The branch line from Stirling to the town of Alloa was axed back in Dr Beeching's rape of th railways decades ago - over 40 years ago. It has been re-opened and in it's firstyear has had in excess of 400,000 passengers with a goodly number motorists. Rail is doing well in Scotland as in the rest of the UK and work on the re-opening of the gap between Airdrie and Bathgate should be finished in the next year. This line was another closed decades ago and will be one of the quite seperate 4 different routes between Glasgow and Edinburgh I mentioned a time ago here on the Forum. I said then that it was very unique for 2 major cities to have 4 quite different lines going different ways between them. Some failed to realise I wasn't talking about 4 lines running together but going through different towns! No-one can equal that record for passenger services. Just shows the success of railways here. We are still awaiting work to start on the closed Edinburgh-Galashiels line.
The succes of bringing back the town of Larkhall to the Glasgow suburban rail network proved another winner. In fact the trackbed beyond to Stonehouse is still intact andthere are some exploratory thoughts on taking the line back to there too. The re-opening of the Glasgow (Queen St) suburban line round the northwest of the city through Maryhill to connect with the electric line at Anniesland is yet another addition.
Beeching was right in a many of the lines were pointless as no-one used them then people moaned when they were shut (!). However he was not far enough sighted enough to look into the future. There were places that could do with their railway back due to growth. However we have been more fortunate in having a proper national rail system which the USA lost a long time ago which is sad. Here and in Europe rail travel is a big thing and networks to prove it. Many Americans must be quite saddened as to what happened to their once mighty passenger sustem?
The succes of bringing back the town of Larkhall to the Glasgow suburban rail network proved another winner. In fact the trackbed beyond to Stonehouse is still intact andthere are some exploratory thoughts on taking the line back to there too. The re-opening of the Glasgow (Queen St) suburban line round the northwest of the city through Maryhill to connect with the electric line at Anniesland is yet another addition.
Beeching was right in a many of the lines were pointless as no-one used them then people moaned when they were shut (!). However he was not far enough sighted enough to look into the future. There were places that could do with their railway back due to growth. However we have been more fortunate in having a proper national rail system which the USA lost a long time ago which is sad. Here and in Europe rail travel is a big thing and networks to prove it. Many Americans must be quite saddened as to what happened to their once mighty passenger sustem?