Beeching Cuts - Reopenings

Reopenings

Since the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, road traffic levels have grown significantly and in some areas this has become close to gridlock. Furthermore, in recent years there have been record levels of passengers on the railways. A modest number of the railway closures have therefore been reversed.

In addition a small but significant number of closed stations have reopened, and passenger services been restored on lines where they had been removed. Many of these were in the urban metropolitan counties where passenger transport executives have a role in promoting local passenger rail use.

London

• Snow Hill tunnel, south of Farringdon station, was reopened for passenger use in 1988 as Thameslink, providing a link between the Midland Main Line, from St Pancras station, and the former Southern Railway, via London Bridge station.
• Since May 2010, Transport for London has restored most of the section of line which once connected Broad Street and Dalston Junction, as part of its East London Line project on the Overground network.

South East

• Varsity Line (closed in 1967 but not mentioned by Beeching, the Oxford to Bicester Line section reopened in 1987
• Chiltern Main Line was redoubled in two stages between 1998 and 2002 between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction
• Chandler's Ford in Hampshire opened its new railway station in 2003, on the Romsey to Eastleigh link which had closed to passengers in 1969.
• Part of the London to Aylesbury Line was extended north along the former Great Central Main Line to a brand new station called Aylesbury Vale Parkway which opened in December 2008.

Wessex

The Portishead Railway opened to freight as far as Portbury in 2002, plans are to reopen as far as Portishead.

East Midlands

• Robin Hood Line in Nottinghamshire, between Nottingham and Worksop via Mansfield reopened in the early 1990s. Previously Mansfield had been the largest town in Britain without a rail link.
• Lincoln to Peterborough line. The section between Peterborough and Spalding closed to passengers on 5 October 1970 and re-opened on 7 June 1971
• North of Spalding, Ruskington Station re-opened on 5 May 1975.
• Metheringham Station reopened 6 October 1975.

West Midlands

• Birmingham Snow Hill station was opened in 1987 to replace the earlier Snow Hill station. The tunnel underneath Birmingham city centre that served the station was also reopened, along with the line towards Kidderminster and Worcester. This introduced a new service between Birmingham and London, terminating at Marylebone.
• The former line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton has been reopened as the Midland Metro tram system.
• The line from Coventry to Nuneaton was reopened to passengers in 1988. Despite the successful and potential re-opening of many rail routes as light-rail and metro lines, the concept is still under-threat due to the varying popularity of these schemes with successive governments.
• The Walsall–Hednesford line was reopened to passenger traffic in 1989 and extended to Rugeley in 1997. Regular passenger services were terminated between Walsall and Wolverhampton in 2008 on cost and efficiency grounds. Some commentators believe an intermediate station at Willenhall should have been included with the original reopening.
• The South Staffordshire Line between Stourbridge and Walsall is set to re-open in the future as a part of the Midland Metro expansion scheme. The line will be shared between trams and freight trains.

North West

• The former route out of Manchester Central over the Cheshire Lines Committee's Manchester South District Line is being converted to Metrolink.
• The line opened to St Werburgh's Road (via Chorlton) in July 2011. The line will fully open to East Didsbury in 2013.

South Wales

• 32 new stations such as Llanharan, and four lines reopened within 20 miles (32 km) of each other: Abercynon–Aberdare, Barry–Bridgend via Llantwit Major, Bridgend–Maesteg and the Ebbw Valley Railway via Newbridge since 1983

Scotland

• Glasgow Central Railway between Rutherglen and Stobcross was reopened in November 1979 establishing the Argyle Line connecting the Hamilton Circle to the North Clyde Line.
• The intermediate stations at Dalmarnock, Bridgeton, Glasgow Central Low Level and Anderston were reopened. A new station was created at Argyle Street.
• The Argyle Line was further extended in December 2005 when a four-mile (6.4 km) section of the Mid Lanark Lines of the Caledonian Railway was reopened, serving Chatelherault, Merryton and Larkhall.
• Stirling to Alloa reopened on 19 May 2008, providing a passenger (and freight on to Kincardine) route once again after a 40-year gap.
• Laurencekirk on the mainline between Arbroath and Aberdeen was shut in 1967 but 42 years later in May 2009 it was reopened. This was the 77th new or reopened station in Scotland since 1970. Others include Gretna Green, Dyce and New Cumnock all of which were closed in the mid 1960s but reinstated.
• Following the earlier reopening of the Edinburgh to Bathgate route, the entire line beyond Bathgate to Airdrie was relaid and reopened in 2010, creating a third route between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• A 35-mile (56 km) stretch of the former Waverley Route between Edinburgh and Galashiels via Dalkeith is expected to be reopened in 2014 now that funding has been approved. The closure of the line in 1969 left the Scottish Borders area without any rail links.

Heritage railways

• Other lines were re-opened as heritage lines. See List of British heritage and private railways.