Campaign to reopen Gilsland Station

Campaigners hoping to reopen Gilsland railway station are appealing to Northumberland County Council and Carlisle City Council to back the project.

They say a recent report of projected costs was vastly inflated and that a new rail link will attract tourists and fell walkers.

The Campaign to Open Gilsland Station (COGS) meets every week and has the support of local MPs Guy Opperman and Rory Stewart.

In 2016, Network Rail said the project would cost £28 million. COGS then labelled the figure “astonishing.”

The old station, which closed in the 1960s, is within metres of the Hadrian’s Wall trail. But COGS say the poor public transport links is limiting footfall.

Northumberland County Council says the scheme could receive funding from the Borderlands Growth Deal.

Last week Chancellor Philip Hammond unveiled a £260 million contribution to the deal his Spring Statement.

Geoff Paul, director of planning and economy at Northumberland County Council, said the Borderlands funding may “present an opportunity to source additional government funding” but that negotiations were at “a very early stage.”

Mr Paul said moving the scheme to the design phase would cost between £450,000 and £750,000.

As well as providing a hub for walkers talking Hadrian's Wall and the Pennine Way, campaigners hope a new station would bring visitors to the historic Gilsland Spa hotel.

A popular eighteenth-century resort, the hotel was visited by Cumbrian Muse Susanna Blamire and Walter Scott. The great Scottish novelist and poet even met his wife at the spa in 1797.

During the First World War the hotel become a convalescent home. It takes its name from the sulphurous spring from the cliff below.

The station at Gilsland was opened in 1836 and was known as “Rose Hill.” Then a vibrant tourist resort, the area was popular with working class holiday makers from Tyneside.

The station was renamed “Gilsland” in 1869 and closed during the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

The case for reopening the station was assessed in 2001 and again in 2005 by the Tyne Valley Route Strategy.

Neither study recommended the station be reopened, but the case turned on the passenger numbers from the local area.

In 2013 transport consultants JMP concluded that there was a viable economic argument for the station on the basis it would serve tourists visiting the World Heritage site of Hadrian’s Wall.