In Scotland we have as i indicated elsewhere have had rail re-openings and there are other places in the UK wanting much of the same and I would say that thr worst place over the post-war rail history sadness has been northern Ireland.
At the time of Nationalisation in England, Scotland and Wales in 1948 the then full parliament in Belfast savaged rail with a wide vengeance. There has always been a stance that when the Ulster Transport Authority was set up back then it was heavily bus orientated by it's management and within months wholesale closures started with a vengeance. From well into the plus 800 miles it now is not much over 200 and one lie 18 miles long is mothballed but being kept for a hopeful future return -maybe. The UTA is long gone but some anti-rail things still hang around and not so long ago there was mooting of an even further savageness. However the public reaction was good and fought the nonsense. It is not long since yet another attempt was made to savage what remains but the public thought differently. The present day NI Railway has done well about improving things and passenger numbers increased. If you take a County like Down all the lines gone except the Belfast-Bangor around 12 miles or so and that is typical in principle. In the west of the Province - all gone.
And in even another move in 2014 some 10,000 people signed a petition for getting the line from Portadown to Armagh brought back. The Minister responsible said although showing interest that the biggest problem was the funding aspect. So we have Armagh as the only city in the UK without a railway. For years as a boy our family holidayed over there and then I did so myself and for years took boys camps to places but I always felt it was the worse home nation for railway destruction. When we stayed in a lovely centre in Castlerock only a minute from the station I always encouraged the boys to use the NIR into Coleraine not Ulsterbus and the Portrush holiday resort! When we took them to Londonderry of course it was by train again!
Nice people and great for a holiday but in the rail world badly done in!
At the time of Nationalisation in England, Scotland and Wales in 1948 the then full parliament in Belfast savaged rail with a wide vengeance. There has always been a stance that when the Ulster Transport Authority was set up back then it was heavily bus orientated by it's management and within months wholesale closures started with a vengeance. From well into the plus 800 miles it now is not much over 200 and one lie 18 miles long is mothballed but being kept for a hopeful future return -maybe. The UTA is long gone but some anti-rail things still hang around and not so long ago there was mooting of an even further savageness. However the public reaction was good and fought the nonsense. It is not long since yet another attempt was made to savage what remains but the public thought differently. The present day NI Railway has done well about improving things and passenger numbers increased. If you take a County like Down all the lines gone except the Belfast-Bangor around 12 miles or so and that is typical in principle. In the west of the Province - all gone.
And in even another move in 2014 some 10,000 people signed a petition for getting the line from Portadown to Armagh brought back. The Minister responsible said although showing interest that the biggest problem was the funding aspect. So we have Armagh as the only city in the UK without a railway. For years as a boy our family holidayed over there and then I did so myself and for years took boys camps to places but I always felt it was the worse home nation for railway destruction. When we stayed in a lovely centre in Castlerock only a minute from the station I always encouraged the boys to use the NIR into Coleraine not Ulsterbus and the Portrush holiday resort! When we took them to Londonderry of course it was by train again!
Nice people and great for a holiday but in the rail world badly done in!
