Restoring Your Railway
The Beeching cuts were a reduction of route network and restructuring of British Rail in the 1960s. Since the mid-1990s there has been significant growth in passenger numbers on the railways and renewed government interest in the role of rail in UK transport. Some closed stations have reopened, and rail passenger services been restored on a few lines where they had been removed. Some former British Rail lines have become heritage railways. Completed reopenings London * Snow Hill tunnel, south of Farringdon station, completely closed in the 1960s, was reopened for passengers in 1988 as part of Thameslink, providing a link between the Midland Main Line and the former Southern Railway via London Blackfriars station. South East * The Chiltern Main Line was redoubled in two stages between 1998 and 2002, between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction. * The Romsey to Eastleigh link, closed to regular passenger services in 1969, reopened in 2003 along with the intermed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Beeching Cuts
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes'' (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board. The first report identified 2,363 stations and of railway line for closure, amounting to 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and 67,700 British Rail positions, with an objective of stemming the large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running. The second report identified a small number of major routes for significant investment. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes, including a switch to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight, and the replacement of some services w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chandler's Ford Railway Station
Chandler's Ford railway station serves the Chandler's Ford area of Eastleigh in Hampshire, England. It is on the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, measured from . History The station was opened as a halt by the London and South Western Railway in 1847. Passenger services were withdrawn by British Rail in May 1969, although occasional diverted trains and railtours continued to use the line, passing through the station without calling. A £10 million pound plan was put forward in 1999 to reopen Southampton Terminus and Northam Station, which was to have been controlled by Anglia Railways, their plans included building a new rail-link using the current remaining track by St. Marys Stadium and as far as the Waterfront, which is now safe guarded by Southampton City Council for future rail links. This would have allowed trains to go from Southampton Waterfront to East Anglia without the need to change at London. It was also hoped it would reduce the traffic around Southampton with a lo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yate Railway Station
Yate railway station serves the town of Yate in South Gloucestershire, in south west England. The station is located on the main Bristol to Birmingham line between Bristol Parkway railway station, Bristol Parkway and Cam & Dursley railway station, Cam & Dursley, and is operated by Great Western Railway (train operating company), Great Western Railway. History The Yate station first opened on 8 July 1844 and closed on 4 January 1965, along with other wayside stations on the former Bristol and Gloucester Railway; the local stopping service on the route having been withdrawn as a result of the Beeching Axe. This had both its platforms on the southern side of the road bridge mentioned above - the original 1844 goods shed still stands (now in commercial use) next to the old southbound platform site. The station was reopened by British Rail on 11 May 1989 with the backing of Avon County Council. When first open, trains headed south along the original B&GR/Midland route via to reac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Templecombe Railway Station
Templecombe railway station serves the town of Templecombe in Somerset, England. It is situated on the West of England Main Line, down the line from . The main station opened in 1860 but a smaller station on the lower line opened in 1862. It was closed in 1966 but was reopened in 1983 following local community pressure. It is currently operated by South Western Railway. History The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway (S&YR) opened the second part of its line on 7 May 1860, extending westwards from Gillingham through Templecombe to . The S&YR never operated any trains, which were provided by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). On 3 February 1862, the Dorset Central Railway opened its own Templecombe Lower station as the terminus of a line which connected with the Somerset Central Railway's line from ; on 31 August 1863 this was extended beneath the S&YR line to join up with the remainder of that Dorset company's line to Bournemouth. By now the two 'Central' companies had ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pinhoe Railway Station
Pinhoe railway station is on the eastern edge of the city of Exeter in Devon, England, that serves the village of Pinhoe. It was opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1871 but is now operated by South Western Railway which provides services on the West of England Main Line. It is down the line from . History The LSWR opened its Exeter Extension from to Exeter Queen Street on 19 July 1860 but no station was provided at Pinhoe at that time. The village's station opened eleven years later on 30 October 1871. The original wooden footbridge was replaced by a concrete structure cast at nearby Exmouth Junction works, the first such footbridge erected by the Southern Railway, which had taken over from the LSWR in 1923. Goods facilities were provided from 3 April 1882, and in 1943 a government food cold store was built to the west of the station that was served by its own siding. The passenger station was closed by on 7 March 1966 when the Western Region of Brit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Feniton Railway Station
Feniton railway station serves the village of Feniton in Devon, England. It was opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1860 but is now operated by South Western Railway which provides services on the West of England Main Line. It is down the line from . History The station was designed by William Tite and was opened by the LSWR on 19 July 1860, along with its Exeter Extension from to Exeter Queen Street. It was named Feniton after the nearest village, but less than a year later it was renamed (on 1 July 1861) as Ottery and Sidmouth Road. In February 1868 this was changed again to Feniton for Ottery St Mary. On 6 July 1874 a branch line to was opened and the station changed its name once more to become Sidmouth Junction, a name that it managed to retain for more than 90 years. On 1 May 1897 a new line to was opened and this was extended on 1 June 1903 to . Although the junction for this line was at , Sidmouth Junction was the ''de facto'' junction as it ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coaley Junction Railway Station
Coaley is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire roughly 4 miles from the town of Dursley, and 5 miles from the town of Stroud. The village drops from the edge of the Cotswold Hills, overlooked by Frocester Hill and Coaley Peak picnic site, towards the River Cam at Cam and Cambridge and the Severn Estuary beyond. It has a population of around 770. Coaley has many amenities, including a 300-year-old pub, the Old Fox (was The Fox and Hounds until November 2018 ), awarded the Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards Pub of The Year 2022, the Coaley C of E Primary School, a church, a village hall, and a community shop, recently re-opened in a new building, with coffee shop facilities. Cam and Dursley railway station (near the former Coaley Junction station) was reopened in 1994 (the original closed in 1965) and is situated on the South-Western border of the village. Coaley used to have a football team, Coaley Rovers, who were also known as Coaley Crows. They competed in the St ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ashchurch Railway Station
Ashchurch for Tewkesbury is a railway station serving the North Gloucestershire and South Worcestershire Area from the outskirts of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, England. The station is located less than from junction 9 of the M5 motorway and located on the main Bristol–Birmingham main line north of Cheltenham Spa and was opened on 1 June 1997 by Railtrack. There are regular bus connections from the station to Tewkesbury town centre, which is located two miles to the west. Apart from a few peak journeys on service 41/42, there are no bus connections in the opposite direction from Tewkesbury to Ashchurch. History The original Ashchurch station was a stop on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, authorised in 1836, and whose central section from Bromsgrove to Cheltenham, including Ashchurch, was opened on 24 June 1840 (the line was open throughout a few months later). It subsequently became part of the Midland Railway, later the London, Midland and Scottish Railway dur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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East West Rail
East West Rail is a major project to establish a strategic railway connecting East Anglia with Central, Southern and Western England. In particular, it plans to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line. Thus it provides a route between any or all of the Great Western, Chiltern, West Coast, Midland, East Coast, West Anglia, Great Eastern and the Cotswold main lines, avoiding London. The new line will provide a route for potential new services between and Ipswich or Norwich via , and , using existing onward lines. The government-approved the western section (from Oxford to Bedford) in November 2011, with completion of this section expected by 2025. , the company aims to complete the central section by "the mid 2020s". , electrification of the line is not planned, but the 2019 decision (to rule it out) is under review. The plan is divided into thr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bicester Village Railway Station
Bicester Village (2015–present, previously Bicester Town 1987–2014, Bicester London Road 1954–1968, Bicester 1850–1954) is one of two railway stations serving the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire (the other is ). It is northeast of on the Oxford-Bedford line near its junction with the Chiltern Main Line. The renamed Bicester Village station reopened on 25 October 2015 with trains initially running between Oxford Parkway and London Marylebone. All trains serving it are operated by Chiltern Railways. History The Buckinghamshire Railway, which already had a route between and Banbury, had powers to build a line to Oxford. The first part of this line, which ran from a junction to the west of (at a point which became known as ) to , opened on 1 October 1850, and this included a station at Bicester. (At its maximum extent, the line extended from Oxford to and thus became known as the Varsity line). Originally named "Bicester", the station was renamed "Bicester London Roa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oxford Railway Station
Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station, one of two serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, north-west of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road. It is on the line for trains between and Hereford via . It is a starting point for fast and local trains to London Paddington and , and for local trains to , Worcester ( Shrub Hill and Foregate stations), and . It is also on the north/south Cross Country Route from and via and Reading to and . The station is managed by Great Western Railway, and also served by CrossCountry and Chiltern Railways trains. Immediately to the north is Sheepwash Channel Railway Bridge over the Sheepwash Channel. History The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened to Oxford on 12 June 1844 with a terminus station in what is now Western Road, Grandpont. In 1845 the Oxford and Rugby Railway (ORR) began to build its line, starting from a junction at New Hinksey south of the GWR terminus. The junc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aylesbury Vale Parkway Railway Station
Aylesbury Vale Parkway railway station is a railway station serving villages northwest of Aylesbury, England. It also serves the Berryfields and Weedon Hill housing developments north of the town. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Chiltern Railways. Background Aylesbury Vale Parkway is on the former Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway, which formed part of the Great Central Main Line route linking London and Aylesbury with the East Midlands and North. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced in April 2006 that it would provide £8.17 million for track and signalling improvements to the existing line, which then was only used to carry freight. A further £2.8 million was invested by Chiltern Railways' owners Laing Rail and £1 million by Buckinghamshire County Council. Construction began in October 2007 and the rail works were completed by Carillion Rail. The station was originally not due to be completed until 2010 but actually opened ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |