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Campaigners to bring back the railway line which ran through Haverhill are having another push to make some progress, with a special meeting planned next month.

The Cambridge to Colchester Rail Renewal project has invited MPs, council bosses and business organisations to a meeting on November the 16th, to try to get backing for an engineering feasibility study.

A pre-feasibility study was successfully completed some years ago, and in 2004 the first part of a full feasibility study, the market research, produced a positive result, with 72 per cent of people saying they would use the railway.

Now the second phase, engineering, needs to be done at an estimated cost of £46,000.

The group gathered the largest ever petition in favour of renewing a railway in Britain, signed by 12,000 people in 2002.

Before the meeting, which is in Haverhill on November 16, the group will be offering local people the chance to have their say at a market stall in the town's high street on Saturday, October 27.

Before 1967 you could travel by train from Cambridge to Colchester via Haverhill and Sudbury, but the rail-link between Cambridge and Sudbury was closed that year.

The group is putting forward the following arguments in favour of rail renewal:
 Between 1967 and 2012 the population along the route has grown by 75,000 (most notably in Haverhill (from 8,500 to 23,000);
 Industry, business and technology are expanding in the estates of towns and cities;
 There is much public demand - a petition (2002) gained over 12,000 signatures, mainly in Haverhill. This was the biggest number ever for a rail project.
 Market Research (2004) found over 72 per cent wishing to use a railway (Cambridge-Haverhill); there was a steady increase in passengers on the Sudbury to Marks Tey section and on other lines in the region (Witham-Braintree, and Norwich-Cambridge for example).
 There is a need for safer, speedier and more environmentally-friendly passenger and freight transport to ease congestion and reduce accidents on the A1307 and A14 and to develop freight traffic from Felixstowe.
 A re-instated railway would link into the national rail network, and be the best 'highway' from Haverhill to the outside world, including London, Stansted Airport, the Midlands and North, and the North Sea ports for continental Europe - as well as joining the 'East-West' Railway, linking Oxford and Cambridge, which is gradually taking form, and which would give fresh travel and commercial opportunities to the community;
 The Association of Train Operating Companies placed Haverhill on its list of towns in need of a railway and rail-station (2009);
 A past study showed that a full standard-gauge railway could be re-instated, albeit with diversions, where the former route has been built over.

A full engineering study is now needed to discover the options for rail renewal. The cost of the study would be around £46,000.

The Rail Project can contribute £3,000 towards this figure, and they plan to request funding from national and local government and from businesses and rail organisations to meet the total.