The Beeching cuts were a reduction in the size of the British railway network, along with a restructuring of British Rail, in the 1960s. Since the mid-1990s there has been significant growth in passenger numbers on the railways and renewed government interest in the role of rail in UK transport. Some closed stations have reopened, and rail passenger services have been restored on a few lines where they had been withdrawn.
Some former British Rail lines have become heritage railways, for example the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, which reopened in stages from 1960.
The line from Oxford to Bicester reopened in 1987 after closing in 1968. As part of the East West Rail project, passenger services are to be restored to the section of line from Bicester to Bletchley.
Service between Swindon and Trowbridge ceased in 1966 but two passenger trains each way were reinstated in 1985, along with the reopening of Melksham station. Passenger numbers rose rapidly, and the service – now increased in frequency and known as the TransWilts Line – was extended to Westbury.
Regular passenger services between Yeovil Junction and Yeovil Pen Mill were withdrawn in 1968; a limited service was reinstated in 2015.
The passenger service between Exeter and Okehampton was originally withdrawn in 1972. A Summer Sunday service ran from 1997 to 2019, with a full daily service reinstated in 2021.
East Anglia/Lincolnshire
Needham Market, closed in 1967, was reopened in 1971; Soham, closed in 1965 was reopened in 2021; and Magdalen Road closed in 1968and was reopened as Watlington in 1975.
Peterborough–Lincoln line: the section between Peterborough and Spalding closed to passengers on 5 October 1970 and reopened on 7 June 1971.
Stations at Syston, Sileby and Barrow-upon-Soar between Leicester and Loughborough closed in 1968 reopened in 1994.
The Kettering to Manton Jn Line via Corby closed to passengers on 18 April 1966. A shuttle service between Kettering and Corby was introduced in 1987, but the service was unreliable and lost funding support from the local council, leading to its closure in 1990. The line was then reopened on 23 February 2009 with Corby served by direct trains to London and a limited number of trains continuing on towards Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Dronfield (closed 1967 reopened 1981), Matlock Bath was closed in 1967 and reopened in 1972, Narborough was closed in 1968 but reopened two years later, Peartree was closed in 1968 and reopened 1976, Tutbury and Hatton was closed in 1966 and reopened in 1989, Willington was closed in 1968 and reopened in 1994, Wigston Glen Parva was closed in 1968 and replaced with a new station South Wigston in 1986 on an adjacent site.
Passenger services were reinstated between Walsall and Wolverhampton, but withdrawn in 2008 on cost and efficiency grounds. A service with reopenings of Darlaston and Willenhall stations is expected to be reintroduced by 2025.
The line from Wakefield Kirkgate to Pontefract Monkhill, closed in 1967, was reopened in 1992 with Pontefract Tanshelf and two new stations.
Adwick, Fitzwilliam and Swinton (South Yorkshire) were originally closed in 1967 but new stations were opened on adjacent sites. Horden, closed in 1964, was reopened in 2020 on a different site.
Passenger service from Bradford to Huddersfield, withdrawn in 1970, was reinstated in 2000 with reopening of Brighouse station. From 2017, trains also served Low Moor which was originally closed in 1965.
Wetheral, closed in 1967, was reopened in 1981; and Lostock, closed in 1966, was rebuilt in 1988. Balshaw Lane and Euxton was closed in 1969 but was rebuilt and reopened as Euxton Balshaw Lane in 1997. Lostock Hall, closed in 1969, was rebuilt on an adjacent site in 1984.
Penally closed in 1964 and reopened in 1972, Sugar Loaf closed in 1965 and reopened in 1984 and Fishguard and Goodwick, which closed for regular passenger services in 1964, reopened in 2012.
Stirling to Alloa reopened on 19 May 2008, providing a passenger service to Alloa on the route of the former Stirling-Dunfermline main line after a 40-year gap. This line had not been marked for closure by Beeching. The restored line also provides for freight onwards to Kincardine, and ultimately to Dunfermline by the slower, single track coastal route. Coal traffic ceased in 2016 on the closure of Longannet power station.
East West Rail, restoring passenger services between Bicester and Milton Keynes, expected to reopen in 2025. Future plans are to build a new railway between Bedford and Cambridge using part of the original alignment closed in 1968 and reopening of the line between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Claydon Junction.
Passenger service on the Portishead Railway stopped in 1964; plans are to reopen it from Bristol to Portishead, possibly in 2028. Freight services ceased in 1981 (unrelated to Beeching) and resumed on part of the line in 2002.
Camp Hill line, West Midlands, Birmingham New Street to Kings Norton: service planned to reopen in 2025.
Charfield station, South Gloucestershire, proposed to reopen in 2027.
In November 2017 the government announced plans to reverse some of the cuts made in the 1960s, and later cuts by British Rail, to restore lost capacity and introduce new routes to help with new housing or relieve congestion.[3][4][5]
In December 2018, the Department for Transport confirmed that it was investigating a number of proposals to restore old lines in addition to plans to improve Heathrow links, reinstate stations on the Camp Hill line in the West Midlands, reopen the Northumberland Line to passengers and build a new station at Cambridge South.[6]
"Restoring Your Railway" (2020)
In January 2020, the Department for Transport announced a £500 million "Restoring Your Railway" fund and asked MPs, local authorities and community groups to make proposals to reinstate local services and reopen stations.[7] The government also announced £1.5 million towards plans to reopen the Northumberland line,[8] £100,000 towards assessment of the Fleetwood branch line, and £20 million for a third round of the New Stations Fund.[9]
The £500 million would not be spent on building railway lines but on developing proposals through feasibility studies, business cases and designs.[10] Proposals for projects would be sponsored by a local MP, gather local support, and then be put to a panel of experts chaired by the Rail Minister.[7] Examples given were:
upgrading a freight line to provide passenger services and restoring stations on it
restoring track and services to an old alignment
modifying an old route which has been built over.[7]
Successful proposals would receive funding to develop their business case, which would be submitted to the Department for Transport in a bid for more substantial development funding.[7]
In April 2020, the Department for Transport stated that unsuccessful proposals would receive help from the department so they could improve their proposals for a later round of ideas. At the same time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department announced a third round of ideas for November 2020.[11]
In May 2020, the department announced that ten schemes had been successful in the first round of bidding:[7]
In November 2020, the department announced that fifteen further schemes had been successful in the second round of bidding, as well as the restoration of rail links to Okehampton:[13]
In October 2021, the third and final round of successful bids were announced,[15] taking the number of schemes accepted for further feasibility studies to 38.[16]
The first project to be completed under the "Restoring Your Railway" banner was the 15½-mile Dartmoor line from Crediton to Okehampton, where services resumed on 20 November 2021. The line had closed to passengers in 1972 but had been operated as a heritage railway from 1997 to 2019. Nine months of work by Network Rail included laying 11 miles (17 km) of new track.[17]
Closure of the scheme (2024)
Following the change of governing party after the July 2024 general election, new Chancellor of the ExchequerRachel Reeves (Lab.) said that projects in the Restoring Your Railway programme that had not commenced would be cancelled, as part of her Commons announcement on 29 July which aimed to reduce national public spending. Reeves revealed that no money had been spent during the current financial year for any of the schemes that were announced as Restoring Your Railway competition winners in 2021, while £76 million had been allocated for 2024–2025.[18]
