Fifty lines that didn’t need to close

It makes remarkable reading today that at end of the 1960s, Transport Minister Barbara Castle signed the death warrants to more than 50 rail routes that could have been rescued with a little more vision.

It seems no coincidence that a significant percentage of them are today subject to vociferous reopening campaigns, such as Uckfield-Lewes, Skipton-Colne, Exeter-Okehampton, Dundee-Leven, Kirkham-Fleetwood, and (most recently) King’s Lynn-Hunstanton.

Only a sixth of the total passenger network was paying its way in 1968, and the government decided that a total subsidy of £ 62 million (£ 950m today) was all that could be afforded.

Routes on the list for closure were promised a further £4m (£ 60m) to see them through to the implementation of the formal closure procedure and organisation of replacement buses, which was sometimes less than a year.

The good news is that a number of lines were saved, for a variety of reasons. Although the principle of local authority support had yet to be developed, several were too hot to handle politically, while others were simply the result of a change of heart.

An examination of the hit list today shows that the Leeds-Bradford-Keighley/Ilkley service (now an electrified high-frequency commuter route) was actually slated for withdrawal back in 1968, as was Liverpool-Or ms kirk-Preston, Manchester-York, Hull-Scarborough, Swansea-Shrewsbury, Ashford-Hastings and Rom ford-Up minster.

A few have reopened because the track was not torn up because they handled freight - Bridgend-Treherbert and Eastleigh-Romsey among them.

Three lines( Swan age-Wareham, Paignton-Kings wear and Taunton-Mine head from Bishops Lydeard) have been reopened as the Swanage, Dartmouth and West Somerset Railways respectively, and there are calls from them to return to the national map with regular timetabled services under the umbrella of the local train operating franchise.

Some missing lines that need not have closed remain a tragedy for the communities left isolated.

For example, the economy of the large Lincolnshire market town of Boston has never recovered from the loss of the fast service to London in October 1970, although the Spalding-Peterborough section was revived after nine months with a local authority grant. High Wycombe residents can no longer easily get to the West Country because of the missing three miles to Bourne End, while the seaside resorts of Ilfracombe, Hunstanton and Mablethorpe are cast adrift, entirely road-dependent.