Latest news with #BeechingCuts
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
£29m funding boon if Aberdeenshire rail stations reopen
A petition launched by North East MSP Liam Kerr last year has received more than 1700 signatures from supportive local residents. The appeal has been backed by football team Cove Rangers, as well as the Campaign for North East Rail (CNER), which has long urged the Scottish Government to expand rail services to Aberdeenshire. Kerr said: 'These figures send a strong message to the Scottish Government that reopening both Cove and Newtonhill stations is a no-brainer. 'The huge benefit-cost ratio, as well as the low operational costs, underlines the significant economic opportunities that these stations would unlock, not only for Cove and Newtonhill, but the wider North East region.' The North East of Scotland has long suffered from poor rail connections ever since the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s, when thousands of miles of train lines were axed. Campaigners have claimed that Fraserburgh (12,900) and Peterhead (19,800) are the two largest towns in the UK without a direct rail link. Kerr called on the Scottish Governemn to invest in the project, noting: 'Cove and Newtonhill need new stations to connect residents with the jobs, education and leisure opportunities that will make these communities an even greater place to live and work. 'We know the money is there from the Scottish Government because they opened a new Hairmyres train station last month, but far too often North East rail is being abandoned for other parts of the country. 'However, I'm delighted this report is another major step in the journey to finally reopening Cove and Newtonhill railway stations.'
BBC News
13-06-2025
- BBC News
Dumfries-Stranraer railway: Remembering a route shut 60 years ago
Only those of a certain vintage can remember travelling between Stranraer and Dumfries by 73-mile (120km) line shut on 14 June 1965 - one of numerous victims of Beeching cuts to routes deemed no longer economically the passage of time, there are still sporadic calls to consider reopening it as part of efforts to improve connectivity in south west story is being celebrated with a talk in Dumfries on Saturday to mark six decades since the last passengers used the line, which was also called the Port Road. The reopening of the Borders Railway between Tweedbank and Edinburgh has fuelled a lot of hopes of similar projects in other parts of the calls for improvement to road links between Dumfries and Stranraer have also added to nostalgia for train journeys between the enthusiast Alan McLellan, from Dalbeattie, who is giving the talk on its story, said it was a shame the line had been shut. "It's sad because looking at it now, you've got the heavy traffic on the A75, and there's nothing going east to west," he McLellan said the line had, at least initially, been a success after it opened in the 1860s."I understand at the time it was profitable - it started in Dumfries and there were about 26 stations, and it went all the way to Stranraer," he added."Stranraer at the time was a port and there must have been around 10 trips per day."It was used heavily during the war because you had the big munitions factory in Dalbeattie, so you had two stops there." However, usage dwindled down the years and it was targeted by Dr Richard Beeching in a review of the rail ultimately led to hundreds of stations and 650 miles of railway line being closed in years later, Mr McLellan believes there is the potential to open up some stretches as walking or cycling routes."In a place like Newton Stewart, you can see where people have started clearing it and making a track so it can be done," he said."It could be a nice walk, if you had enough volunteers you could open the majority of it up for walking." He said reinstating the railway would be a harder job because many stretches had "completely gone" and there was no chance of he said walking and cycling would be an option - including from New Galloway across to Gatehouse of he is holding a talk at the River of Life Centre, near Dumfries station, to highlight the route's history and potential."I walked the line to raise money for Prostate Scotland and I filmed as I went," he said."I've got the original footage of the last train going from Dumfries to Stranraer, so people can see the train going, then me walking."He will also dress as a station guard to welcome in the process, he will turn the clock back more than half a century to when people could catch a train right across Dumfries and Galloway.
The Sun
09-06-2025
- General
- The Sun
‘Eerie portal to a lost world' that lies beneath council estate – network of abandoned tunnels left to rot for 60 years
A EERIE maze of tunnels left to rot under a council estate has been likened to a "portal to a lost world". They are buried deep beneath a quiet Greater Manchester housing estate, the 1,332-yard tunnel was closed over 60 years ago. 5 5 Known as Lydgate Tunnel, this Victorian-era passage runs between Grotton and Grasscroft in Saddleworth, and was once part of the infamous Delph Donkey line on the London and North Western Railway. Opening in 1856, the tunnel was hailed as a triumph of engineering. The West Yorkshire Advertiser called it 'firmly built' with 'scarcely any vibration' as trains thundered through. But its construction came at a cost. Just a year before opening, labourer Luke Crossby, 31, tragically plunged to his death down an 85-yard shaft. In 1855, the Manchester Courier described how he 'missed the tub' and fell headfirst. His body was found 'much shattered' and the coroner returned a verdict of accidental death. For nearly a century, the tunnel echoed with the sound of steam engines, until the Delph Donkey line was axed in 1955, part of the controversial Beeching cuts that destroyed Britain's rail network. Freight trains rolled through for a few more years, but by 1964, Lydgate Tunnel was sealed off and left to the elements. Now, this creepy time capsule lies hidden beneath homes, fenced off from the public – but that hasn't stopped urban explorers from sneaking in and sharing spine-tingling photos online. Images posted to the Disused Railway Tunnels UK Facebook page show a haunting scene. Car graveyard with 300 classic vehicles abandoned in field goes up for sale – some can be driven straight from lot The tunnel's eastern entrance is bricked up, only accessible through a locked steel door or shuttered window. Despite six decades of abandonment, the brickwork inside is well-preserved. One explorer described it as 'a portal to another long-lost world', while another claimed mist 'hovered in layers… very eerie.' Comments flood in calling it 'spooky,' 'atmospheric,' and a 'forgotten gem.' Local residents shared memories of walking through the tunnel as children. One said: 'I was born just 30 yards from the Grotton end. "Walked it from the age of eight. The alcoves were there to shelter from oncoming trains.' Others slammed authorities for allowing such a 'stunning piece of Victorian craftsmanship' to fall into obscurity. 'All we had to do was maintain it, but instead we abandoned it,' wrote one user. Martin Zero, a content creator with a fascination with derelict buildings shared a video from the depths of the tunnels which has already been watched over 26,000 times. There are growing calls to bring Lydgate Tunnel back to life – not for trains, but for people. Martin pointed out the ventilation shafts and the refuges, which were where railway workers could hide for safety when a train passed through. Describing these refuges, Martin said: 'I think it's impressive. It's quite scary because when you look at that, you get the impression of what you're going through, what surrounds us, and what they've had to tunnel through to get here. 'You get the impression of what they were faced with when they were coming through the tunnel, just rock. I find it quite daunting, to be honest.' One YouTube user commented: 'I travelled on the Delph Donkey every day with my mum to Glodwick Road station in Oldham, where she worked. My dad also caught the train to Platts. "I was born in 1951, and on one occasion mice, bred in Delph for research, and dispatched by the Delph Donkey, escaped from their cages, and caused chaos amongst the passengers.' 5 5 5
Daily Mail
05-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Britain's railway deserts revealed: Map shows which UK towns are furthest from their local train station as some face two-hour long journey to reach their nearest platform
From seaside resorts to market towns surrounded by beautiful countryside, they are among Britain's most picturesque locations. But if you fancy a visit and don't have a car, you can probably forget about it – as these spots are also some of the country's worst-connected areas by rail. MailOnline has looked at the towns furthest away from stations - finding that Campbeltown, the UK's cheapest seaside location for buying a house, comes top. Further popular coastal locations in South West England such as Minehead and Bude are also more than 20 miles away from stations, as is Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Elsewhere, other towns do have stations but the services are so infrequent that they are often deserted - with Denton near Manchester being the UK's least-used. And the winding nature of some rural routes in Scotland and Wales means towns in areas connected by rail are still much quicker to travel between by car. Here is a look at where in the UK could be defined as a 'railway desert': Furthest towns from stations The UK's most remote town for rail travel is Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute, which is 87 miles or more than two hours' drive away from the nearest station at Oban. The setting hit the headlines this week for being the UK's cheapest seaside town, with research by Lloyds Bank finding it would cost a buyer an average of £103,000. Campbeltown is also a rare example of a UK location that has never been connected to the country's main rail network, even before the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. All it has ever had was a station on a light railway network to nearby Machrihanish between 1906 and 1934, although it does have an airport given its remote setting. While Scotland has several scenic rural lines serving hamlets, some bigger towns lack a station. These include Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, which is 35 miles from the nearest stop at Inverurie. Nearby Peterhead is 31 miles from the same station. The town in England furthest from a station is thought to be Bude in Cornwall, at 29 miles from Okehampton. Minehead in Somerset follows, at 24 miles from Taunton station. Another popular but hard-to-reach town by rail is Hay-on-Wye in Powys, which is 21 miles from the nearest stop at Hereford on the other side of the England/Wales border. Other destinations far from train stations include Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham, which is 21 miles from the nearest stop at Bishop Auckland. Hawick in the Scottish Borders is 17 miles from Tweedbank station; while Keswick in Cumbria is 17 miles from Penrith station. Meanwhile Hunstanton in Norfolk is 16 miles from King's Lynn station; and Louth in Lincolnshire is 15 miles from Market Rasen station. Least-used stations While the above locations have no station at all, other parts of the country remain badly-connected despite trains still operating through them due to their infrequency. For example, Denton in Greater Manchester was Britain's least-used railway station in 2023/24 with 54 entries and exits. It is on the line between Stockport and Stalybridge, which was built to take trains to Leeds but saw its timetable cut in the 1990s after services were re-routed. Denton is served by two Northern trains per week – one in each direction – which are both on Saturday mornings. A train to Stockport departs at 8.42am, while a service to Stalybridge leaves at 9.04am. Railway stations are often kept open despite being rarely used because it is easier to arrange for a train to stop infrequently than obtain permission for closure. In second place was Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire with 70 entries and exits, while Ince & Elton in Cheshire was third with 86; and Polesworth in Warwickshire fourth with 118. Reddish South in Greater Manchester came fifth with 128; Coombe Junction Halt in Cornwall was sixth with 140; and Chapelton in Devon with 186. Completing the top ten were Clifton in Greater Manchester with 202; Elton & Orston in Nottinghamshire with 212 and Kildonan in the Highlands with 240. Estimates of entries and exits are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and are largely based on ticket sales, with the latest set being released last November. Worst performing stations Another metric for looking at the UK's worst areas for train connections is to consider performance over the past six months, as ranked by the website On Time Trains. This puts Ynyswen station in South Wales top of the pile, followed by Lockerbie in Scotland in second, then Penrith and Oxenholme in Cumbria in third and fourth. Also in the top ten are Kearsley and Blackrod in Greater Manchester; Chilworth in Surrey; Baglan and Llansamlet in South Wales; and Dolwyddelan in North Wales. However, many of these stations are rural with a low service frequencies, and so their performance figures can be skewed by a relatively small number of cancellations. A further measure to consider is therefore the worst performing stations out of the top 500 busiest stations, which puts Deansgate in Manchester at the top. Many of the others in the top ten are in the North West - including Lancaster in second, Warrington Bank Quay in third and Manchester Oxford Road in fifth. Also on the list are Tamworth, Macclesfield, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford – with Mill Hill Broadway in North West London completing the set. Narrowing this down to the top 100 busiest stations, the worst performing are Manchester Oxford Road, Milton Keynes Central, City Thameslink in London, Manchester Piccadilly and York. Also in that top ten are Coventry, St Albans, Bath Spa, Leicester and Sheffield. Other anomalies Some locations are connected to major stations by train, but the journey can take significantly longer than by car given the slow pace of services. For example, Inverness to Wick on the Far North line in Scotland takes just over four-and-half hours by train, compared to about two hours and 20 minutes by road. Others include Shrewsbury to Pwhelli in Wales which is nearly four hours by train but again about two hours and 20 minutes by road. Another example is Middlesbrough to Whitby in North Yorkshire which is over one-and-a-half hours by train but 50 minutes by car. And in South Wales, if you want to get from Swansea to Aberystwyth by rail it will take more than five hours going via Shrewsbury - or just over two hours by car. And the largest town in Britain that cannot be reached by train is believed to be Gosport in Hampshire, after the station was closed to passengers in 1953. The town is however only five miles away from Fareham station, and is linked to nearby Portsmouth via the Gosport Ferry which takes about four minutes.
Times
17-05-2025
- Times
End of a lost era of railway romanticism for UK's longest journey
'No one departs, no one arrives,' sang Flanders and Swann on their 1963 lament over the destruction of the old ways of rail travel. Slow Train, their nostalgic ditty, decried the Beeching cuts that laid waste to hundreds of branch lines and rural stations. These routes had seen years of declining passengers, yet something romantic was lost in the disappearance of long days on the railways. One of the most picturesque routes that survived was the epic 14-hour journey from Aberdeen to Penzance, which sadly was completed for the last time on Friday. Since 1921, this service from the north east of Scotland to the south west of England has departed at 8.20am. Covering 36 stops across 785 miles, it included two hours for disembarking.
