Somerset and Dorset Rebuild

I can think of one A road which does not do that, as they don't get enough people to use it as it anyway unless you get stuck behind Farmer Giles and his Tractor, I am talking about the rebuilding of the Lynton and Barnstaple here.

Right lets get back to the Somerset and Dorset, my whole reason for setting up this post was to find out what people thought about what the future could hold of this line if it was considered economical to reopen. On the whole it appears that what has been said means that this is not going to happen, any time soon, if at all.

But this is very much based on the use of a car of today. Like it or not, the car as we have it today will also be a thing of the past to be replaces by what? Who knows?

Basically society does not give a dam about the country side, most people live and work in the cities around the UK and the World as a whole, so currently there is no need for rebuilding the S&DJR, which I do agree with for now.

But the pattern with which we live our lives today may be very different in a few years time, I suspect that we shall be using better IT systems to live our lives by then and the likes of the S&D will be something that we shall only see on our 3D players in the center of the room with all the sounds and smells that go with it.

Regards

Colin

 

I was referring to *proper* reopenings, i.e. for real transport use.
Much as I love preserved railways, let's not kid ourselves, they are a cross between a working museum and a long theme park ride, with perhaps a nice way to get to the start of a walk.
(And yes, I know a very small number of lines carry a negligible number of occasional passengers going shopping or whatever).
Of course car use may change in the future, but not to the extent that the S&D is ever viable. Sadly we are more likely to keep driving, fry the planet and leave the mess to our kids to sort out!

 

Although I live in the North, I think If money could be raised to reopen the line then It would open up a few towns and possibly be profitable to run, with the roads getting over crowded, I feel more has to be investigated into closed lines being opened up, and with this passing through many towns, it would be a better way to travel,than sitting on a bus or stuck in traffic.
i know looking at the post there are a few barriers in the way, but If money could be provided,then could be a possibility.

 

A few barriers are an understatement and a lot of the rural bus services in Somerset have been withdrawn through lack of patronage, when it comes to getting around personal transport, ie the car, wins everytime and there's no going back. I don't know if you've travelled around the roads near the old S&D but they are not crowded, the A303 and takes the east-west traffic with the M5 north to south. There are many instances where a line in a commuter catchment area could be successfully reopened but the S&D is gone for good with no business case for the vast investment needed to reinstate it.

 

"Many" towns is something of an exaggeration, I think.

If enough money can be provided and the authorities convinced then anything is possible - but the sum required for reinstatement in any useful form would be eye-watering; and then somebody would have to find the running costs (not to mention stock!)

 

My opinion is what I feel may be a good thing as I disagree with the HS2 but agree to lines reopened again, yes I have been there many times on holiday,but with houses being built, its a matter of time before catchment areas grow.
I thought this site was in favour of trains,as I get the feeling some are not keen on getting lines reopened for both passenger or freight, and linking up with places, which would relieve other crowded lines.

 

People on this site like trains, that doesn't mean they want money wasted on connecting places with few potential passengers and even fewer who would actually want to travel between the places that would be connected.

 

I love railways - best way to travel by a distance. But it will only work if there is a business case for it, and random thinking on the line of "they'll build houses there eventually" is not going to help.

 

I'd love to see reopenings, but ones that actually stand a chance of winning enough traffic to justify the cost rather than costing a fortune to reopen, then a load is subsidy to operate - and not touching the road traffic.

If a reopening were likely to work in the area, I'd look at one of the GWR branches - not least, they actually go through the population centres in a way the S&D never did.

 

If and I say it with a big IF the S&DR was to be reopened, then it would only happen IF it was part of a much larger scheme, such as something like the Metropolitan Railway in London, where stations where built around the land and suburbs built around them.

If such a scheme was to go forward then Bristol and Bath would gain a valuable resource, but sadly this country does not think in these terms any longer.

London can only grow so much more before they start to talk about ripping up the green belt around her for more housing and business, as has been said already the need for more affordable homes is almost at bursting point, modern fiber based IT systems could make places like Bath, Bristol, Milton Keynes, etc as viable places to live if only those in a position to make the change would do so and free up the need by everyone to come to work in London

 

That's an incredibly arrogant view - it may surprise you that many people would consider Bristol, Bath etc as eminently "viable" places to live. There is life (and jobs) outside London, you know.

Tom

 

I was in Bristol last weekend. to think all those people I saw in shops, offices etc were all unemployed. something must be done, surely. will no one think of the children.

 

The question remains of whether and how the S&D alignment would support those ambitions, let alone whether if you wanted to open up Bath or Bristol you'd go into the Mendips.

 

Only if you never wanted to be heard of again.....

Robin

 

The half-million or so residents of the Bristol-Bath conurbation are no doubt grateful for your insight, as we stumble through the desolate economic wasteland of this unviable region.

The area is, incidentally, already becoming a London commuter fringe on the promise of the electrification finally being finished one day. As someone who works in the ever-busy Bristol IT sector (and spends a lot of time trying to find programmers to fill vacancies) I don't really think the S&D is the answer to our transport needs. Better public transport within the conurbation we already have is more important than public transport to a third Bristol New Town even further away than the current two (Hartcliffe, 1950s; Bradley Stoke, 1980s).

On technology and remote working: it's at least 5 years now since I last saw any of the computers that have run my day-job code, and I'm sure for many developers it's even longer. In my current job everything I do is physically located somewhere in Ireland - nobody knows exactly where of course.

 

What on earth is the relevance of giving 'a dam about the country side' (sic) to do with reopening a railway that was very probably uneconomical from within a few years of opening and there will probably never be a viable economic case for reopening?

Precisely what damage is it doing to the countryside now that a reopened S&D would miraculously stop?

I have lived in the countryside all my life and, in my current location, there are a number of closed railways nearby. I often pass them or walk the trackbeds and think "I would have liked to see them working", but would I want to see them reopened? No, because they would never be viable and so it would be a huge waste of resources that are better spent elsewhere.

Reading the OP's posts, it seems like he is continually inventing more and more reasons to justify his dreams of seeing the S&D reopened... but is yet another, in classic Reeder/Roberts/BDLPG mode, who conveniently ignores anyone who doesn't happen to agree with his view. Numerous people, including me, have answered his ever-evolving 'reasons' for reopening the S&D with direct responses, but he has not directly responded to any of them with reasoned considerations of his own, merely coming up with different reasons for why it would be a 'good' idea. It seems like just another case of "Yeah but... yeah but... lalala Icanthearyou".

And so it happens again. I wonder what the next completely implausible proposed reopening idea will be? I suspect we won't have to wait long to find out.

 

Electric cars. The technology is there, it just needs refining to ensure that the batteries can be small and light enough to hold enough charge for a long distance journey. It will happen.

I also suspect that there will, in time, be a common sense approach where sunny countries are generating power via solar arrays and exporting their excess, windy countries will generate via wind power and export their excess and so on. All of which would make more sense than getting a railway in the south of England reopened.

 

How about to provide a safe corridor (in the long gap between trains) for bees to propagate freely across the countryside?

Must be worth £20M or so from the EU, postcode lottery, Donald Trump etc etc

Robin

 

True enough - and as we know, had Hatfield not happened, it might already be running again. Nevertheless, at present it's effectively closed, and it needs funds, a business case and political will to reopen it.

 

just seen this some of you might have already seen it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07dnzxs/living-in-66-all-change-for-the-west