Mendip Main Line

So where's this launch then? Certain people have been saying wait for the launch, all your questions will be answered etc. Well I've just had a look on the blog, and all it says is that membership is now open, with a fantastic reward of 'a couple of newsletters a year'.

I'm sorry chaps, but you'll have to try a bit harder than that...

 

I can quite see why a major new initiative to restore the Somerset & Dorset Railway has launched on 6 March, given that the date of 6 March 1966 was when the S&D closed. I must agree with Stewie that the launch has been somewhat "low-key" and after looking for some time at the New Somerset and Dorset Blog, it appears that the "mountain has rumbled and shaken and then given up a mouse" as the saying goes. However, I cannot argue with an initiative that seeks to purchase and protect what remains of the old S&D whilst "stitching together" the current schemes which are working to restore tiny parts of the old line (like the Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone projects, both of which seem to have done very well in their own ways thus far) but I'm less certain that the funding will ever be forthcoming to restore very much of the old S&D regardless of the other argument as to whether we should even try during such a period of financial difficulty. There is also the other argument that the S&D should not have been built in the first place, which is academic I guess because it was! The real sadness was that it wasn't protected from selling off for destruction when it closed but we are where we are. Financial support may well be forthcoming but it might have to take the form of a metaphorical gun against a head as witnessed by the tremendous public response to the demand for yet more money for the magnificent money-pit called the Avro Vulcan. Unfortunately there isn't really a head for a metaphorical gun to point at with the S&D. I await developments with the New Somerset & Dorset with interest. I will continue to support the Midsomer Norton project however as they have done really well over the last few years in my view.

 

And in the meantime we'll be bombarded with more peak oil enviro-babble, with far less in the way of substantive proposals.

Don't get me wrong, I would love the see the S&D rebuilt, and think that the MSN and Shillingstone projects (for example) are very worthwhile and interesting initiatives. One has to be realistic however, the need for such a cross country (as opposed to inter-city) line in the present day and age is limited, and as such I strongly doubt that the 'New S&D' would ever attract the kind of funding necessary to even buy all the land required, particularly if the present approach is anything to go by.

 

:-# Discussions have come a full circle really...