A pledge to ‘banish Beeching’.

A pledge to ‘banish the shadow of Beeching’

The Conservatives have made an election pledge to spend £ 500 million on reopening branch lines that closed more than 50 years ago, starting with routes in the north of England. The plan has been described by Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps as banishing the shadow of Beeching, and forms part of a package of measures to rejuvenate provincial towns.

It is also a reflection of the need to provide effective public transport in locations where new communities are established, to offset the environmental cost of new housing developments that are required as a result of population growth and social trends for smaller families.

It is a decade since the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) published Connecting Communities - Expanding Access

to the Rail Network, its research document, which revealed that there were 75 towns in England with a population of at least 15,000 that were not connected to rail services. It was considered that extending the network to reach up to 20 of these population centres would have a positive business case (based on a Benefit: Cost Ratio that exceeded 1.0) for either station or route reopening.

Where successful reopenings have taken place, in most cases it has been as a result of action by devolved governments and local authorities, such as the Borders Railway in Scotland, the Ebbw Valley line in Wales, and London Overground, which made use of closed railways and new connections to create an orbital route.

Changes to the way projects are assessed for the allocation of funds in Control Period 6 (2019-24) has resulted in a more proactive approach by the DfT towards reopening proposals in England.

There had been concerns expressed by the Railway Industry Association, on behalf of contractors that deliver projects, that unless a regular flow of work was available there would be a lack of resources when authorisation was finally given. This has been addressed by the DfT with the publication of a Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline which has listed the position of 58 intended projects within four distinct authority phases.

The starting point is a decision to initiate, which unlocks funding to undertake a Strategic Outline Business Case, to then enable a judgement to be made as to whether to proceed with an agreed development plan, leading to detailed design and delivery phases.

The input of projects to be considered has a number of sources. Many date back to the Route Utilisation Studies carried out by Network Rail, which compared traffic growth forecasts with existing infrastructure capacity to identify how shortfalls could be addressed.

In past Control Period funding settlements, the amount of money available meant little was left over to provide new railway links. The ability to meet forecast demand for greater capacity on existing services had to have priority, to prevent the overcrowding which has become a feature in the larger English conurbations outside London.

The situation in Scotland and Wales has been different. Generally, the network has not been operating at full capacity, although major stations in Glasgow and Edinburgh have required enhancement to accommodate traffic growth, including that generated by new services.

There has been a growing realisation that although projects to cater for the growth in London and the South East have been recognised by investment in Crossrail, Thameslink and the ability to run longer trains on routes such as those serving Waterloo, a lack of similar policies in the northern conurbations has lessened their economic potential.

This was recognised by the Northern Powerhouse initiative, which has continued to receive government development funding. It is also a reason why, despite escalating costs, the full HS2 network is likely to be built given the ability to use the line to improve connectivity over a wide area in northern England.

The recent decision to fund station and line reopenings in the North is another string for this bow, and a reflection that the ATOC report identified a number of places that can be expected to meet the business case threshold that has justified reopenings elsewhere.

An example is the opportunity available in the North East, which includes new stations at Ashington and Blyth (located on a freight-only line), Washington (on the out-of-use Leamside route), and Peterlee (to be served by a new station at Horden). All are towns where future passenger numbers can be expected to justify investment.

As well as providing journey opportunities for access to jobs, education and other services, line reopenings can have a significant network benefit by providing capacity for freight services and diversionary routes for passenger trains.

Local stakeholders are pressing for a number of these more significant projects to go ahead, such as reopening the Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton route (in this case with an initial service between Harrogate and Ripon), and restoration between Plymouth and Okehampton (with trains reaching Tavistock as a first step).

Another proposal being championed is the route between Colne and Skipton, which would create an additional option for routing freight trains carrying biomass between Liverpool and Drax power station. A new study of the project was commissioned by the DfT in December 2018, given evident trans- Pennine freight capacity constraints for bulk and intermodal traffic.

The closure of local railways has caused road congestion at a number of tourist destinations. It was fortunate that branch lines in the west of England serving St Ives, Newquay, Falmouth, and Looe escaped closure - unlike in the Lake District, where despite claims that a reopened PenrithKeswick line would alleviate congestion, the proposal has not yet received support from funding authorities.

A signal of future intent is a government directive to bring an end to new development on disused railways that prevents the restoration of services without costly diversions. This has been the case on the new East West route, as although there are lengthy sections of out-of-use railway new alignments will be necessary at a number of locations.

As the Government develops plans for carbon-neutral transport operations by 2040, the scope for station and route reopenings can only increase.

“The ability to meet forecast demand for greater capacity on existing services had to have priority.”