A BUSINESSMAN claims his dream of bringing trains back to the Keswick to Penrith Railway are under threat, after plans for a road cutting through the route were given the go-ahead.

Eden District Council passed the plans for internal roads in the North Lakes Industrial Park, at Flusco, near Penrith, one of which cuts over the route of the track bed.

Cedric Martindale, of CKP Railways plc, said: "The road would make reinstatement of the track on its original alignment extremely difficult, and certainly much more expensive."

The train line, part of a section linking Workington to Penrith, was built as a mineral hauling line between 1862 and 1864 but closed in March 1972.

Mr Martindale wants to change the way people travel in the area and believes putting them on trains could cut traffic jams and ease parking pressures.

He said: "A diversionary route for the track would be expensive to construct because massive earthworks, new bridges and stabilisation of wet or boggy ground would be required."

He warned: "Such a diversion would also create a visual impact and affect unspoiled habitats."

Eden District Council spent more than a year considering evidence from various sources before making the decision.

But Mr Martindale accused EDC of breaching their own planning policies on the protection of railway track beds to comply with its policy of industrial development.

EDC's assistant director of planning services Gwyn Clark said careful consideration was given to the plans.

"We commissioned independent railway consultants ourselves to look into the question of the potential for the reopening of the line," he said.

"Their concern was that, while it was physically possible, the costs had not been properly quantified and were considerable but, more significantly, meeting the revenue costs of the railway line was very doubtful."

He added the engineers also found a "perfectly viable" alternative route for the line.

Mr Martindale vowed the decision was "not the end of the line" and said he would challenge the decision.