan, a new, wider path would be built alongside the railway for most of its length, with a short diversion near Millbrook where the corridor is too narrow for both. Campaigners say they will hold the council to that promise.

"We're not opposed to trains," said a spokesperson for the Friends of the Riverside Path. "We're opposed to losing a green space that thousands of people use every single day. If the new path is as good as they say, we'll be the first to celebrate it."

## What happens next

The council will now appoint engineers to carry out detailed design work, which is expected to take around 18 months. A full public consultation on station designs and the new path will take place next year.

The regional transport fund's decision on the £30 million bid is expected in April. If successful, construction could begin in 2028.

Several residents who attended the meeting stayed until its conclusion after midnight. Among them was 81-year-old June Thornley, who remembers taking the train from Northfield to the seaside as a child.

"I never thought I'd see it come back," she said, as she left the council chamber. "I hope I'm still here to ride on it."

## How councillors voted

| Group           | For    | Against | Abstained |
| --------------- | ------ | ------- | --------- |
| Administration  | 31     | 0       | 0         |
| Main opposition | 4      | 10      | 1         |
| Independents    | 3      | 1       | 0         |
| **Total**       | **38** | **11**  | **1**     |

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