Track removal work on Custom House Quay in Weymouth is set to pause as businesses reopen on Wednesday 2 December.
Work to remove the disused rails along the harbourside was brought forward to take advantage of quieter roads during the latest coronavirus lockdown, with many businesses in the area having to temporarily close their doors.
In the last four weeks, the tracks have been removed in phases from Custom House Quay between St Mary’s Street and South Parade, with this section also temporarily resurfaced.
The works area on Custom House Quay will be reopened on the morning of Wednesday 2 December. Temporary traffic restrictions for drainage works on Commercial Road will be in place until the end of Friday 4 December.
Resurfacing of Commercial Road will be carried out overnight, between 7pm and 6am, from Monday 7 December for five nights. This will start at Lower St Alban Street and work towards King Street.
Cllr Ray Bryan, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said: “The project team has put in a tremendous effort to bring forward the work on the harbourside and complete the removal of the tracks in this area at such short notice – thank you for all your hard work.
“We hope that by carrying out our resurfacing on Commercial Road as night work we will keep disruption to a minimum and ensure shoppers can return to the town centre for some local Christmas shopping.”
Workers will return to Custom House Quay in the New Year, starting at South Parade on Monday 4 January and working towards the Pavilion Car Park. Roads in the area will be closed in sections:
- Custom House Quay closed from South Parade to The Pavilion Car park
- Commercial Road closed from ‘The Loop’ at Cosens Quay Car park to St Nicholas Street
- Commercial Road closed from St Nicholas Street to St Mary Street
These sections on Commercial Road, along with the length of Custom House Quay, are scheduled to be resurfaced in spring 2021.
Work to remove a disused train line, set into the road in a Dorset town centre, has paused as the national lockdown ends. Tracks have been taken up from Custom House Quay between St Mary s Street and South Parade over the four weeks.
In view of the strategic importance of rail, & it’s potential to reduce pollution by utilising hydrogen – that’s already beginning to be exploited elsewhere &
would have helped Dorset make an important contribution towards dealing with the Climate Emergency that Cllr Bryan’s the lead on:
Please when were Plans for this work, & related Council budget for it, put out to public consultation – & where are they in regard to the current Climate Emergency Strategy & Action Consultation
Hi Philip,
The Office of Road and Rail put the line permanently out of use in 2017, recognising that it is no longer safe or practical to run services along the route.
The line was only ever intended to serve the ferry terminal – there are no interim platforms between Weymouth Station and the terminal to allow passengers to get on and off the train. There is also no power supply to the rails.
Only a large multi-million-pound investment would be enough to overhaul the current tracks and make them fit for purpose, very little of the existing infrastructure would be reusable.
Running rail services is always an extremely costly business and with Weymouth Peninsula as the only destination this would never be a financially viable proposition, or recoup initial investment, even if run by volunteers.
https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2020/10/09/reusing-the-weymouth-branch-line/
what a terrible waste of council funds
i have never had a problem navigating the road with the railway tracks in place
swanage has at least tried to retain some of there quay side railway lines
albeit in stone replacements for the rusted quay side rails
Very sad to see removal of rail tracks from Weymouth Quay. Such branches off the main line are rare survivors of railway history, and should be preserved – or better still used for rail excursions which bring tourists to the towns concerned. Yes, I know they can be disruptive to residents in the area, BUT I bet you that in almost every case the railway was there first, so why did they buy there if not liking railways?
It seems that Weymouth is actually saying goodbye to the harbour’s unique appeal as a film location, especially that of a harbour still with a tramway. Remember, the integral atmosphere setting part it played in Christopher Nolan’s multi Oscar nominated 2017 epic war film «Dunkirk», starring Sir Kenneth Branagh. I think the Council has seriously missed a trick here, as the film’s Christmas showing on national television will reveal.
It does, however, appear from the photos of resurfaced Commercial Road that the real reason for the removal of the harbour tramway lines is, in fact, to install a designated cycle path along its route. Well, pedestrians using the harbour quay beware !! Everybody knows that in any pedestrianised area where cycling is permitted the bike rules, regardless with whom it happens to share the space. Has there been any public consultation about this move, as there was not any about the removal of the tramway tracks ?
As for the eventual inauguration of the late Weymouth Harbour Line legacy site, the icing on the cake would surely be the return to Weymouth of the only surviving GWR 0-6-0 Pannier Tank «1366 Class» steam locomotive, no 1369, which handled both main line trains and goods trains through the streets to the harbour. Last year it was returned to service on the South Devon Railway – https://www.southdevonrailway.co.uk/sdra and was featured in «Heritage Railway» magazine, issue n° 260 Oct-Nov. 2019 – http://www.heritagerailway.co.uk Even if not being able to run on the Cosens’ loop section of the tramway, a static display in steam would, I am sure, be possible. Weymouth surely deserves this, at least ! And think of the publicity it would bring !!
Kind Regards,
Nigel Chainey
(TS «Le Marité»from Granville to Weymouth Waterfest 2014 – 2016)
(TS «Pelican of London» from Weymouth to Granville «Festival des Voiles de Travail» 2014)