Great Western Coffee Shop

(Re)-openings in the last 50 years ... Melksham, Ivybridge, Ebbw Vale, Heathrow and more.  Are there any examples of lines or stations re-opening that were closed before the "Beeching" Axe?

Posted "Across the West" but examples in the rest of the UK also of interest. 

Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes spring to mind, but presumably you're talking about the Big Railway?

Alas - yes - really meant "on the National Network".   If some of the regular East Grinstead to London services started at Sheffield Park, then that would count.   Not sure about Horsted Keynes, as I believe that survived for a time at the end of a branch from Haywards Heath - perhaps into the "Beeching Era". 

I suspect it won't be too long before some if not all of the Tunbridge Wells West/Eridge Line gets reopened...

Maybe so, but that closure was 22 years too late to qualify.

Sorry, yes "before".

Clyst St Mary & Digby Halt opened 1908 was closed in 1948 and reopened as Digby & Sowton on 29/5/95 but actual location was 380 yds south of the old station.

Thank you ... I am relieved to have found an example. The shift and rename is apropos too.

For stations, and passenger service, there are those on the West London Line. I'm not sure whether Imperial Wharf counts, though it is a one-for-one replacement not far away. West Brompton the best example, having the same name and site, while Shepherd's Bush overlaps the site of Uxbridge Road.

Can we include lines that were planned and not built and the 100 later it was.   The cord between the Varsity line and the Great Central at Bicester, was conceived in WW1 but never built and now it has

If we are outside FGW territory then the former Midland Railway route through Annesley and Newstead was closed completely in 1953 and later reopened in 1993 as part of the Robin Hood line from Nottingham to Mansfield and Worksop.  The reopened route jumps between the routes of the Great Northern, Great Central and Midland routes in that areas so it is all very confusing!

On the Overground the North London line  being diverted from Broad Street to North Woolwich from Dalston Junction  Non pasenger from Dalston to Stratford Low Level (now DLR) pre Beeching.

Also link from New Cross Gate to Peckham reinstated to allow East london Line trains to become South London Line trains. Although no stations on the link. Also link from Wandsworth to Clapham Junction Windsor side previously no regular passenger services for years.

Through trains from ECML at Finsbury Park to Moorgate.

DLR using parts of freight only heavy rail links between  Limehouse, Popular, Bow.

Tottenham and Hampstead: Junction Road Jn to Gospel Oak new platform, service diverted from Kentish Town.

Sinfin?

Ebbw Vale-Newport closed before the Beeching Report. (Western Valley services ceased in 1962)

When did the Snow Hill tunnel in Biingham close? Was that Beeching?

No that was early 1970's I think.

Talking about Snow Hill: what about Snow Hill tunnel in London? Closed to passengers (I think) in 1916 although freight ran until 1971.

Didn't that become part of the Thameslink route?

Yes although later Underground  with new City Thameslink station and not on the viaduct over Ludgate Hill.

Chris Green tells how they manged to build the new tunnel etc. in an incredibly short timespan by today's standrds.

City Thameslink is not really in a true 'tunnel' though.   If you were able to exit through the emergency doors on the platforms you would find yourself at ground level outside. 

This Google Street View image should show a set of escape doors that exit towards Old Fleet Lane:   https://goo.gl/maps/v2RmN 

A number of the surrounding streets have been built up, especially to the east and at the south end of the station where the lines now pass under Ludgate Hill where they previously went over on a bridge.

It is obviously treated as an underground station for safety purposes, but is not in a cut and cover tunnel, it is more like a station with significant over site development as built.

Paul