Preserved to back to Use

[Mystic Force]

One of the stated aims of many preserved railways is that they are preserving a transport link that would otherwise be lost or is reinstating one that had gone. To my knowledge no preserved railway has yet been re-incorporated into the rail network, although some provide services that link into an national rail service or have some continuation of national rail service onto its line.

Will there ever be a day when a preserved line is taken back, and how would people feel about it. How would someone who has volunteered feel if something they had taken many years and lots of fund raising to support was suddenly taken over and what would have taken a charity years to complete accomplished in months by a private contractor.

 

[generalvegitable]

it just wouldn't happen, alot of the preserved lines are now a part of the local community and if they were to be reinstated as a proper railway there would be a huge amount of public outcry, even from the locals who have never used it before

 

[ralphchadkirk]

A preserved railway cannot just be "taken back". It's not Network Rail's land - although some VERY complicated agreements exist. I doubt it ever would be sold anyway. All the management would be out of a job, volunteers would be out of a hobby, NR would have to spend a huge amount bringing the line and signalling back to mainline standard, all the locomotives and rolling stock would have to be moved elsewhere. The list goes on!

 

[Mystic Force]

People being upset has often not stopped a goverment from doing what it likes. At least some people in a community would prefer a regular service over a tourist attraction. As for the cost, I have seen many proposed scheemes that required much land purchase and infrastructure replacement yet people think they are reasonable. If anything a reinstatement would be cheaper as the permenant way is intact and structures preserved. I think hobbyist would get a bad deal out of this, as someone who has invested a considerable amount of time just to be taken away from them. Traction and rolling stock can always be moved elsewhere, the payoff from network rail could be plowed into another preservation scheeme.

Surely a proper rail service would fulfill the original intent of many of these railways in keeping them alive for the future use of the public.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

As I said, most lines wouldn't be up to NR standards for an average of 70mph running (suburban lines). For instance the Mid-Hants has excellent infrastructure for the speed it runs at, but the points are yard rated so are limited to 25mph.

 

[yorksrob]

One of the interesting problems is that railway preservation really started taking off in the 60's at the same time that Dr Beeching and his successors were closing the lines and missing links with some potential. Therefore a lot of the routes which became available at that time and were subsequently preserved were some of the ones which would be most useful to the network today, rather than the ones closed earlier in the fifties which wouldn't be much use otherwise.
On the plus side the preservationists may have done us a favour as the areas with most potential for reopening also tend to be the areas under most pressure for new housing and road construction etc, therefore by preserving the trackbed, they may have inadvertantly made re-opening more likely.

 

[Spartacus]

There's plenty of preserved lines that do or have offered services onto the main line, though these are usually just for freight but I know of at least one that outside of main tourist days operated diesel services for local passengers who can travel at reduced rates.