Windsor Link Railway funding on track
A
firm hoping to build a £150m private railway in Windsor says it will
have raised the £10m needed for planning permission by the end of 2014.
Windsor Link Railway (WLR) wants to build a tunnel between
Windsor & Eton station to Windsor & Eton Riverside station but
permission alone is expected to cost between £3m and £10m.
The link would allow through trains from Slough down to the Waterloo line.
Network Rail approved plans for the scheme in 2013.
WLR managing director George Bathurst said if the transport
and works application, which includes planning permission, was
uncontested it would cost in the region of £3m, but if alterations were
required it could cost up to £10m.
Mr Bathurst, who is also a Windsor and Maidenhead borough
councillor, said: "We are hopefully bringing more private money into the
rail network with no cost to the taxpayer so hopefully everybody will
be a winner."
WLR said the track, when complete, would be the "first wholly
privately promoted and funded railway project for over 100 years".
It said future phases were also planned, including direct connections to Heathrow from Ascot.
