Closed LNER Railway Lines

[Solario]

Rather belatedly, I can add quite a few lines to this item.

East and North-east Yorkshire suffered quite badly from Beeching cuts.

Scarborough – Whitby
Whitby – Boulby (Boulby - Saltburn remaining open to serve the potash mine)
Grosmont – Rillington Junction (happily much survives as the NYMR)
Hull – Hornsea
Hull – Withernsea
Beverley – York
The Scarborough – Whitby line would make a superb preserved line. I believe that the group which eventually opened the NYMR did consider this alternative. Another group made a half-hearted attempt about 25 years ago.
The big one, in my opinion, is the Beverley - York line. This should never have closed. It was absolutely typical of the Beeching mentality; an alternative route existed from Hull via Selby and therefore Beverley - York was deemed superfluous. A big investment had already been made to the line, it had been planned to be singled with central control thus disposing of most, if not all, of the signal boxes. One of the first sets of lifting barriers in the UK had been installed at Warthill and I believe that a lot of S & T gear had been obtained, if not installed. There may have been some dodgy accounting when the figures were published. There were several challenges to the loss it was supposed to be making, but to no avail.
I have not heard how the Minstersrail group are doing; their web site does not seem to have been updated lately, but there was a feasibility study in 2005 which supported the re-opening (£239 million estimate though).

In addition to the above, there was the Malton & Driffield line & the H&BR. I do not think that either of these was a Beeching cut. They were either fully or partially closed/run-down before the Doctor could do his dark deeds on them.

[redtoon1892]

This site has the original British Railways maps of the before and after the Beeching cuts.

http://www.joyce.whitchurch.btinternet.co.uk/maps.htm

[R. pike]

I enjoy walking old lines and it always amazes me what is left behind even nearly fifty years since closure. The are the obvious remains like bridges, cuttings and embankments, but also the less obvious such as the remains of telegraph poles, mile posts, gradient posts and suchlike. One thing the usually stands out is the fencing. Signifcant amounts of money must have been spent before closure on replacing miles and miles of fencing. This can't have looked good against the receipts of any line. Walking from Ayot to Blackbridge Tip last week there were quite a number of discarded concrete sleepers, with the same in a number of places on the Hitchin - Bedford line. I guess relaying was another good way of spending money. Just how many of our branchlines became unecconomic this way?

[hq1hitchin]

Don't forget the Welwyn GC to Dunstable branch, shown in Beeching as a route for freight development but now closed completely and about to be converted into some dodgy bus way from Luton to Dunstable.

And to think NSE reckoned there was a very good 'Business Case' for electrifying it from Luton to Dunstable! The 319s even had Dunstable on the destination blinds........

[Robert Washington]

The most recent dodgey closure must surely be the Cambridge to St Ives line, -costed by a local group (Castiron) to reopen a Railway at around £45m. So the Cambridge anti Rail politicians decided to build a universally unwanted Guided Busway -costing £100m+!!! -Even the inventor of Guided Busways (who lives in the area) said it wont work.

Rant over!

Robert Washington

[52D]

I have had to do a bit of work on the above scheme and its amazing what the general public say about it. Light complexioned Pachyderm is the general response.
I hope some of the track was donated to preservation groups.

[Robert Washington]

Hello everyone.
I thought you might like to know that the Cambridge to Sudbury Rail Renewal Association (CSRRA) website is back up & running, for this old GER/LNER route. www.csrra.co.uk

Thanks

Robert.

[Robert Washington]

Just found this on You Tube, the Saffron Walden line branch from Bartlow to Audley end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49fEDIQOYWE

Enjoy
Robert

[Wingnut0074]

Whilst mentioning the misguided busway which will soon run from Cambridge to St Ives, it is worth saying that the line then split at St Ives with a branch running off through the Hemmingfords untimatly joining the ECML at Huntingdon.
The other line continued to March via Chatteris & Somersham. Incidentally at somersham junction a single track ran off to the brickworks and terminated at Ramsey.

Just out of St Ives was needingworth junction, again the line split off here as a very lightly laid railway to Earith Bridge, Sutton, Wilburton, Haddenham and finally joinging the main Ely/Cambridge line just outside Ely.

The local area to myself was once full of trains, all that remains are overgrown paths, odd telegraph poles and sleeper fencing which has lasted pretty well considering it cant of had much maintance for over 40 years now !

[Wingnut0074]

Just found this on You Tube, the Saffron Walden line branch from Bartlow to Audley end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49fEDIQOYWE

Enjoy
Robert

If youre local to Bartlow, a walk on the line reveals that the timber signal box is still there albeit very vandalised, the timber platform and fence is still there as is some buffer beams set into the cutting walls further down the line.

[52D]

As i was going to St Ives i met a man with a thousand eyes. From the nursery rhyme, the man must be extremely upset. Probably from observing the guided busway construction. Please feel free to comment on this thread i would like to hear other opinions.

[hq1hitchin]

So there you are - it seems the people of Dunstable are having a busway , whether they want it or not! This from a local paper:

"The controversial Luton-Dunstable busway project will definitely be going ahead after a key legal agreement was signed, it was revealed yesterday.

Outgoing Beds County Council - which is set to be scrapped next year as part of a huge government shake-up - announced that one of its last major acts has been to put pen to paper on a binding legal document.

It comes just weeks after members of Dunstable Town Council branded the busway "unwanted".

But a defiant Councillor Tom Wootton, Beds County Council's cabinet member for transport, said: "We need to make sure that we are acting in the best interest of Bedfordshire and the legal agreement helps us do just that.

"The busway should help reduce congestion in the Luton/South Bedfordshire area and give people a real, sustainable and green alternative to the car.

"There has been a lot of uncertainty about this scheme, and it is good to hear that it will definitely be going ahead."

[giner]

I emigrated from the UK almost 30 years ago and, until now, had never heard of 'guided busways'. Having just viewed the Cambridgeshire county website map page re. these busways, I can say I wish my ignorance had been preserved.

The photo of one of these buses passing under a fine old railway bridge struck me as just plain hideous and generated one of those "oh-my-god-what-is-going-on-over-there?" moments. Quite saddening.

What next? Bus motor units hauling two or three trailer coaches? A feasible idea, perhaps, in these days of exorbitant petrol prices. Bustrainspotters gathering on bridge abutments again? Now I really am getting carried away.

[Robert Washington]

Hello hq1hitchen 52D & giner

The Cambridge Guided Busway was in my opinion, a travesty from the start.

It won't carry the passenger numbers it's supposed to because customers will get wise to the fact they will be stuck in the normal congested roads at the ends anyway. Why did they not put more buses on the existing roads, rather than destroy a servicable railway line that could carry a larger number on a single train (more green) than up to 20 buses/hour?

The problem is our Government is 'modally agnostic', in other words, cheap & not fit for purpose! Also theres appears to be a money-go-round on transport issues that favour roads!

Rail is growing at an uprecedented rate in the UK, yet the only areas where lines are re-opening are Scotland & Wales, because they have their own governing bodies. Yet we are all paying for Scotland & Wales as well!

Nobody, but nobody, wants guided busways, (except Councils) yet they are foisted upon us because they are seen to be 'the way to go', -cheap!

I'm sure Luton & Dunstable councillors waited for the outcome of the Cambridge Guided busway!

No-one in the world is expanding any busways, Several have closed & trams/trains have replaced them.

Regards
Robert

[hq1hitchin]

I have nothing at all against buses and use them a couple of times a week at least but cannot help thinking that here we have a cheap and nasty system, which has not recieved rave reviews anywhere unlike, say, trams. One thing I am unsure about is who is going to be responsible for policing and investigating incidents and accidents on busways? Some years ago someone in BedPol told me that there was no way the police would want to get involved as these were not public highways. Anyone know what the current thinking is - does ROGS (Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006) mention this?
Up until the time of closure, the journey time by Cravens DMUs, mostly, was only 10 minutes from Luton to Dunstable. Timings like that would seem like a dream today. Sorry if we seem to be drifting slightly away from LNER matters but it's the old GNR that this will be running over!