montyburns56
Member
- Joined
- 5 Oct 2015
- Messages
- 172
I know that you could question the wisdom of a lot of the Beeching closures, but looking at a map it strikes me as bit surprising that this line was closed. I say that because both towns seem to be quite heavily populated with a largish town in between (Willington) and other sizable ones such as Brandon on the route. Were there particularly low passengers numbers or was it a high maintenance line? I know that there is the Newton Cap Viaduct which would have added to maintenance costs and there are quite a few coal mines in the area so perhaps there were also subsidence issues?
And were there any plans to reinstate the line after closure? Most of the trackbed in Bishop Auckland has been built on in recent years, so it would be very difficult to do it now which is a shame as it looks like the population of Brandon has tripled since the line's closure and doubled at Willington.
And were there any plans to reinstate the line after closure? Most of the trackbed in Bishop Auckland has been built on in recent years, so it would be very difficult to do it now which is a shame as it looks like the population of Brandon has tripled since the line's closure and doubled at Willington.