Hypothetical dreams

[silverfoxcc]

Watching Rob Bells Walks it got me thinking

Assuming the following

1)Money no object
2)No buidlings that could not be 'resited' ....eg an ex station now a private residence or houses built on trackbed 1) above
3) civil engineering work replaced where demolished
4) no NIMBYs
5) the majority/all of the old trackbed is still in existence

What would be the best routes to re instate.

I just put this forward as watching the Callender-Oban line it could well rival the Ft William one for tourists

 

[SteelWeelApeal]

For clarification, in essence is this the same as saying "If all the lines were still open, which wouldn't you close?"

Southampton - Newbury - Didcot would be very useful for freight, meaning it wouldn't need to go via Basingstoke and (nearly) Reading.
Bourne End to High Wycombe would be relatively short and cheap to maintain, and would provide a useful link, and I'm sure there are many other examples like this.
Looking at how successful the St Ives line has been during summer, some of the other lines to Devon and Cornwall seaside destinations, such as Brixham and Kingswear, could have a lot of potential.
Obviously the lines that are being reopened now, such as Oxford to Cambridge, and Exeter to Okehampton, would make sense.
Tbh there are more examples than I have time to list right now.

Also it's hard to know for many of the lines that closed, as we don't know how speeds etc would have been upgraded in line with the rest of the network over time. Would they still be as slow today as they were then, or would they have been improved in the same way most of the lines that stayed open have? Impossible to know, but I expect it would be somewhere in between.