The Campaign to Reopen the Ivanhoe Line has taken another step forwards in its bid to bring passenger train services back to Ashby.

It has been accepted for the assessment process of the Department for Transport's New Ideas Fund of the Restoring Your Railway initiative.

Now campaigners are waiting to hear if the proposal to restore a train line between Burton and Leicester has made it to the next stage.

The Department for Transport recently launched a £500million Restoring Your Railway Fund and invited MPs, local councils and community groups to propose how they could use funding to reinstate axed local services and restore stations.

CRIL has made it to the Ideas Fund stage which provides support to proposals to reinstate axed local services.

The DfT looked for schemes which are sponsored by MPs working with local authorities and community groups.

Now they CRIL will hope part of the £500million will be used to help accelerate the development of closed lines and stations which are already in the process of being considered for restoration.

As well as looking for new ideas, the fund will be used for Proposals for new and restored stations.

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A new round of the New Stations Fund will support both the development of new stations and the restoration of old station sites.

The proposed new Ivanhoe Line would include stations at both Ashby and Moira.

Campaign director Geoff Bushell has also been quoted in Railway Magazine about the Ivanhoe Line.

Geoff said of the bid to the Restoring Your Railway Fund: "The wider economic benefits for the community, the regenerative effects, the impact on social mobility.

"I don't think any of that has ever been made. It's up to us to provide a balanced view and bring this out."

"The advice is that we should go for Burton to Leicester and sell the potential.

"You could have peak-time Burton to St Pancras trains for instance. Why would you go from Burton to Derby to change when you could go straight through?"

It is also felt that the expanding population in Coalville and Ashby could also be a factor in the future of restoring the line.

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If the Ivanhoe Line gets to the next stage, Geoff hopes a partnership can be formed to take the scheme forwards and identify sources of funding.