If we must focus on "
reopenings" (rather than considering brand new lines or new stations on existing lines or longer trains or focussing resources on tackling existing bottlenecks by four tracking/ grade separation etc) then Preston to Southport looks like exactly the kind of scheme that we should be considering.
It's two places with populations of around 100,000, under twenty miles apart, a corridor that justifies a regular commercial bus service (both limited stop and regular)... why would it not be high up the list (ahead of reconnecting villages in the middle of nowhere)?
If Alloa and Ebbw Vale are the textbook cases of "successes" (
though there were obvious reasons why the benchmark figures were significantly underestimated in both cases) then I'd suggest that a good re-opening is one that:
- Is relatively short
- isnt based around grand ambitions for InterCity services/ direct London services (nice though these are, they are the cherry on top of the cake its a bonus rather than a business case)
- Washes its face on a daily/ weekly basis (rather than spending hundreds of millions for the sake of a diversionary route when a parallel "Main Line" is closed a couple of weekends a year the case needs to be stronger than relying on being a bit useful once in a blue moon something like resilience sounds lovely but were not going to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on something thatll only really be useful once every few months when there are still sizable conurbations without stations)
- Links at least one reasonable sized town currently unserved by heavy rail (rather than just villages)
- Has a regular commercial bus service along that corridor (that shows there are significant enough numbers of people happy to use public transport)
So, in no particular order, I'd suggest something like:
- Levenmouth - Thornton
- Preston - Southport
- Morpeth - Blyth
- Gateshead - Washington
- Renfrew - Cardonald
Honourable mentions to Peterhead/Fraserburgh (Aberdeen), Middlewich (Manchester), Portishead (Bristol), Tavistock (Plymouth) and Penicuik (Edinburgh) all of which are in relatively sized towns, reasonable commuter distance of a city, regular commercial bus services etc. AIUI Portishead is happening regardless (and rightly so). I dont know enough about the Hanbury Loop to comment but it sounds like the kind of urban scheme that Id normally support.
My list is probably a bit boring, compared to the wilds of Okehampton/ Keswick/ Newcastleton/ Bakewell/ Crainlarach/ Barnoldswick/ Barnard Castle/ Dunford Bridge/ Louth, I admit, but Id rather that we focussed on practical/ shortish/ everyday schemes in areas of relatively high population density instead of trying to make mass transportation work in predominantly rural areas.
Re-openings, if they are to happen, need to be a simple solution to a simple problem talk of wider network and resilience and bigger picture are all well and good but if your scheme needs to rely on relatively unquantifiable benefits then it risks being further down the pecking order compared to something with simple tangible benefits.
For example, Alloa *could* have been tied to a some optimistic Blue Sky Thinking scheme (double track electrified line between Stirling and Fife, capable of being a diversionary route from Glasgow to Dundee, engineered to at least 100mph), which would have been more beneficial than the shortish spur built but if the scheme were that complicated and expensive then itd still be sat on the shelf better to get something practical built for the benefit of the majority of everyday passengers (and if that means a replacement coach service when the Glasgow Dundee line is closed north of Stirling then so be it its not worth spending hundreds of millions of pounds more on when there are other projects).
Ebbw Vale could have been part of some convoluted plan to divert freight of the Marches line by a new route from Cardiff towards Hereford/ Shrewsbury that would act as a diversionary route, but it functions perfectly well as a short branch instead.
Midlothian could have had trains many years earlier, had it not been tied to the Borders issues (an Act of Parliament forbidding running trains to Gorebridge until the line was opened all the way to Tweedbank?).
I can see why Stocksbridge looks tempting, as it fits the kind of criteria listed above (self contained re-opening, regular commercial bus service, reasonable enough population in Stocksbridge/ Deepcar), but I dont think you could build a station within walking distance of enough population (given the gradients in the Upper Don Valley) and its further complicated by coming into Sheffield the wrong way to serve Midland station. Nice on paper but I cant see a practical way of doing it cost-effectively.
If the answer is put on a feeder bus to take people from their houses to a Stocksbridge station down by the Steelworks where theres a train every half hour to Nunnery Square where you need to change to a tram for central Sheffield
then that seems to be spending millions of pounds on something that is no better than todays Stagecoach run a feeder bus every ten minutes to take people from their houses to Middlewood where theyll board a Stagecoach tram every ten minutes for central Sheffield, with integrated tickets like a £13 weekly pass option.
If you can come up with a better solution for Stocksbridge then fair enough, but it looks like heavy rail is going to struggle to penetrate the valley effectively. Im not knocking anyone for suggesting it, it looks like the kind of problem that has been solved by other re-openings, Im just saying that I dont know how heavy rail can solve this particular situation.
(Im being a good boy, Im not picking holes in other peoples wishlists, but Id rather than we tried to tackle twenty first century problems without being encumbered by restricting ourselves to only lines that previously closed)
With the currently proposed 2500 houses to be thrown in at Thornbury, we'll need something to get people away from the town - the A38 certainly isn't going to do it 
