the greatest white elephant of all?

This insane government is wasting £92.5 million (of OUR money) on a totally impracticable solution to transport needs in the Cambridge-Huntingdon RAIL corridor. This is simply politics, there is no economic sense behind it at all. This government is committed to slowing this country down to a crawl, probably in the hope of collecting more petrol taxes from idling cars and lorries! They also are anti-tram and a successful interurban tramway or railway does not set them (just everyone else) a good precedent.

So the excellent and essential rail route between Cambridge and St Ives is being ripped up (however temporarily) to be replaced with MORE concrete. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so wasteful. They don't have a clue.

All forward thinkers should support CAST.IRON who are locally based and really know what they're doing. And sign the petition to stop this idiocy in its tracks! No 10's server is down (what a surprise) so I can't give a link!

it's about time ...

As always the Somerset and Dorset Railway down at Midsomer Norton is innovative - the current buzz is around the petition lodged with number 10 to release funds to reopen the line as a vital transport link. Signatures after just three days are already 77. Just 250 and the government have to reply.

Wording is - The Somerset and Dorset Railway was, and will be again after Peak Oil, a vital sustainable transport link across Wessex. The government should release funds and simplify the planning and construction process to allow local people to build, own and operate the line in preparation for when our oil runs out.

Whilst the set-up at Midsomer Norton is currently an embryo heritage line, the constitution of the Trust includes the aim to reinstate real trains with a real purpose. In the medium term this means reinstating the most important sections of the line between Bath and Midsomer Norton in the north, and Blandford and Bournemouth in the south, with the route in between being protected for future rail use. Norton-Radstock has a population of around 25,000, far too large to not be rail served even today, let alone in the future. And the fact that a large town like Blandford is currently rail-less beggars belief!

Like the Waverley route in Scotland the S&D has refused to lie down and common sense is beginning to reassert itself. Closure of the S&D, like the Waverley, will be nothing but temporary!

To sign up please click here - and tell all your friends!

Sign the petition to restore the S&D

After just two hours of being live and on-line the petition to restore the S&D has already received 14 votes! With 364 days left to run our aim is to reach the top of the petition chart! Please help us by signing today!

return to tavistock

At last there is talk of restoring at least part of the essential Okehampton to Bere Alston line. This was always a mad closure - cutting off a large town like Tavistock from the outside world yet keeping the station at the village of Bere Alston just a few miles away. And even back in 1968 there were issues with the sea wall and erosion at Dawlish, well before Climate Change became an issue.

Really this is stupid - of course this route should be restored and as quickly as possible for three reasons - towns the size of Tavistock can't survive without a rail connection after Peak Oil hits, the existing route along the sea wall at Dawlish is in real danger of vanishing beneath the waves and the expected increase in rail traffic EVEN WITHOUT PEAK OIL will soon require a second route between Exeter and Plynmouth in any case!

another nail in the car's coffin

Even without Peak Oil and Global Heating roads will never compete with rail. A few days ago a French TGV broke the world record for a conventional train when it reached 575kph (357mph). These days cars have a job maintaining a tenth of that speed!

The high speed network is spreading throughout Europe and will still be there when the last cars and aeroplanes splutter their last in an oil-free future. And if the power supply is sustainable - using hydro, sun or wind power - they'll still be running ten thousand years into the future.

a new way forward?

This is a video of the new line in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This is a sort of monorail tramway, with the trams being guided on a single rail, taking power from overhead cables, and running on tyres. It may well be that this is a far cheaper way of introducing tram type vehicles in smaller towns, and it will be interesting to see if this system develops elsewhere.



As if to prove there's nothing new under the sun check this site out!

to padstow ...

It seems amazing now that car-blocked towns like Padstow ever lost their trains. Padstow hung on until 1967, then the whole North Cornwall line closed, together with the Bodmin branch, depriving Padstow, Wadebridge and, incredibly, Bodmin of trains. Stupidly the route stayed open for freight until 1978 to Wadebridge - surely even the blinkered idiots in government back then were aware that the line would have to be rebuilt some day?

Much of the line has already been restored by the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, giving sensible and sustainable transport a foothold in this part of Cornwall. Plans to restore to Wadebridge are well under way, giving two of these towns cross-platform interchange at Bodmin Road station on the network. But the real final destination has to be Padstow, bringing proper transport back to this important seaside town.



Padstow station - slap bang in the middle of town and a prime site for rebuilding.



The bridge across the creek before Padstow - still there and just waiting for the trains to return.


Cars ... not really needed in Padstow!

don valley railway

Deepcar 1983 - the 'last' passenger train.




The Don Valley Railway plans to rebuild the line from Deepcar to Sheffield, as both a heritage and community line. This was part of the famous Woodhead route, another insane closure that really will need reversing sooner rather than later.

bathgate to airdrie - at last

A particularly stupid post-Beeching closure was the line from Airdrie to Bathgate, which is now to be restored. The Bathgate to Airdrie line website has more information. Scotland was particularly badly affected by the Beeching and other cuts, but the new Scottish parliament is pro-rail, one line has already reopened (the Larkhall line) and the Waverley route is - at least in part for now - being reopened after almost 40 years of there being no real transport in the Scottish borders.