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The letters from Alan Fell and Steve Broadbent on railway reopenings, and Pip Dunn’s feature on lines that should never have closed ( RAIL 823), help to underline the fact that the UK has lacked any national strategic thinking on the rail network for many decades. Network Rail’s Transformation
Plan of February 2017 states: “The predicted doubling of passenger numbers in the next 25 years is the biggest challenge facing the railway industry. Meeting this challenge will mean successfully delivering major upgrades to the existing railway to allow more and longer trains to run, as well as contributing to the development of new lines such as HS2 and Crossrail 2. These interventions, however, will not be sufficient to meet demand.”
So, what do we see emerging as a comprehensive strategic examination of the network which the UK needs to have in place by 2040 to meet demand?
Nothing! Instead we have a collection of poorly co-ordinated organisations - Network Rail, Office of Rail and Road, the train operating companies, Department for Transport and Transport Scotland, to name but a few - attempting to plan ahead via a huge list of separate and largely unco-ordinated studies running to various time frames, which are predominately locally or regionally (rather than nationally) focused.
Furthermore, most rail reopening proposals are born out of pressure group campaigns and local authority initiatives, rather than as a result of any nationwide analysis of need.
Meanwhile the strategic roles which routes such as Okehampton-Bere Alston, Harrogate-Northallerton, Tweedbank-Carlisle, MatlockChinley, Woodhead, Skipton-Colne and Lewes-Uckfield might play in a national network by 2040 are ignored by Government. Even HS2 cannot claim to be the result of a proper comprehensive national appraisal.
The snail’s pace at which we are supposedly preparing for passenger growth is pitiful (East West Rail is a good example). We need someone with influence and vision (apparently not anyone in the current Government) to really get a grip and launch a coordinated study of the UK’s future rail needs, focusing particularly on new route potential and missing links, rather than simply trying to get by with the existing network.