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The number of places where there are disused viaducts, cycleways, overpass roads with humps in them, level crossings, lone standing station platforms, open spaces where a yard or a line would be and locomotive sheds and workshops in the North West alone is massive. A great thing heritage lines exist.

It was , of course, sheer coincidence that, at the time Ernest Marples was the Minister of Transport, he was  the Managing Director of Marples Ridgway  - a company which built ROADS .

Nice to see Simon Calder presenting a programme instead of always commentating on the travel problems on the news.

Marples was the real villain of the piece. Beeching was just doing his bidding. Marples had his own construction company that built roads, amongst other things. Go figure.

Reopening to Portishead looks like a no-brainer - just like a large number of other routes that should also be resurrected. It's vexing that there are so many obstacles to achieving that.

The tram network, which was once pretty much continuous over the country, is largely forgotten. It wasn't just confined to the cities, but extended into rural areas. It was of course a patchwork of small companies with no strategic rationale, but it was another option for travel. In 1936 it was possible to travel from Liverpool to London entirely by tram (with the occasional bit of legwork where there were gaps) and at a fraction of the cost of even a 3rd class rail ticket for the same journey. The only downside was that the journey by tram would take three or four days as opposed to the few hours a train journey would take.

It breaks my heart when I read about the train lines and stations that were taken out of service back then but I also feel that they also made (not intensionally) the public love the railway environment even more.  There is such a huge fan base for steam locomotives, disused stations and previous train lines some of which are being restored..... I guess we will never know if the love of the railways would have still been this strong if they had of left everything in place and removed nothing 🤔

I absolutely love train travel. There’s just something about it that makes me feel like I’m going on some grand adventure every time, even if I’m only on it for 30 minutes or so. ☺️ I do hope the politicians pull their thumbs out of their arses at some point and get the rails back up.

It is no surprise that many bustling seaside resorts have declined since their railway was closed. The wider social and economic cost likely far exceeds the so-called "savings" made by closing these lines.

A system should be established where heritage trains can somehow coexist with mainline trains both in the UK and in Australia.

Just looked it up and amazingly it was announced just yesterday that work has begun on reopening Portishead station!

I think it ought to be remembered that a significant number of lines were closed well before and after Beaching; due to the fact that many (lines) were built with no hope of being profitable.

The Braintree to Bishop's Stortford line is a good example. It was built to block another operator from running a line from Bury St Edmunds into London and closed to passengers in 1952 due to lack of demand. I walked the route from Felsted village to get to the old station; up a steep slope and a 20 min walk at least. No wonder when the busses came in the 1920-30s that picked you up in the village people chose that option instead. The motor car was just the nail in the coffin; ironically for busses also.

Thankfully, the main chunk of the line (Look up the 'Flitch Way')  remains as a brilliant walking, cycling, horse riding and dog walking nature reserve. From Braintree you can travel to the outskirts of B/S Where the M11 stops it dead. Any remnants of the route into B/S have disappeared into gardens and commercial premises. However, the old stations at Takeley, Felsted and Rayne still exist.

Rayne station has a very successful cafe with an old bit of track and a train carriage to look at whilst you sit on the old platform with coffee and cake. At track level they've been known to have the odd music festival with craft beers.

It's a real asset to the community and a safe place to take your kids to ride a bike and enjoy the countryside. If only more track beds were repurposed in this way: end to end is 15-16 miles making the 30 odd mile round trip a decent ride.

The Track beds should have never been sold in the UK

Maldon in Essex is another example it had two stations and two links one via Witham and via The South Woodham line.
Proves dont let Politician think /plan long term as they are unable to do so..

I'm impressed how the man can ride that amazing bike everywhere, and I learned something new!

Continuing government shortsightedness makes one want to weep. Great presentation Simon. If only those in  power could be forced to watch this and act positively on it.

And finally after 55 years the Portishead reinstatement is going ahead, excellent.

Sounds an awful lot like what the US did to its various rail and tram lines in the 1940s-1960s. It's been long enough ago, most people don't know what advantage commuter and passenger rail have over the individual car.

Shocking parking at 9:05