It has been claimed that a section of the Ivanhoe Line taking rail passengers from Ashby to Leicester would cost an additional £271million.

An article on the New Civil Engineer website says the figure comes from Network Rail in response to a freedom of information request.

The 31-mile line was to have re-opened between Burton and Leicester, something campaigners have been fighting for.

And the Campaign for Reopening the Ivanhoe Line (CRIL) has petitioned for its reinstatement as a passenger line since 2019, leading to it being one of nine abandoned lines to receive funding through the Department for Transport's Restoring Your Railway fund in summer 2022.

However, it was announced in September that the re-opening of the line, if successful, would only run from Burton to Coalville, via Ashby - with the main route linking passengers to Derby, not Leicester.

Image: Dreamstime

It was claimed that the Coalville to Leicester section could not be completed as part of the first phase of development as it would be too expensive.

New Civil Engineer reports that the "significant infrastructure investment" required had forced Network Rail to reduce the scope of the restoration - meaning it will only see tracks doubled from Burton-on-Trent to Coalville, rather than reaching the new Leicester South station.

But the Government's Network North document, released in the wake of HS2's cancellation, committed to restoring the Ivanhoe line in full.

Responding to New Civil Engineer's FoI request, Network Rail has revealed that it is now looking to deliver the Ivanhoe line restoration in two phases.

The first phase will be the Burton-on-Trent to Coalville section as previously confirmed.

It will then look into phase two of the Ivanhoe line restoration, which will involve the doubling of the tracks from Bagworth Junction to Leicester South and the construction of Leicester South station.

Network Rail said: "For these two aspects, our current high-level cost is £271million.

Photo: CRIL

"This is based on several assumptions and are high-level costs solely based on desktop studies."

It added: "The options to Leicester were devised assuming we would need to double track the section of line between Coalville and the proposed Leicester South Station, to which standard unit rates were applied.

"There is a lot of further work that would need to be undertaken to develop a more confident view of the infrastructure requirements, whilst also ensuring we do not inhibit the current freight traffic that already uses this section of line."

The plans for phase one currently involve the return to operation of stations at Coalville, Ashby and Swadlincote/Castle Gresley.

If the business case is approved, work on the restoration could start next year - however, there is also a stipulation that construction must begin before the next General Election.