West Highland Line is one of the busiest rural lines in the country and generates very large numbers of tourists which are a huge part of the areas local economy.
You'd be completely mad to contemplate closing it.
Whitby is interesting in that as you point out it's slower than bus if you're coming from the south. However this is much less of an issue from North East and within the Esk Valley itself the train is both quicker and more reliable. Just because it doesn't serve Leeds well doesn't mean it doesn't serve anyone.
Far North line is tricky. Passenger numbers on the south of the line have grown strongly with an increase in Inverness commuters and the new stations at Beauly and Conon Bridge. Commuter traffic is strong at least as far as Tain and journey times are competitive to Lairg so the Invergordon cut off suggestion is daft.
Kyle is also very important for tourists and not much slower than the coach.
There is an issue with Caithness traffic as the bus is significantly quicker, especially to Wick. The solution is probably a combination of some upgrades to infrastructure to enable faster journey times (especially the RETB, points and level crossings), Closure of some of the less useful stations (Culrain, Kildonan, Kinbrace, Scotscalder, Georgemas Junction) and a new north - west chord at Georgemas to allow direct running to Thurso without reversal.
Ultimately you could possibly justify closure of the Wick branch but the marginal cost of operating it is probably very low so I'd keep it open but focus journey time improvements on Thurso where it's easier to compete and the link to the Orkneys adds to its strategic value.
I'd say this:
-More passing loops, particularly between Inverness and Beauly, Dingwall and Tain & Helmsdale and Georgemas.
-A new station at Evanton, and another at Halkirk.
-Possible closures at Georgemas, Scotscalder, Kildonan, Culrain, Invershin and, I'm afraid, the beloved Altnabreac.
-A Tain-Dornoch-Golspie branch to cut times to Thurso, and Inverness-Lairg local services. This would have to mean the closure of Rogart.
-A new junction after Halkirk station to reach Thurso without reversing, and a new chord there too so there would be no need to reverse at Halkirk to get to Wick.
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Typical deluded railway fantasist, the fundamental FACT is road is the main form of transport in this country. I suspect the costs of such as Whitby and the Bentham are outrageous compared to the benefit they give, time for Beeching 2 in view and get rid of some these railway money cesspits.
I'm sorry, but have you ever even used the lines? They are all well patronised and serve communities that need them. Whitby's only rail service is always well used. So is the Bentham. The Far North gets a lot of passengers, I remember being on the semi-express southbound on a Saturday morning and the train being full south of Tain. How can you justify closing these lifeline services?
Railways aren't just for nostalgia, hardly in my view. They are for getting people from A to B. We are not deluded fantasists, because we use them regularly. Sometimes they aren't run as well as we like, and we complain about it. But never do we take the view that they need to go.
Clearly, you're not as much as a Jeremy Clarkson as you'd like to be, because you know about these railways and that they exist. But I say, go and live in Bentham or Lairg and see how life would be without these vital links. Go and ask the people of Whitby how they'd feel if they no longer had any rail links.
Roads may be important but, without the competition trains provide, it'd be a lot grimmer. And where there's not as much competition, such as Inverness-Thurso, there are other reasons to keep these railways open. Cutting them short would be a horrendously short-sighted move.
Beeching itself was beyond drastic. If it had all gone ahead, Wales would only have one railway line, and no line from London to Leicester. No railways further north than Aberdeen, or west of Plymouth. Sunderland, Middlesborough, Blackpool, Barrow, Inverness, all these places without trains.
What are you doing on a railway forum, if you
insult the members and get rid of something that would hurt a lot of the nation?
I believe someone needs their membership reviewed.
