backontrack
Established Member
Which lines have been the best re-openings (so no HS1 or Doncaster-York) since the Beeching Axe? You are allowed to pick 2 per person.
i sometimes think smaller alterations can have greater overall benefit, such as Windsor link. but of the beeching era cuts my votes would be the line into birmingham snow hill and the robin hood line.
A definition of best might be helpful.
In my view it is number of passengers per £cost of reopening.
A definition of best might be helpful.
In my view it is number of passengers per £cost of reopening.
Didnt Coventry Leamington lose its passenger service under Beeching?
It closed in 1965. Since it reopened XC trains stop at both Coventry and Leamington so I cannot see any reason to doubt.Technically it still doesn't have a passenger service, unless non-stop XC traffic is counted..............
Surprised that Larkhall is still on 0.
You have failed to include probably the single most successful post Beeching line reopening on your list - Bathgate to Edinburgh.
Reopened in 1986 as a single track DMU branch.
Now it is a double track, electrified, 4tph through intercity route serving a town of more than 50,000 people and with 2 of the fastest growing station usage figures at Bathgate and Livingston North with 1.1m entries and exits apiece and Uphall at 550,000 as well.
In my opinion (as previously stated) Blackfriars to Farringdon remains the most successful reopening now carrying multi millions of passengers per annum and when the upgrading works are completed will operate up to 24 trains per hour.
Other successful reopened stations include Dalston Junction with 3.7 million entries/exits.
You have failed to include probably the single most successful post Beeching line reopening on your list - Bathgate to Edinburgh.
Reopened in 1986 as a single track DMU branch.
Now it is a double track, electrified, 4tph through intercity route serving a town of more than 50,000 people and with 2 of the fastest growing station usage figures at Bathgate and Livingston North with 1.1m entries and exits apiece and Uphall at 550,000 as well.
I meant to put Edinburgh-Airdrie.
I agree in one way although both Thameslink and Dalston Junction are at least partially entirely new lines rather than reopenings of old infrastructure. Not just reopening an old service in the same format.
How is Thameslink a new line? New service, yes, but not a new line.
Partly right and partly wrong.
When it was reopened in 1988 it used the original tunnels and track bed of the line closed in the 1960s.
In 1990 the railway was closed for several months whilst a new route between Farringdon and Blackfriars was built on a different alignment. This involved the closure of Holborn Viaduct station and opening of the new station at City Thameslink.
Out of interest, what was wrong with the old alignment?
Nothing for me to choose from as none are any lines that I would use.