Railways to Roads

[balders]

A444 in Coventry.......the track bed of the old avoiding line from Three Spires Jct. on the Coventry - Nuneaton line, to Humber Road Jct, as far as the Binley Road. Gradually converted from early 90's, the line was lifted by around mid-84 having been essentially a truncated siding serving Gosford Green. Also served the munitions works in Smith Street, Morris Engines, Bell Green Yard etc. Now a regular 5pm standstill and boy-racer track, but a useful cross-city link to be fair.

[Pacific231G]

• Some quite long sections of the A34 between Newbury and Winchester used the alignment of the former Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway when it was upgraded to dual carriageway.
• There's a section of the road between Basingstoke and Alton near Lasham Aerodrome that was diverted to use the alignment of the old Basingstoke and Alton Light railway (famous for Oh Mr. Porter) to bypass the airfield site when it was built during the war. You know straightaway when driving along it from the shallower curves and gentle grades that it's different from the rest of the road. To save building costs the light railway was a bit of a contour follower.
• A short section of the Princes Risborough-Watlington road where it passes under the M40 near Aston Clinton follows the line of the GW Watlington branch but the route then becomes a very private farm track to the south of the motorway. Almost all the route of the branch is very easy to trace- especially the part with nice shiny rails once again regularly used by Pannier tanks!! 

Rather like disused Roman Roads, long dismantled railways are often very easy to spot from the air. Even when sections have been very thorougly ploughed in or the land developed and nothing is apparent on the ground, the general line is often revealed by hedge and tree lines, bits of farm track and occasional earthworks. Nowadays of course Google Earth brings that facility to everyone.

 

It's particularly sad to find railways that were closed or dismantled to make space for roads that might otherwise still be with us. The one I miss most is the old Fort William station which for anyone who knew it was a classic.

There used to be an excellent railway from an elevated station on Montpelier to the beach resort of Palavas that was very well used but was closed to allow a new bypass to use the route.

 

We also of course have the sad example of the Dart Valley Railway between Buckfastleigh and Ashburton that was about to preserved as part of the steam railway when "they" decided to use the route for the Ashburton bypass. As a volunteer on the DVR I did get to explore Asburton when it was still intact and it, even more that Watlington, really was the perfect GW BLT.

 

Even worse are the places where a railway has been deliberately shut down to make way for a footpath/cycleway. There've been a number of those in France including the Chinon-Richelieu line that had been run as a preserved line for decades and part of the Voies Ferrées du Velay (the 'other' Vivarais preservation) between Raucoules and its former junction with the standard gauge at Dunieres. I think the local authorities get grants and brownie points for creating new Voies Vertes. Disused railways (or those than can be made to be disused) are obvious ready made routes. Re-using old railway routes is better than ploughing them in but keeping them as railways is far better still.

[Reorte]

Half of the A66 alongside Bassenthwaite Lake. One side of the dual carriageway is the hilly, windy original road, the other side a flat, not bendy carriageway on the old railway alignment.

[Fenman]

...

The A47 uses the former trackbed of the GN's link to the M&GN around Eye and about three miles of the Swaffham-Dereham line.  Sutton Bridge has been mentioned but I think the A17 occupies the M&GN trackbed all the way to South Lynn. ...

 

Yes, that's true about the A17 (though it actually diverges just west of the River Great Ouse, at West Lynn, rather than reaching to South Lynn - the bypass runs parallel to the site of South Lynn station).

 

In the same part of the world, much of the A149 Dersingham-Ingoldisthorpe-Snettisham bypass is built on the former Lynn-Hunstanton railway (the one that featured in the lovely Betjeman film). It's a very nice road to drive on, when it's not packed with holiday makers.

 

Paul

[Arthur]

The A57 Irlam bypass, west of Manchester, follows the roadbed of the Manchester Ship Canal Company's former main line along the north bank of the ship canal from Boysnope Wharf out to Hollins Green.

[RJS1977]

M60 through Stockport (under the viaduct)

 

Not under the viaduct - it was built alongside the railway line (using an adjacent arch), but construction caused a railway tunnel to collapse, leading to the closure of the Midland line. This was quite 'convenient' for the road builders though as part of the later eastern section is built on the bypass.

[RJS1977]

As well as the Ashburton branch, part of the inland route from Exeter-Newton Abbot also disappeared under a road at the Exeter end - had it still been in existence, it would have been a useful Dawlish diversion.

 

Others that spring to mind:

 

GWR Staines West and Uxbridge branches - M25

GWR Coley goods branch - A33 relief road.

Didcot Newbury & Southampton - a dual carriageway in Didcot and part of the Newbury bypass.

Mid-Wales railway through Llanidloes.

Carmarthen-Abergwili Junction - now the Carmarthen bypass. Allegedly enough space was left in case the Gwili Railway wanted to get back into Carmarthen station (or if the Welsh Assembly wanted to reopen the line to Aberystwyth), but if so, it must be a very tight fit.

 

Ffestiniog Railway pre-Deviation route - now partly in use as the access road to Ffestiniog Power station.

Welshpool - tracks and station platforms moved to the east to enable a bypass to run along the old trackbed between the former station building and the new platform.

 

And many many more :-( Ironically of course a lot of roads are built on railway lines which closed because (allegedly) there weren't enough people wanting to travel between the towns on the railway line...

['CHARD]

Indeed, main reason for the closure of the Perth direct route was that using the trackbed through Glenfarg made the M90 so much cheaper

 

Absolutely criminal and cynical abuse of power, in cahoots with the Scottish Region closerati.

 

Has anyone mentioned the A5230 Yeadon Way into Blackpool (Central)  following the course of the old Direct line from Kirkham and Wesham.  Truly insane road-biased closure this one.

[Edwin_m]

A section of the former ECML north of Selby is now the A63/A19. 

[Rugd1022]

Part of the A43 was laid over the route of the connecting line from Northampton to Blisworth.

[Irishswissernie]

Old double track North Eastern line between Tebay & Ravenstonedale used mainly by freight from Durham over Stainmore to Barrow and Millom plus seasonal passenger trains from the North East to Blackpool and Grange over Sands.

 

 

Ernie

[Horsetan]

West of Lakeside station in Cumbria

 

I think you mean Haverthwaite, which lost the route west when the A590 was improved......

[BoD]

I believe the A6091 follows a short section of the Waverly route as it passes Melrose.

You can see the old platform and station alongside.

 

O.T. Is that the reason the new railway stopped at Tweedbank?

[tamperman36]

dewsbury ring road around the market , built over one of Dewsburys 3 stations and then the road into the town center past the sports center. Where the library is and the industrial estate is alongside was all the goods yard.

 

I believe the viaduct across the Esk valley in Whitby was built for the Scarborough line and is now used by the Scarborough road

[giz]

The A4124 Wednesfield by-pass was built on the route of the old Midland Railway line from Wolverhampton to Walsall.

 

Most of the line has been obliterated, including Wednesfield station and yard but at the western end the abutments of the bridges that crossed Deans Road and the canal can still be seen. The trackbed still exists to the west to the point where it meets still the extant line to Bescot and east of Wednesfield it is mostly present and I believe it has been proposed for many years that the West Midlands Metro would use it to reach Walsall.

['CHARD]

I believe the A6091 follows a short section of the Waverly route as it passes Melrose.

You can see the old platform and station alongside.

 

O.T. Is that the reason the new railway stopped at Tweedbank?

 

Indeed, it parallels the route from Darnick Siding to Ravenswood Junction, which it obliterates.  

 

However, whilst the road occupies the old down platform site and goods shed at Melrose, there is room to reinstate the line on its original alignment along the majority of this stretch, including the old up platform.  Now wouldn't that be a lovely idea!

 

The line ends at TWB because that was the Option for which the business case was sought.  The line's promoters didn't wish to jeopardise the scheme by going for the Hawick terminus option, as it generated a lower BCR, and would probably have been chucked out.

[Taigatrommel]

Trier Way in Gloucester is partially ex-MR Eastgate line and partially the MR docks branch.

[jamie92208]

There is a road from Wimbourne towards Ringwood that is partly on an old railway line, I think it was part of Castleman's Corkscrew.

 

Jamie

[wombatofludham]

The Dolgellau by-pass was built on part of the trackbed of the Ruabon-Barmouth line, including the station site.  The rest of the route from Dolgellau to Morfa Mawddach was turned into the Mawddach Trail foot and cycleway, although it seems most of the bum-in-air lycra clad militant two wheelers still prefer to put themselves at enormous risk on the parallel Dolgellau-Tywyn main road rather than take the trail.

[Fat Controller]

The eastern end of the B4304 in Llanelli partially uses the old formation of the 'Llanelly Railway Company' route from Llandeilo Jct to the docks. The western end uses part of the formation of the former Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr and Nevill's Dock and Railway lines from North Dock to Sandy Road. At the Sandy Road end can be seen what appears to be an old engine shed, now occupied by an electrical wholesaler; this was, in fact, a wagon works.

[Joseph_Pestell]

A358 Chard Branch near Donyatt.

A3088 Taunton to Yeovil Branch @ Montacute

B3227 (EX A361) Taunton to Barnstaple @ Milverton.

A39 S&DJR @ Glastonbury 

A371 Cheddar Valley @ Wells

A371 also at Axbridge

[Joseph_Pestell]

East Grinstead. Part of the former Three Bridges - Ashurst Junction route was used to built an inner ring road or similar.

Tactlessly called Beeching Way.

 

I have come across a few housing estates on former railway alignments, goods yards, etc. that are also named after Dr Beeching.

[Joseph_Pestell]

The OP asked for UK examples but one spectacular example in France is along a railway alignment that was never completed, south-east of Le Puy. It includes quite a long single-track tunnel.

[Rivercider]

A358 Chard Branch near Donyatt.

A3088 Taunton to Yeovil Branch @ Montacute

B3227 (EX A361) Taunton to Barnstaple @ Milverton.

A39 S&DJR @ Glastonbury 

A371 Cheddar Valley @ Wells

The A371 also at Axbridge (bypass)  occupies part of the former Cheddar Valley line.

 

The A370 Winterstoke Road in Weston-super-Mare follows part of the route of the original Weston Branch

which closed in 1884 when the Weston-super-Mare loop line opened.

 

As already metioned, there are loads of them all over the place.

Railway Atlas Then and Now  by Paul Smith and Keith Turner  (Ian Allan)

shows which lines from the 1923 system are now in use as preserved lines, roads, footpaths etc, and is an interesting book,

 

cheers

[johnlambert]

The section of the A46 between Salford Priors and Alcester is built on the track bed of the railway that ran from Redditch down to Evesham. There's still an old signal box by the roadside that controlled Broom Junction (I think).

 

Seven Meadows Road (A4390) in Stratford upon Avon is built on the alignment of the old Stratford & Midland Junction railway to Fenny Compton (part of the old station platform remains). Part of the track bed of the former GWR line to Honeybourne and Cheltenham. is also now covered by the same road. The SMJ and GWR junction is partly occupied by a roundabout.