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Trivia: Reopenings that have been "Proposed" the longest.

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thenorthern

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When the local elections were happening I was talking to a friend of mine who mentioned that Labour would reopen closed railway lines if they won these local elections. I told him that was unrealistic to think that as first of all it's Westminster who reopens railways not local councils. Secondly many closed railway lines have been proposed for reopening sometimes for decades but are no closer to actually being reopened.

It made me think though which lines have been proposed to be reopened the longest but are no closer to actually being reopened? Some examples I can think of are:

  • Leicester to Burton-on-Trent which is regularly mentioned as one that should be reopened, it's been mentioned many times since 1994 however more than 25 years later we are no closer to it happening.
  • Matlock to Buxton has been mentioned many times although it's not going to happen.
  • Fleetwood branch has been mentioned a lot but it won't happen.
Can anyone think of any other ones?
 
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waverley47

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The full Waverley route and I claim my five pounds.

Seriously, proposals for reopening start almost immediately after any branch is closed, so the question would be which route with decent ridership closed the earliest?
 

Journeyman

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The battle for the Borders Railway commenced pretty much the second the last trains ran in 1969, and the battle to extend to Carlisle rages on.
 

Journeyman

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Edinburgh's south sub must be a contender...
Oh, absolutely. There are certain people who won't ever shut up about that, despite the fact that there's no platform capacity at Waverley, and for most areas, the journey times to the city centre can't compete with the buses.
 

pdeaves

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Not quite 'reopening', but I have seen Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction in a 1968 or 1969 journal. That's come and gone a few times and over 50 years on still doesn't look like coming any time soon.
 

61653 HTAFC

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(Exeter) - Okehampton - Bere Alston - (Plymouth) must be up there. It gets brought up every time the sea wall at Dawlish gets a bit damp.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Which, to be fair, is quite often. :rolleyes:

P.S Have we had re-opening Woodhead Tunnel yet?
Well naturally... the clue is in the name "sea wall"!

Woodhead hasn't been mentioned yet, nor has the rest of the Great Central despite the high-speed alignment* and continental loading gauge*...

(*=satirical mentions, in case that wasn't obvious)
 

Journeyman

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Well naturally... the clue is in the name "sea wall"!

Woodhead hasn't been mentioned yet, nor has the rest of the Great Central despite the high-speed alignment* and continental loading gauge*...

(*=satirical mentions, in case that wasn't obvious)
The Woodhead case has also been massively improved by the availability of Class 442s to operate it...

*ducks*
 

vlad

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I don't know if this is what you're after but the Foxfield Railway have been talking about reopening Foxfield Bank (i.e. the really steep bit from the present terminus at Dilhorne Park down to Foxfield Colliery) to passengers for as long as I can remember. They currently run "goods" trains on it a few times a year.
 

Ashley Hill

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Bere Alston - Tavistock had been talked about for decades. Some surveying and clearance work was even undertaken some years ago.
Also there was/is a proposal for a Newton Abbot - Heathfield service by a private firm but that seems to have been kicked into the long grass a few years ago.
 

24Grange

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First time I read about Tavistock was about 1991( 30 years) in rail. I'm sure its been mentioned previously to that.
 

30907

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Leicester to Burton is in a class of its own - fairly sure there were concrete plans for reopening back hen, rather than just wishes?
 

thenorthern

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Leicester to Burton is in a class of its own - fairly sure there were concrete plans for reopening back hen, rather than just wishes?

It was first mentioned as the second phase of the Ivanhoe Line reopening, the first phase opened in 1994 which is the local service between Leicester and Nottingham.

It often seems to come up around election time though.
 

CEN60

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Oh, absolutely. There are certain people who won't ever shut up about that, despite the fact that there's no platform capacity at Waverley, and for most areas, the journey times to the city centre can't compete with the buses.
Last time I looked the line actually has traffic on it - just doesn't have operational stations any more - for the above reason!
 

Journeyman

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Last time I looked the line actually has traffic on it - just doesn't have operational stations any more - for the above reason!
Absolutely. The route is useful for freight, ECS and diversionary purposes, but for passenger use it's indirect and slow, and there's no way it could ever support a service frequent enough to make it useful, because of the Waverley capacity bottleneck.

Bus journeys in Edinburgh are also very cheap, and there's no way the train could beat those prices.
 

CEN60

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Absolutely. The route is useful for freight, ECS and diversionary purposes, but for passenger use it's indirect and slow, and there's no way it could ever support a service frequent enough to make it useful, because of the Waverley capacity bottleneck.

Bus journeys in Edinburgh are also very cheap, and there's no way the train could beat those prices.
There have been studies to electrify it (some quite advanced) - but my understanding is there is not much eagerness within TS to actually do the work.
 

Railwaysceptic

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Both Guildford to Christ's Hospital and Shoreham-By-Sea to Christ's Hospital get an occasional mention.
 

Jamesrob637

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Metrolink to Stockport. Not that I'd get on any closer than its current terminus of East Didsbury though.
 
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