The History of MCR

The idea of bringing back into use the disused lines between Stoke on Trent , Leekbrook Junction and Cauldon Lowe can be traced back to the mid 1990’s and the then newly operational Churnet Valley Railway’s intention to extend its line north of Leekbrook into Leek itself. Negotiations eventually got underway with Railtrack, then in control of the UK’s railway network, but did not lead to a positive outcome when Railtrack insisted that any acquisition would be required to include the Cauldon branch. Such an extensive acquisition was beyond the CVR’s limited financial and management resources and matters did not proceed.

This initiative, although unsuccessful at the time, was to lead directly to the current plan to reopen and extend the network of disused and dismantled lines centred on Leekbrook Junction. Moving forward ten years or so, the attitude within local and national government to railways as a sustainable method of mass transportation based on the recognition of carbon emissions and climate change as a major environmental issue was becoming increasingly important in shaping policy within the fields of transport and land planning. It was time for these unused resources to be looked at again.

Two CVR directors, David Kemp and Gregory Wilson, started to look at a commercial, rather than a voluntary, method of moving the project forward. The combination of an increasingly favourable official view of rail transport and the fact that a number of large scale potential users were located adjacent to the network meant that a sound business case for the project existed.

MCR was established in 2009, Leekbrook Junction and the Cauldon branch were acquired a few months later and contracts were exchanged for the acquisition of the remainder of the route back to the main line at Stoke. The project was up and running.