“We started work three months after Lehmans Brothers collapsed and the whole financial structure changed. But because we had a mix of business and residential uses we could invest all our money into infrastructure to get some momentum going, while the world around us sorted itself out.”
Who owns Argent? “Me and my friends,” says Gibbs. “Ten partners. Our investment at King’s Cross is done alongside the BT pension scheme.”
For years the ‘Next Big Project’ has been seen as nearby Euston. Argent wants to be involved.
“These opportunities come on the back of major infrastructure works, and they don’t come along very often,” says Gibbs.
“At Euston, HS2 will be the catalyst, and by then it will be long overdue. It’s important to bring specialist developers on board at an early stage, as it’s not easy for a rail operator to see how a development decision might be compromised.
“So don’t just have them on board as advisers - use people who will have to live with the consequences, who have to sell and let what is built.
“For example, at King’s Cross we were able to put infrastructure in place for Network Rail. We could put a road ramp into their station without that creating major legal access rights issues. That created simplicity of servicing, construction and delivery. Anyone doing a market plan off the back of a station plan needs the right expertise.”
Case study: Tavistock
On a completely different scale is the re-opening of the branch line from Bere Alston to Tavistock, a small market town in Devon with a population of 12,000.
For years, reinstatement of the route linking the town with Plymouth has been tied to an otherwise-unrelated plan to build 750 homes at Callington Road on the edge of the town. Outline planning consent was granted last September.
“We first came up with the idea in 2007,” explains Peter Frost, managing director of the developer, Kilbride. “So we’re looking at a total time for the scheme of around 15 years. But it’s the residential side that has taken the time, not the railway.”
In return for the housing deal, Kilbride promised that it would fund the re-opening of a route closed in 1968. Five and a half miles of track bed were found to be in mostly good condition and easily reinstated as a single-track route to a new station, offering an hourly service.
“We decided the best way to secure housing was to deliver good infrastructure at the same time,” Frost explains. “We looked at all the current and disused lines throughout Devon and Cornwall, and related them to the likely future housing allocations. We found that Tavistock was the largest town with no rail connection and an unresolved housing issue. The two were tied together from the start.”
Initially there was local opposition. But it was aimed at the new homes, not at the railway. Kilbride has since sold the housing development to Bovis Homes and formed Kilbride Community Rail. Preparation of the building land is likely in the second half of this year.
“We’re now discussing with Devon County Council the best way to deliver the railway,” says Frost. “You can go for a Development Consent Order for a national infrastructure project. Or you can go for a Transport & Works Act Order, which is slightly quicker. But either of these processes would be quite lengthy and detailed, so will take two to three years. Work could get under way three years from now at the earliest, with trains running 2019-2020.”
The line north from Bere Alston on the Gunnislake branch was not always an offshoot - it is the stub of the former London & South Western Railway route round Dartmoor, from Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton. Following last year’s collapse of the main line along the sea wall at Dawlish, there is renewed interest in re-opening the remaining disused line as an alternative to the only rail route to Plymouth.
