Reopen the Calne Branch

[Geoff Endacott]

We might as well give this a go:

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166387

 

After all, having bought a clubroom in Calne, we have to do everything possible to increase its value.

 

Geoff Endacott

[brianusa]

Why not indeed! With all the reinstatement projects over the years since Beeching, was it really worth the savings in view of what it has cost to replace them in todays LSD?

 

Brian.

[HillsideDepot]

Good luck to anyone who thinks that a single carriage shuttling to and fro can compete with a 20 minute frequency fast high-spec double decker bus service that is closer to more of the residential areas in Calne than the station and which serves the town centre in Chippenham.

 

As much as I support the railway, sometimes other modes offer better alternatives.

[roythebus]

Didn't I see this topic somewhere else recently?

[alaneggleston]

Didn't I see this topic somewhere else recently?

What you probably remembering seeing might have been the Kemble to Cirencester re-opening proposal?

[JohnR]

Why not indeed! With all the reinstatement projects over the years since Beeching, was it really worth the savings in view of what it has cost to replace them in todays LSD?

 

Brian.

At the time of the Borders Railway reopening last year someone (it might have been David Spaven) calculated that if the line had remained open, and the subsidy for a Edinburgh-Hawick service paid for the 45 years inbetween closure and reopening, it would have been cheaper to keep the line open. 

[caradoc]

Good luck to anyone who thinks that a single carriage shuttling to and fro can compete with a 20 minute frequency fast high-spec double decker bus service that is closer to more of the residential areas in Calne than the station and which serves the town centre in Chippenham.

 

As much as I support the railway, sometimes other modes offer better alternatives.

 

Absolutely, and this is the reason why (to quote a few), the Abingdon, Faringdon, and Woodstock branches, as well as the Wantage Tramway, will not re-open either. In every case the rail service was infrequent, usually required a change of trains to get to anywhere important, and a far more convenient service can be provided by road.

[The Stationmaster]

Absolutely, and this is the reason why (to quote a few), the Abingdon, Faringdon, and Woodstock branches, as well as the Wantage Tramway, will not re-open either. In every case the rail service was infrequent, usually required a change of trains to get to anywhere important, and a far more convenient service can be provided by road.

 

And in each of those you mention restoration would be impossible due to station sites and/or parts of the route having been built over since closure.  Abingdon is the only one which might make sense - provided trains ran through to Oxford - as much of the route is still clear, but only until you reach Abingdon - which would mean siting the station very remotely from just about everything and with limited car parking space, so no go.

[lmsforever]

 The Borders branch is bedevilled with problems at the moment short staffing plus shortcomings with the design ie not enough double track and wrong choice of rolling stock so any of the aformetioned reopenings would probably suffer the same problems.In the UK be it road or rail we seem to design badly argue about traffic forecasts ,and end up with a botched product  and years later we all suffer from it.Branches such as Calne should not have ever been built but you cant rewrite history but we can rewrite much of Beeching Marples crooked activities and at least we will have a good network eventualy.How about rebuilding the Liverpool Overhead Railway it would be a fun project even uplifting!