What happened to the Great Central railway?
Bailey Hyatt
2025-05-10 10:34:54
Count answers: 2
The closure came about because of the Beeching report, published in 1963. Dr Beeching had been employed to produce it by the then transport minister Ernest Marples. Mr Marples had been managing director of, and was still involved with, Marples Ridgway, a company that made much of its money from building motorways. Can it have been mere coincidence that his appointee wanted to close mainline railways in addition to making more justifiable cuts to remote branch lines? Sadly, the incoming Labour government allowed much of the report to be implemented, possibly because it had many other things to deal with after what Harold Wilson called “13 years of Tory misrule” and a rightwing press, with an apparently short-term memory, eager to blame our country’s many woes on newly elected lefties. But what a scandal that it was ever shut. Had it been left in service, an upgrade would have cost a fraction of the money poured into Boris Johnson’s vanity HS2 project.
Kira Bogan
2025-05-10 08:45:50
Count answers: 2
The Great Central was the last Victorian Main Line railway to reach London. Opened to passengers in 1899 it boasted of rapid travel in luxury. However in the 1960s it was closed, the single biggest casualty of the "Beeching" railway cuts. Unfortunately, the 500 metres of railway which connected the two was ripped up after closure. We need to rebuild bridges and embankments and relay track. It's going to cost millions of pounds. With your help we have already raised and spent millions and completed two parts of the project, including an impressive new bridge over the four tracks of Midland Main Line at Loughborough. In the East Midlands two sections remained. Eight miles of the line between Loughborough and Leicester North has become a thriving heritage line, complete with double track and signalling. Meanwhile between Loughborough and Ruddington almost ten miles of line survived to serve an MOD depot.
Randi Wisozk
2025-05-10 06:41:59
Count answers: 3
The Great Central Railway was closed in the 1960s as a result of the Beeching cuts that closed thousands of miles of railway lines. It took another four years after volunteers took over the closed line in 1969 before the first train ran on the heritage line. The railway was split by the Beeching cuts, but more than 50 years later, work is under way to reunify two parts of the last Victorian mainline railway to be built. Planning permission is being sought and funds are being raised to draw up engineering plans to reconnect the Loughborough to Leicester line with another section running north to Nottingham. The railway emerges from the other side of the shed stopping at one of three bridges built or restored as part of the re-unification plans. Not only will it give us a much longer railway and take us to the outskirts of Nottingham, but it will link us into Network Rail, it will certainly help with the mainline testing that we do, and it will open up the possibility of specials, say a train from St Pancras for instance, coming as a tourist thing. The heritage railway is hoping to raise £500,000 for detailed engineering designs, having already spent £7m on the project.
Gideon Leannon
2025-05-10 06:36:01
Count answers: 1
The Great Central Railway has submitted a planning application to Charnwood Borough Council for the 18-mile reunification scheme. Two sections of the track line - one at Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, and an eight-mile section between Loughborough and Birstall - would be connected. Three parts of the scheme have already been completed, however, to build more of the scheme, planning permission is required. Formally applying for planning consent is a huge milestone for this exciting project. It has required a lot of hard work and investment from our supporters and stakeholders. Railway bosses say the submission, which includes the provision for a viaduct, is a huge milestone for the project.
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