Back on track

In the 1960s, the rise of personal car ownership as the sun set on the Age of Steam made trains look decidedly old-fashioned.

So the cuts introduced after the publication of the 1963 Beeching Report were perhaps more understandable than they appear in hindsight. While it has long since become accepted the closures went too far, successive governments have been reluctant to replace the lost infrastructure. Before the Borders Railway reopened three years ago, critics warned against the folly of spending hundreds of millions of pounds connecting Edinburgh to a sparsely populated area – even though the closure of the full line from Edinburgh to Carlisle was viewed as Beeching’s cruellest cut. However, the news that four million journeys have now been made on the line demonstrates the demand from the public for such services.

And it gives hope to campaigners in places like Levenmouth and St Andrews in Fife that they will eventually succeed in re-opening stations there. So if we went off the rails in the 1960s, it now looks like we’re getting back on track.