This list is for railway lines across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which are now abandoned, closed, dismantled or disused. Within the United Kingdom, examples exist of opened railways which formerly constituted cross-country main trunk lines as well as many more which served more local, or exclusively industrial, needs.
Some of the included lines have re-opened, in part or in full, following a period of closure. Such reopenings have taken the form of independent preserved
heritage railways
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
, and of expansions to state-backed
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
and local
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...
/
light rail networks. Many more of these lines have converted to cycleways, footpaths or highways.
England
Northern Ireland
Scotland
:''See also
Template:Historical Scottish railway companies''
Wales
See also
*
List of railway lines in Great Britain for extant lines.
*
List of British heritage and private railways
This is a list of heritage, private and preserved railways throughout the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies, and British Overseas Territories whether operational or closed, that are operated for charitable purposes or shareholder profit. ...
*
List of closed railway stations in Britain
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
History of rail transport in Great Britain
:''This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series.''
The Rail transport in Great Britain, railway system of Great Britain started with the building of local isolated wooden wagonways starting in the 1560s. A patchwork o ...
*
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 M ...
References
{{Reflist
Closed railway lines in Great Britain
Bri