DEAN Forest Railway has big plans: its sights are set on taking the line through Speech House Road and on to Cinderford by 2023, at an estimated cost of £8m.

The scheme has the backing of Forest of Dean District Council, who have moved it higher up their strategic planning list, and the provisional support of the Forestry Commission, the major-landowner affected.

Jason Shirley is director of civil engineering and director for development for DFR. He said: “For 40 years we’ve said ‘we’re off to Speech House Road’. It was time to do something about it, so we enlisted support from Bristol University.

Their fourth year civil engineering students assessed the route and said it would make sense to keep going to Cinderford.

“FC are provisionally happy with the idea as their aim is to increase tourism without destroying the fabric of the Forest with car parks and signage. The family cycle trail currently follows much of the proposed route, so we’re talking to them about how to relocate it.

“The council are interested as we could potentially bring 100,000 people into Cinderford and even link the town to main line services. The potential tourist spend would encourage businesses and add sustainability to the Northern Quarter development.”

The line would include a station, using recently salvaged buildings made of Forest stone, close to Beechenhurst and would terminate close to Valley Road in Cinderford. Jason said: “The old station site isn’t available, but there’s land on the west side of the road, close to the Co-op, which we may be able to use.

“The main costs will be for constructing bridges, a level crossing and a tunnel. We have around 250 volunteers, many of whom love development work and we’re always looking for more. This isn’t just a DFR project, it’s a community project.”

Jason is hopeful that money will come from central government as this is a strategic regional development project. He added: “Brexit has thrown everything into question, but a relatively small investment will have a significant effect, so we’re very hopeful.”