Cirencester Community Railway

[Andy Kirkham]

On 08/02/2020 at 17:51, Andy Kirkham said:

A while ago I read "last Trains" by Charles Loft https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/last-trains, a study of the Beeching closures. He is a lecturer and I recall (i may not remember this exactly right) his account of how he described to his students the anguished protests that greeted the announcement of the Cirencester closure, with apocalyptic predictions of the place becoming a ghost town etc. His students could not understand what the fuss could have been about - "It's only a taxi ride to Kemble", one of them said.

 

I expect is poor etiquette to quote onseself but here goes: as a teenager I thoroughly bought into the line that the Curse of Beeching brought ruination to countless communities. I remember the sense of perverse disappointment that I felt when I actually visited some of these places (Cirencester among them) and found them to be apparently thriving.

 

What is nowadays called Cognitive Dissonance.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Andy Kirkham

[Northmoor]

13 minutes ago, Andy Kirkham said:

 

I expect is poor etiquette to quote onseself but here goes: as a teenager I thoroughly bought into the line that the Curse of Beeching brought ruination to countless communities. I remember the sense of perverse disappointment that I felt when I actually visited some of these places (Cirencester among them) and found them to be apparently thriving.

 

What is nowadays called Cognitive Dissonance.

Irontically, some thriving and affluent towns in Southern England (e.g. Cranleigh) would have an active anti group were their railways to be seriously proposed for reopening.  The availability or a convenient transport link - not that Cirencester's sounds like being that convenient - would likely lead to demand for housing and soon, significant increases in house-building; a subject which probably activates more NIMBYs than any other.

[Coppercap]

Cirencester, like so many towns, has had quite a bit of new house building over the last few years, especially on the road heading for Lechlade.