'Real step forward to get line back on track'

MP SECURES WESTMINSTER DEBATE ON REOPENING OF IVANHOE

- By SAM KALANTZIS

EFFORTS to restore passenger services to the Ivanhoe Line have taken a “real step forward,” an MP has claimed.

Amanda Hack, the MP for North West Leicestershire, made the claim after securing a Westminster Hall debate on restoring the rail line tomorrow.

The line has not served passengers since it was axed as part of the Dr Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

All campaigns to bring back passenger trains to North West Leicestershire in the decades since have failed, with the most recent by the Campaign for the Reopening of the Ivanhoe Line (CRIL) group getting scrapped by Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves after a business case was submitted to the Conservative government's Restoring Your Railway initiative.