Rural line reopenings - which one?

[ChiefPlanner]

Going beyond Cowley is going to be tricky. Bits of Wheatley have been built upon the old trackbed so you'd have to find a new route.

It was looked at under "Connecting Communities" way back - almost everything is possible , but apart from the donation of the Wheatley bridge many years ago to Aberwmboi ,there are issue on normal nimbyism , tree huggers and a few issues on tunnels etc. Whilst it would probably / certainly assist in commuting etc - you can gurantee such things were not deemed critical when the A40 and M25 /M40 were smashed through the environment some years back. Yes - a new route needed. They love them down there.

 

[JKF]

Fockerby branch of the Axholme Joint Railway. With a population of around 500 (if you include adjoining Garthorpe) , this branch would serve the needs of the local commuter population. Plus a small extension of the line to form a rail wharf on the nearby River Trent (and complementary facilities at Brough), the spot hire of a cross channel rail ferry and a bit of dredging could allow for a useful diversion route should the ECML be blocked.

 

[aliceh]

Brockenhurst to Ringwood - since closure, both Ringwood and nearby Verwood have become pretty sizable commuter towns. This would put them back onto the rail network with links to Southampton (the only Ringwood - Southampton public transport is national express coaches), as well as potential for direct trains to London, and help reduce congestion on the A31 and western parts of the M27.

I believe there's enough capacity to run to Southampton and the potential to join onto certain trains from Bournemouth to run to London. Extra bonus idea would be to reopen from Ringwood to Christchurch and ease traffic on the A338 - that would also create a diversion route but it would rarely be that useful.

 

[The Bear]

For me it has to be Penrith - Keswick,

Penrith to Keswick - support policy to reduce car traffic in Lake District

There's a policy?

Might be nice, but just putting the fast, frequent bus service into the train timetable and fares system would be a start. The bus service there is an oddity as it runs almost as fast as a train would as pretty much the entire route is on dual carriageway (though it strays off to serve a few villages).

The Lake District is badly in need of a more railheads, particularly now since gaining its UNESCO status as visitor numbers were predicted (pre Covid) to drastically increase.
Keswick is far more cental in the national park, it would also take the pressure off the Windermere branch.
Weather or not the branch gets any kind of capacity enhancements Windermere Station is now nowhere near big enough to cope with the number of passengers it normally handles with a narrow platform and very little room for any kind of expansion as all ex-railway land was sold off around the current station.
There maybe arguments that the current bus service from Penrith is adequate but the A66 is an extremely busy road, is prone to hold ups, continually switches between single & double carriageway, which is dangerous in its self. But away from the A66 most other roads are narrow & twisted and choked with traffic especially in the height of summer.
The bus service has been advised as a connecting service since the railway was shut but I think doesn't attract many because its a bus service.
To me Cumbria County Council and the National Park Authority seem to have burried their heads in the sand as far as public transport is concerned.
It has been said that the reopening of Penrith - Keswick wouldn't cost the County Council a penny but they won't put their name to it.
The National Park Authority won't support it because it means having to divert footpaths which run along the trackbed.

 

[JKF]

Clevedon, but via the WC&P route as an extension of the Portishead reopening. Difficult getting it out of Portishead (might need to be out and back there, not sure it could be done without level crossings which are banned), but a fairly flat and straight route, would pick up some traffic between the towns and still might offer a reasonable journey time into Bristol. Not sure where you’d put stuff at the Clevedon end however (would be the same problem if you rebuilt the line from Yatton)

 

[geordieblue]

Clevedon, but via the WC&P route as an extension of the Portishead reopening. Difficult getting it out of Portishead (might need to be out and back there, not sure it could be done without level crossings which are banned), but a fairly flat and straight route, would pick up some traffic between the towns and still might offer a reasonable journey time into Bristol. Not sure where you’d put stuff at the Clevedon end however (would be the same problem if you rebuilt the line from Yatton)

Level crossings aren't banned, I think..

 

[JKF]

Level crossings aren't banned, I think..

New ones pretty much are. This is why the new Portishead station is ending up about a 15 minute walk (700m) from the town centre, ORR absolutely would not let them put a crossing over Quays Avenue (built across the route since closure to access a large housing development) and the original safeguarded site for a station couldn’t be reached because of this. Makes the whole scheme much less viable for visitors to the town.

I’d be Interested to know when the last new crossing was built, but that’s probably a topic for a different thread.

 

[Bletchleyite]

New ones pretty much are. This is why the new Portishead station is ending up about a 15 minute walk (700m) from the town centre, ORR absolutely would not let them put a crossing over Quays Avenue (built across the route since closure to access a large housing development) and the original safeguarded site for a station couldn’t be reached because of this. Makes the whole scheme much less viable for visitors to the town.

This is one more reason in favour of building reopenings of that sort of line as light rail - with light rail you definitely can.

 

[Llandudno]

New ones pretty much are. This is why the new Portishead station is ending up about a 15 minute walk (700m) from the town centre, ORR absolutely would not let them put a crossing over Quays Avenue (built across the route since closure to access a large housing development) and the original safeguarded site for a station couldn’t be reached because of this. Makes the whole scheme much less viable for visitors to the town.

I’d be Interested to know when the last new crossing was built, but that’s probably a topic for a different thread.

Not sure 700m is too much of a deterrent to visit Portishead.

There are numerous stations throughout the country more than 700m from the town centre/beach etc. and it doesn’t prevent people from using them?
Chester, Lancaster, Cheltenham, Derby, Kendal, Skipton, Plymouth, Torquay, Cambridge etc

 

[JKF]

Not sure 700m is too much of a deterrent to visit Portishead.

There are numerous stations throughout the country more than 700m from the town centre/beach etc. and it doesn’t prevent people from using them?
Chester, Lancaster, Cheltenham, Derby, Kendal, Skipton, Plymouth, Torquay, Cambridge etc

It makes it considerably less attractive than the bus service which takes you all the way, and to get to the lake grounds/seafront would take much longer.

It’s an unfortunate situation, the council let a developer sever the track to create a huge housing development around the south of the docks, assuming that should the railway come back (which has been obvious for about thirty years) they’d be able to stick a crossing in place. Then there were a series of high profile crossing accidents and the ORR is not minded to approve any new ones unless in exceptional circumstances (even near the end of a branch line with low speeds). The housing developer has since gone bust without providing a lot of the promised amenity for the area and can’t be tapped up for providing an alternative access. For the reopening scheme they are actually blocking off the new(ish) access road, but then building the station immediately north of it and a new road across the formation just past this to divert the other traffic.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Lancaster station is not 700m from the centre, nowhere near it. Don't know where you got that from! Looks like about 300m from an OS map.

Chester, yeah, I'll go with that one - it's a long way away!

 

[A0]

Brockenhurst to Ringwood - since closure, both Ringwood and nearby Verwood have become pretty sizable commuter towns. This would put them back onto the rail network with links to Southampton (the only Ringwood - Southampton public transport is national express coaches), as well as potential for direct trains to London, and help reduce congestion on the A31 and western parts of the M27.

I believe there's enough capacity to run to Southampton and the potential to join onto certain trains from Bournemouth to run to London. Extra bonus idea would be to reopen from Ringwood to Christchurch and ease traffic on the A338 - that would also create a diversion route but it would rarely be that useful.

Surely the fact there *isn't* a regular bus between Ringwood and Southampton, despite the relatively short distance, is an indication that there isn't demand for a rail link? I've pointed this out several times, the successful rail reopenings had already got a well used bus link in place (Borders, EWR etc) the train offers an improved journey time.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

For strangers, the station being far from the town centre can be a great deterrent, often one emerges to see hordes of cars and no indication of where to walk and how far, or if one might take a tram or bus for extra money

Might be worth starting a thread about stations far from towns they purport to serve. Builth Road, for instance

 

[RT4038]

For strangers, the station being far from the town centre can be a great deterrent, often one emerges to see hordes of cars and no indication of where to walk and how far, or if one might take a tram or bus for extra money

Might be worth starting a thread about stations far from towns they purport to serve. Builth Road, for instance

£200m to extend the line 700m, or £2k on some direction signs......?

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

A few million only to pull down buildings so one can at least see the town hall or cathedral from the station

 

[Llandudno]

Lancaster station is not 700m from the centre, nowhere near it. Don't know where you got that from! Looks like about 300m from an OS map.

Chester, yeah, I'll go with that one - it's a long way away!

It felt like at least 700m walking back to the station from an Indian restaurant I used to frequent after a pub crawl of the city centre!

 

[Bletchleyite]

It felt like at least 700m walking back to the station from an Indian restaurant I used to frequent after a pub crawl of the city centre!

Lancaster? I can believe it, it is more than slightly uphill!

(Very hilly city, is Lancaster! Only one I can think of that beats it is Sheffield)