Here's an advent question to which there is no definitive right or wrong answer.

Four maps of the railways as they were 60 or more years ago - and on some of them you can see parallel and duplicated routes and (in my personal opinion) both lines who's closure was a correct and natural thinning out, and lines that if we had them today would be busy steel highways.

On as many of the maps as you would like, do you dare comment along the line of "if only that had been reatained" where we might be today, or even more daring for the Coffee Shop "there is a line there would be no point in re-opening in a new form today".

I am not posting this on "the lighter side" as these may be real though for where we might be in another 60 years!   As we move towards larger mayoral authorities ...

"northern East Anglia"


"South Wales - the Valleys"


"Western Cornwall"


"Northern Wiltshire"

I’d vote for the ‘Midland’ line from Bristol Temple Meads to Yate via Westerleigh.

The loss of this line has led to a situation where London to South Wales trains have to share the same two tracks as north-south trains from the West Country between Filton and Westerleigh - a significant bottleneck. It also means there is no chance of reintroducing suburban services to Fishponds or Staple Hill.

This line is lost for good, sadly. The route is very firmly established as a linear park, and it would not serve Bristol Parkway (which was built after it closed). If the lost capacity is to b restored, it will probably involve putting in four tracks between Parkway and Westerleigh. I don’t expect to live to see that happen!

I agree about Devizes. I have travelled there a few times by bus, and the roads to there can get hideously congested. And, without knowing if it is the case, I suspect the area on Melksham's eastern side is ripe for yet further development (no doubt Graham will know, and I think may have already posted about this?).

I am definitely not knowledgable about railway history, but am I right in thinking that the line through Devizes roughly equates to the line that was originally considered to run between London and Bristol before it was diverted to the small village of Swindon?

This has reminded me of travelling from Kingston to Bath age dot, and the routing on the tickets included words to the effect 'Valid via Devizes'. This was perhaps c. 1967 or 8, so, a few years after that route had been put beyond use.

I think it was the same trip that the (short and chubby diesel) loco got into trouble after Swindon and started emitting a *lot* of smoke. Also, it may have been that trip that on the return journey I recall, on the north side of the line after leaving Swindon's station, a well populated graveyard of steam locos laid up in sidings.

Mark

And I will leave the members who live or work west of Plymouth to answer for definite if you dare.
* Passenger trains to Fowey still?  And if so - via Lostwithiel or via Par?
* Passenger trains to Helston
* Passenger trains from Newquay westward to Redruth
* Passenger trains from Bodmin Road to Bodmin and Wadebridge

As a fairly regular visitor to Norfolk, and having dealt with some development projects there, my vote would have been-

1 - Keep open the Hunstanton line - had this been done, it might even have electrified when they did King's Lynn (why could they stretch to this in 1992, but not Oxford or Temple Meads in 2016?). There have been a few studies into re-opening the line, although the extensive town centre station site in Hunstanton has been partly developed. The line was subject to flooding, so costs to protect it may have been a factor. Hunstanton has grown quite a bit in recent years, and is a reasonably popular day out destination from Cambridge.

2 - Also keep open King's Lynn - Swaffham - Dereham - Norwich, to provide an east-west rail link across the county, and connect some of the larger towns (Swaffham 7000+, Dereham nearly 20000) with Norwich and King's Lynn by rail.

Wells has only about 2000 people, and the closing of its last rail link did allow the quirky narrow gauge Wells & Walsingham Railway to be created. Wells also had a link to Burnham Market to the west until the floods of 1952 washed it away, and it was not reinstated.

I think Bodmin Rd-Bodmin-Wadebridge-PADSTOW is the only one most likely to be well-used if it were still operating today, especially if extended to Plymouth as a metro-type service. Helston would need an east-facing junction/reversal at Gwinear Rd to Truro via Camborne, Pool/Carn Brea, and Redruth to make it run from somewhere to somewhere. Fowey via St Blazey had no direct connection to the main line at Par. A Fowey-Lostwithiel service might serve the summer tourist swarms into Fowey as a heritage line. Newquay to Truro via Perranporth was very circuitous.