York to Beverley railway reinstatement plan misses out on 'reverse Beeching' funding

The route was a victim of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, as at the time it was mainly used as a duplicate line to Hull and the intermediate rural stations were underserved.

Its closure meant towns such as Market Weighton and Pocklington lost their rail links completely.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart sponsored a bid for funding under the Department for Transport's Restoring Your Railway grant scheme, but the campaigners were told this week that the project would go no further than the second round of assessment.

Although it was felt the route has 'potential' to be re-opened in the future, it was felt not to be feasible in the medium term.

The bid, submitted in June, was based on reducing traffic on the A1079, boosting job opportunities and tourism.

Rail minister Chris-Heaton Harris worked with Network Rail chair Sir Peter Hendy to assess a total of 111 bids from around the country.

Mr Heaton-Harris has encouraged Mr Stuart to re-submit a revised business case for future rounds of funding, as the scheme has strong local backing from York's MPs and the city councils of York and Hull.

Mr Stuart said: “This is of course disappointing news, particularly after the hard work of the Minsters Rail Campaign and East Riding Council to work up and submit the bid back in the summer.

“But this is definitely not the end of the line. Support for the project is still there, and there’ll now be opportunities to strengthen our bid and submit an even better case in a future funding round with the help of feedback and workshops from the Government.

“I will continue to do all I can to support this bid as I want to see greater investment into infrastructure in our area.”

A successful bid would mean 75 per cent of the cost of feasibility studies would be covered so that a full business case could then be compiled.

The proposal would be for the line to branch off the Hull to Scarborough line at Haxby, and for a reinstated station at Haxby - which has successfully won a New Stations Fund grant - to serve both routes.

There would be intermediate stops at Market Weighton, Pocklington and Stamford Bridge, but the majority of the Victorian line's original stations, which served small rural villages, would not be rebuilt because of changing passenger demand.

Mr Stuart added: “The most recent census indicated that about a quarter of East Riding residents commute to either Hull or York, so I really think this train service would provide a popular alternative to the congested roads and sparse bus services we have at the minute.”