Emergency train service put in place...
The loss of certain main lines in the 1960s is sadly to be regretted today. I can quite envisage a "might have been".
Trains from The Midlands and north thereof carrying on straight ahead - underneath at Westerleigh through a two level (Galton Bridge / Tamworth / Worcestershire Parkway style) Parkway and via Mangotsfield, Downend and Fishponds into the old Brunel train shed at Temple Meads (or carry on through towards Taunton through the Matthew Digby Wyatt section of the station. Reversal at Bristol, via Mangotsfield then Warmley, Bitton and Kelston for Saltford and to Bath (Green Park). Reversal again for Radstock, Shepton Mallet, Bruton and Cole (another two level station), Templecombe (yet another) and Blandford then into Poole and / or via Wimbourne and Ringwood into Brockenhurst.
With
HSTs▸ , or with
IETs▸ , reversals would be cheap in time; maybe some Bristol avoiders at Mangotsfield like there
could be Birmingham avoiders via the Camp Hill line there. Local rail provision into Bristol from what has become a rail desert to the north east of the city, and on to Bath too. Dealing with the isolation of Radstock – around 45 minutes by bus (or 25 minutes by daily National Express) yet part of BaNES from Bath, and putting other places back on the map. Saving current overload / congestion problems at Bristol Parkway. Looking south, if the Wimbourne / Ringwood plan was effective, adding in rail for those now-significant communities too, and the whole providing a new route for freight from Southampton north - relieving congestion around Reading / Dicot / Oxford.
Sadly, had the "
S&D▸ " stayed open, there would have been a threat to the Yeovil to Dorchester section of the Heart of Wessex which was one of the lines who's future was perilous at one point. And is the very line this thread is about. Pretending the enlightenment suggested above, it's plausible to pretend further that the
HoW‡ would survive with yet another (!) two level station neat Yeovil, or with a reversal at Yeovil Junction over a reinstated south to West line (realigned to come into Junction rather that a freight facility beside it).
There would have been other modern facilities we would have not gotten too. Bristol Parkway may have been much smaller or not existed at all as a station, in favour of Sodding Chipbury Parkway and a much enhanced Patchway. That marvellous cycle and footway from north east Bristol into the city would not have come into being, and that applies to the path to Bath too. The Two Tunnels walk so much enjoyed by so many would not be.
The Somerset and Dorset main line would also provide key public transport connectivity across the Western Gateway Sub-National Transport Body'a area - see
https://westerngatewaystb.org.uk . Politically slightly imperfect as Western Gateway resembles a horseshoe which does not include Somerset (why are Western Gateway and Western Peninsular separate? - we need "Transport for the West", don't we?)
The case for the other line listed on the 1966 poster – Evercreech Junction to Highbridge – is beyond my knowledge; although originally the Somerset and Dorset main line, I suspect it may have been a harder one to save if Beeching had only been "50% Beeching".
Looking at other closures at around the time the old Somerset and Dorset main line closed, one has to wonder at the closure of the old Great Central line's section outside the greater South East – from Aylesbury via Rugby to Leicester and beyond, and wonder if retention of this section might have provided an alternative to the current investment (and angst / discussion) of a new line from Euston to Curzon Street.
When this forum started, there was serious concern at a further wave of Beeching Style Closures. A further wave had been proposed in the Serpell report, and the
SRA» around 15 years ago was letting franchises based on no growth or routine replacement of stock - which has lead to many of the problems today because people wanted and used the trains when they weren't supposed to. Campaigns like
CANBER▸ (Campaign Against New Beeching Report) helped alert us and - more importantly those with some influence - to the risks. Thanks to the factors including those, train services such as my own local one in Melksham have been moved from fear of complete closure to one of the safest pieces of public transport in the town (which does NOT mean we can relax - another topic).
Truly, we have come a long way. Yet we still have "way to go" to provide a better - and that probably means bigger - railway. Today closures are the exception - Angel Road lost for a better replacement, Newhaven Marine hard to defend (but care needs to be taken to avoid any precedents of procedure being set). But then you have Breich brought back from being close to extinction, and investment announced in Teeside Airport - even more of a miracle with just one train a week at present.
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