UNDOING BEECHING'S CUTS.

The British are figuring out that when the track is in place, it might be foolish to take it out.

“Rail travel has transformed over the last 20 years and our railways are carrying twice as many passengers as they did before privatisation," says Chris Grayling, the secretary of state for transportation. “But we need a new way of working to help our railway deal with the challenges it faces.”

Grayling cites lines such as the “Varsity” line linking Oxford and Cambridge, an 89-mile stretch between Edinburgh and Carlisle, a line between Southampton to Dorchester, and a route connecting Nottingham to London Marylebone.

Most of the candidates for rehabilitation were victims of the infamous "Beeching Axe" that closed a number a number of rural branch lines on the recommendation of Dr. Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board between 1961 and 1965. Beeching's modernization plans closed more than 4,000 miles of track and 2,000 stations.

It's true that in parts of Britain, the traffic might better be handled on one line, rather than on two or more lightly-used formerly competing lines.  The example that stands out is the Trans-Pennine between Manchester and Leeds via Huddersfield, which brings to mind the old Lehigh Valley and Central of New Jersey toward Sayre, Pennsylvania, and way too much track once the anthracite mines stopped working.  The Varsity Line has potential as a cross-country route to the west and north of London.  That Edinburgh to Carlisle is the old Waverley Route, which might have been axed as redundant thanks to it being a mountain railroad through a traffic desert.  And the closure of the Nottingham to London line, a former Great Central route, was subject to protest back in the day, as that line had been engineered to the more generous (by European standards, mind you) Continental loading gauge, and as such would make a logical connection to points north once a Channel tunnel opened.  But in the middle 1960s, a Channel tunnel was probably still something that would have to be closed off if a latter-day Napoleon or Hitler had designs on England.

Thus, much of the Great Central was torn up, although the Nottingham end is a preservation railway on the original metals.  Have any other preservation lines been turned back into main lines?