News Release

4th December 2007

PROPOSALS TO RE-OPEN ALREWAS RAILWAY STATION

Michael Fabricant has written to the Department for Transport and the Secretary of State for Defence backing calls to re-open the Lichfield to Burton line for passenger traffic and to rebuild the railway halt at Alrewas. "Since the Dedication of the Armed Forces Memorial by the Queen in October, visitors to the National Memorial Arboretum have soared" says Michael. "At present visitors have to come by road putting great strain on the local environment. But with a working railway line passing close to the Memorial and the existing east-west railway routes becoming clogged, I now think it is time to re-open the line to passenger traffic.

"It will enable elderly veterans, unable to drive, to access the Armed Forces Memorial from all parts of the country by rail via Birmingham and Lichfield.

"I am already in contact with Des Browne the Secretary of State for Defence regarding future plans for the Memorial. I believe, in years to come, veterans and relatives will look to the Armed Forces Memorial as being the main centre of national remembrance commemorating, as it does, the fallen since 1945. Personal memories of the two world wars will inevitably fade in future decades. By 2010, the annual number of visitors to Alrewas is likely to exceed a quarter of a million."

Michael has joined forces with Roger Hailwood, a volunteer guide at the National Memorial Arboretum and a local campaigner for the re-opening of the line to Burton. Roger says: "At the recent Dedication of the Armed Forces Memorial, I had an experience that highlighted the problem of access to the Memorial. I escorted three elderly ladies to find the name of a brother who had been killed in operations against the Mau Mau in Kenya back in 1955. As they fought to control their emotions on viewing the only memorial they had ever seen to their brother, they enquired about ways to make a return visit to the Memorial in the future, by way of public transport. They were upset to realise that there is no viable public transport link to the National Memorial Arboretum from their home in Newcastle Upon Tyne other than organising a taxi from Lichfield or Burton. There are many others who face the same problem. A railway halt at Alrewas would be the solution."