Government petition - preserving old trackbeds

[DynamicSpirit]

Same with old track bed. If there is a realistic prospect of the line reopening and seeing plenty of trains then fine protect it. If it stands no chance of reopening then what on earth is the point? In a few decades time someone might want to put the land to good use but will be thwarted by a protection law because someone had some vain hope that the line might be reopened.

In an ideal world in which we had perfect knowledge of the future, I would completely agree. But we don't have perfect knowledge of the future, and it's impossible to tell what might in 20 years time be useful to reopen. So, as with all things in this world, we have to choose between the best of imperfect options.

If this petition was adopted, then clearly one result would be that a few old trackbeds would be protected needlessly because they'll never come back into use anyway. But the harm that would result from that is surely tiny compared to the harm that is done when trackbed is built over and then it turns out we do need it re-opened and it either costs millions to move businesses etc., or a very useful reopening ends up not happening at all. I would have thought therefore that what this petition is proposing, while not perfect, is likely on balance to be beneficial - in the sense that it would result in far less harm than the harm caused by the current situation (in which there is no protection unless specifically allocated to a particular route).

After all, the total amount of land occupied by old trackbeds is a negligibly small proportion of the total land in the UK. How often do buildings really have to go on that land, with no possibility of building them in a nearby location instead? I'd suspect - almost never, and when old trackbed gets built on, it's mostly because it's just slightly cheaper to build there than somewhere else. And as yorksrob has hinted at, even where it wouldn't ever make economic sense to restore the railway, many of these tracks would be really useful as cycleways, footpaths, or green spaces. Maybe some might even make useful roads in the future. For all those reasons, this petition makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[Greenback]

I suspect that it;s a lot more than a few old trackbeds that would end up being protected needlessly. As I may have mentioned, in this area there are a lot of former trackbeds that used to connect industrial sites with the main line. These industries have long gone, and the railways are never, ever going to return.

As has also been said, where there is a need for a railway to repoen, it's likely to be just as cost effective to build on a new alignment, possibly one that better reflects modern transport needs than something that was planned and built in Victorian times.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

This is about fifty years too late. I would imagine that almost all old trackbeds have been redeveloped at some point in their length. The stretches that haven't are in open countryside and unlikely to be developed.

Well some of the easiest lines to reopen would be the Spen Valley Line, the Uckfield to Lewes section of the Wealden Line (even if it meant that it was a peak hour service, the Steyning Line between Christ's Hopspital and Shorham as there is just enough room for a single line at Steyning) amongst others where infrastructure hasn't been fully removed.
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There is also the Leeds to Wetherby line via Scholes that could also do with reinstating, just imaging how busy that line would be.

 

[Philip Elliott]

As has also been said, where there is a need for a railway to repoen, it's likely to be just as cost effective to build on a new alignment, possibly one that better reflects modern transport needs than something that was planned and built in Victorian times.

That really is not true, do you really think Airdrie-Bathgate or the Borders railway could be delivered on a new alignment for anything near the re-opening costs?

 

[Jonny]

This petition is about protecting all old track beds, even those that stand no chance of reopening apart from in the eyes of a few nostalgic people. I remember The Green Party pledged to scrap HS2 in favour of reopening old closed lines but gave no details of how they would do so and how many hundreds of houses would need to be demolished to do so. If a line has a realistic chance of reopening and is worth doing so then a group should petition the local authority to protect it. Not put an arbitrary protection on all track beds.

The issue with a lot of old trackbeds is that the avoidance of gradients was more important than curvature in the steam era, whereas a gradient now is less of an issue with DMUs and electric traction. Therefore a new build (e.g. HS2) may be a better proposition than a reopening.
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For balance, though, old trackbeds do have their uses (e.g. as greenways) even if there is no chance of reopening.

 

[Pseudonym]

Signed - just over 2500 now.

 

[Greenback]

That really is not true, do you really think Airdrie-Bathgate or the Borders railway could be delivered on a new alignment for anything near the re-opening costs?

Maybe not for those lines, but often a former railway line has been so built over already that a new alignment makes financial sense.

The issue with a lot of old trackbeds is that the avoidance of gradients was more important than curvature in the steam era, whereas a gradient now is less of an issue with DMUs and electric traction. Therefore a new build (e.g. HS2) may be a better proposition than a reopening.

Indeed, the advantage of a new alignment, in addition to money, could be things such as better serving modern population and retail centres, higher speeds, better interchange with other modes of transport, and easier accessibility through more space for ramps etc.

All these would help any business case, as well as maybe being cheaper to build than would be the case were an old route to be slavishly followed.