Abandoned lines least likely to be reinstated.

[matacaster]

Huddersfield to kirkburton. Huddersfield to Holmfirth.

 

[bingleybong]

Sandling to Hythe, even less likely - Hythe to Sandgate

 

[JonathanH]

The list is enormous.

Pretty much all abandoned lines are unlikely to be reinstated, however unfortunate that is.

 

[Kingston Dan]

Rosedale railway

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Holland Arms-Red Wharf Bay. A basket-case when it was built, and even more so when it closed to passengers 20 years later.
Though I was reliably informed by a school chum who lived near the terminus that reopening had been suggested...

 

[jp4712]

As @JonathanH says, it's not necessarily a useful exercise - hundreds of lines have been built over rendering reopening impossible. But one might think about a few lines that have been comprehensively built over that could provide a useful service today. For example very little remains of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway but had it stayed open, it would today be a strategic freight link for containers between Southamption and the midlands & north.

 

[43096]

Spean Bridge to Fort Augustus. A hopeless basket case when built and that won’t have changed now.

 

[numtot12345]

As @JonathanH says, it's not necessarily a useful exercise - hundreds of lines have been built over rendering reopening impossible. But one might think about a few lines that have been comprehensively built over that could provide a useful service today. For example very little remains of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway but had it stayed open, it would today be a strategic freight link for containers between Southamption and the midlands & north.

The Glenfarg Line (Edinburgh <> Paerth via Kinross) springs to mind, in that a fair bit of it has been built over by the M90 motorway. It would however provide a more useful and direct link between Perth and Edinburgh, but more-so between Edinburgh and Inverness as it would mean services don't need to route through Stirling or Ladybank. You can see how in terms of journey time it would be pretty transformation (albeit no doubt several capacity limitations at key points on this route would restrict it somewhat), however the amount it would cost to construct I suspect would be fairly prohibitive, particularly with other rail commitments (e.g. electrification, but also resilience of the existing network before adding more bits to the network).

 

[The Planner]

As @JonathanH says, it's not necessarily a useful exercise - hundreds of lines have been built over rendering reopening impossible. But one might think about a few lines that have been comprehensively built over that could provide a useful service today. For example very little remains of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway but had it stayed open, it would today be a strategic freight link for containers between Southamption and the midlands & north.

Not convinced it would have been, had some very steep long gradients at 1 in 100 and would have needed some sort of grade separation at Didcot. Wasn't it also single track?

 

[Llanigraham]

It keeps getting proposed but the Aberystwyth - Carmarthen line is highly unlikely ever to be rebuilt, and I have now seen a proposal to reopen the Cambrian from Moat Lane Junction, south of Newtown, Powys, to South Wales, which is even more preposterous.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Huddersfield to kirkburton. Huddersfield to Holmfirth.

Quite differing potential for those lines if we get the crayolas out though...

Kirkburton was a very circuitous way of getting into town, probably not far off double the distance as the crow flies. Even if the ultimate aim of getting to Barnsley had been achieved, it was a daft alignment and probably West Yorkshire’s best example of "Railway Mania" madness.

Holmfirth on the other hand would do pretty well if it was open today, being a reasonably direct routing which parallels a badly congested single carriageway A-road. Just a shame about the missing viaduct and houses built on the trackbed at Brockholes!

Kirkburton will never reopen because it should never have been built in the first place. Holmfirth will never reopen because it would cost too much to buy up the executive homes built on the alignment, and to rebuild the missing viaduct.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Abandoned lines least likely to be reinstated?

How about Bowness on Solway -> Annan via a reinstated Solway Viaduct?

The list is enormous.

Quite! This thread could very soon become quite lengthy!

 

[A0]

Colne - Skipton (runs and hides).

 

[A0]

It keeps getting proposed but the Aberystwyth - Carmarthen line is highly unlikely ever to be rebuilt, and I have now seen a proposal to reopen the Cambrian from Moat Lane Junction, south of Newtown, Powys, to South Wales, which is even more preposterous.

Never have so many packs of Crayola died in vain.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Not convinced it would have been, had some very steep long gradients at 1 in 100 and would have needed some sort of grade separation at Didcot. Wasn't it also single track?

Some of it was doubled (in the Berkshire Downs?) in WW2 to facilitate D-Day Invasion, but I think it remained mostly single south of Newbury. Looks nice and sensible on the map as an alternative to going via Reading, but as you say, a difficult route - and with pinch points at both ends. I don't think a grade separated junction at Didcot would have been possible, what with the avoiding line to Oxford going out, but someone here may know better.

A bit like the S&D really. A pity nobody built a decent route north from the Bournemouth - Southampton region, except, I suppose, the line to Salisbury-Westbury-Bristol.

 

[S&CLER]

Not convinced it would have been, had some very steep long gradients at 1 in 100 and would have needed some sort of grade separation at Didcot. Wasn't it also single track?

The DN&S was closed for 8 months in 1942 for a complete rebuild which involved doubling (actually redoubling) from Didcot East Jn to Newbury East Jn and from Enborne Jn to Woodhay, and crossing loops were extended to hold 70 wagons, a disused loop at Litchfield was reinstated and extra loops put in at Lodge Bridge and Worthy Down. All this of course was for the exceptional military traffic preceding the invasion of Europe, so normal considerations of cost didn't apply. Besides the track improvements, new ARP-style signal boxes replaced some of the older boxes. See T.B.Sands's Oakwood, pp. 40-41.

 

[NoRoute]

Stratford upon Avon and Midland Junction Railway must be near the top, the line running from Bedford to Stratford Upon Avon, it wasn't viable even at the peak of the railways.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

As @JonathanH says, it's not necessarily a useful exercise - hundreds of lines have been built over rendering reopening impossible. But one might think about a few lines that have been comprehensively built over that could provide a useful service today. For example very little remains of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway but had it stayed open, it would today be a strategic freight link for containers between Southamption and the midlands & north.

Not really as you would have to cross the entire GW service on the flat , to get from the Oxford direction to the DN&S ....even in mechanical signalling days it took something like a 100 lever movements to make it happen. Granted it did a good job in 1944 for Operations towards France. ........

In any case - the investment at Reading and enhanced signalling towards Basingstoke etc makes it probably unrequired.

It keeps getting proposed but the Aberystwyth - Carmarthen line is highly unlikely ever to be rebuilt, and I have now seen a proposal to reopen the Cambrian from Moat Lane Junction, south of Newtown, Powys, to South Wales, which is even more preposterous.

I agree - but it never seems to go away. Bit like Skipton - Colne (which seems to solve the entire railway problem of not just the North , but far wider)

There is , very much a desire of some "desk / home based *planners* to join the dots up on the map and recreate the golden age of railways circa 1904 ........(before the economy started to kick back let alone inernational stresses)

 

[Whistler40145]

Walsall to Lichfield City

 

[ChiefPlanner]

A bit like the S&D really. A pity nobody built a decent route north from the Bournemouth - Southampton region, except, I suppose, the line to Salisbury-Westbury-Bristol.

I suspect , even the entrepreneurial Victorians , would have balked at any more expenditure on the S&D.

Hugely loved by some , a good local employer , but essentially a "local" service for whatever one cares to make of it , - a glorious , photographed heyday thanks to Ivo Peters - but a few busy weeks in the Summer months was not a real winner.

Try doing a simple business case for it in the 21st century........

 

[The Planner]

Walsall to Lichfield City

I would have that near the bottom of the list, none of it is actually built on. There are hundreds more basket cases compared to this.

 

[6Gman]

It keeps getting proposed but the Aberystwyth - Carmarthen line is highly unlikely ever to be rebuilt, and I have now seen a proposal to reopen the Cambrian from Moat Lane Junction, south of Newtown, Powys, to South Wales, which is even more preposterous.

But, but ... it's a nationhood thing.

Some people have a nosebleed at the thought of a journey from North Wales to South Wales requiring setting wheel in England.

Even though, for the majority of people, going via Shrewsbury will always be quicker than via Strata Florida or Moat Lane Junction.

 

[Sunil_P]

Ilford to Newbury Park

 

[Bald Rick]

The list is enormous.

Pretty much all abandoned lines are unlikely to be reinstated, however unfortunate that is.

Is the right answer!

 

[NorthOxonian]

The Border Counties Railway. Not only does it run through incredibly sparse countryside and connects a small market town to a now nonexistent village, but part of the route is now underwater at Kielder Reservoir!

 

[roadierway77]

The Sannox Railway. Or does that stretch the definitions of a railway line too much? In which case I'd probably raise something like the Silloth branch, Newport to Freshwater or the Alloa/South Alloa branch over the Alloa Bridge

 

[DanNCL]

There's virtually zero chance of trains ever returning to Darras Hall. Even if Metro does eventually get to Ponteland (which itself seems unlikely), Darras Hall would require trains to reverse in Ponteland, it'd be a similar situation to that at Bourne End. It simply won't happen.

If the North route of the Tyne Valley is ever reinstated, I'd be amazed if it got any further West than Newburn, and even then only as a Metro or tram/light rail line. There's no need to reinstate the route via Heddon and North Wylam, the route via Blaydon is adequate enough.

Other places in the North East previously rail connected that are virtually guaranteed never to see trains again are Allendale, Wearhead, Seahouses and Rothbury.

The Border Counties Railway. Not only does it run through incredibly sparse countryside and connects a small market town to a now nonexistent village, but part of the route is now underwater at Kielder Reservoir!

I'm sure someone'll be along soon to suggest draining the reservoir to allow the line to be reinstated

 

[61653 HTAFC]

There's virtually zero chance of trains ever returning to Darras Hall. Even if Metro does eventually get to Ponteland (which itself seems unlikely), Darras Hall would require trains to reverse in Ponteland, it'd be a similar situation to that at Bourne End. It simply won't happen.

If there was a case to reopen it (admittedly a big "if") the requirement to reverse would not be a showstopper in any way, shape or form- the metrocars reverse countless times a day. Sounds like a case of "buffer anxiety" to me.

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm sure someone'll be along soon to suggest draining the reservoir to allow the line to be reinstated

That or a submerged concrete box section tunnel, it worked ok for the A19 Tyne Tunnel 2…

 

[CBlue]

Newmarket & Great Chesterford railway has got to be up there