New Peak District rail plans to connect popular beauty spots across the region

Community campaigners are calling for plans to use electric carriages to connect beauty spots across the Peak District.

The Buxton Town Team has proposed a battery-powered vehicle to run on a disused freight track from Buxton to popular walking and cycling trails in the area.

The community organisation, made up of residents, wants an electric rail service to run to the Monsal Trail before seeing if it can run to the Tissington Trail.

The Monsal Trail runs from Bakewell to Blackwell Mill near the popular nature reserve, Topley Pike Quarry.

The team believes the plans are the way forward ‘environmentally’, but they say a feasibility study could cost more than £100,000 – though it would need to be done in order to progress the plans any further.

Speaking to the BBC, member of the Buxton Town Team Andy Parker said: “It is so positive from so many points of view. Environmentally, this is the way forward.

“We want to get people out of cars and get them walking and cycling (on these trails).”

The community group has been speaking to Network Rail, who has been advising them on signalling and when it would be possible for these electric vehicles to run.

Tina Heathcote, also from the Buxton Town Team, has said raising the funds would not be easy but that it would be money well spent.

She told the BBC they had surveyed the residents a few years ago and approximately three quarters of participants said they would like easier options of getting to the countryside from the town.

Buxton resident Hannah Bills, who is in favour of the plans, added: “I think it would be really handy given there are a lot of people who would like to walk here who don’t have the opportunity because they don’t have a car, and it is pretty treacherous to try and walk here on foot.”