Boris Johnson Vows New Life For High Streets And Axed Rail Lines
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Boris Johnson is promising to revitalise “left behind” high streets through tax cuts for pubs and shops and reversing some of the Beeching rail cuts to branch lines.
The article gives a map of the lines and here is a list of them.
- Newcastle and Ashington/Blyth.
- Bristol and Portishead
- Camp Hill Line
- Willenhall and Darlaston
- Thornton-Cleveleys and Fleetwood
- Okehampton and Exeter
- March and Wisbech
- Uckfield and Lewes
- A new station he building of a station at Skelmersdale.
I will suggest other possibilities and add them here.
- West Hampstead and Hounslow – Part of the West London Orbital Railway
- Brent Cross and Kew – Part of the West London Orbital Railway
- Cirencester – See Could Cirencester Be Reconnected To The Rail Network?
There could be several!
The Technology Is With Us!
Anyone who follows railway technology, as I do, knows that technology coming on stream will ease the creation of these routes.
- Modern digital in-cab signalling, as already used on Thameslink.
- Battery-electric trains.
- Innovative charging for battery-electric trains.
- Hydrogen-powered trains.
- Tram-trains
- Automatic train control
- Remote services in simple depots.
- Better bridge-raising and other construction techniques.
Many of these new routes will be able to use a standard train.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] Boris Johnson Vows New Life For High Streets And Axed Rail Lines, I laid out a list of rail lines that could be reopened by a future Conservative […]
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From Mail newspaper – Boris Johnson suggested today that he will allow the heavily criticised £88billion HS2 rail project to go ahead.
The Prime Minister said it was his ‘instinct’ not to scrap large infrastructure projects after he was grilled on the north-south link that is running massively over-budget and behind schedule.
He told the BBC he was not 100 per cent’ behind the programme but asked if it would be cancelled he said: ‘I really do hesitate… that’s my instinct.’
It came after the Tories pledged to spend £500million on reopening rail lines axed in the notorious Beeching closures of the Sixties.
So it seems there is just £500 million for reopening rail lines which even if you concentrated on reintroduced passenger services on existing freight lines would still not buy very much !
Anyway Dr Beeching was 60 years ago and frankly many lines closed carried more milk churns than passengers !
Perhaps reopening stations and upgrading stations including relocation of stations where you often have two stations on different lines where the lines then cross each other might be a better option.
Comment by Melvyn | November 15, 2019 |
[…] In Boris Johnson Vows New Life For High Streets And Axed Rail Lines, I laid out a list of rail lines that could be reopened by a future Conservative government. […]
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