the way ahead

This has just come in from the New S&D's Legal Officer, Neil Smith, which clarifies certain issues re the various rights that railways have over their natural routes. The way I read it is that we need to acquire the freehold for stations (as at Midford) but that generally the route itself merely needs agreement between the railway and the land's owner. As for anything built on the route, bearing in mind that it is still a railway (despite being lifted), a CPO will solve any blockage problems. There are only a few on the S&D in any case.

For information, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 is the main statute in the area and contents the machinery for CPOs.

The S and D is in a good position in that an easement - a right of way - is in the main the only requirement to relay a railway line: the freehold can remain with the owner. Stations and car parks pose a fuller problem: freehold purchase will be necesary. Compensation is based on the price between a willing purchaser and a willing seller.

I am concerned about the wholesale destruction of goods facilties along the S and D since closure in 1966. Quick solutions will be necessary in the face of Peak Oil etc. Oakley's excellent book "Somerset Railway Stations" shows the damage and destruction in the name of progress but also provides thought for rebuilding and relaying.

I'd also urge all interested to learn and become involved in the planning process. Development plans are revised every few years.

Developers have used this avenue with impunity for years in creating an artificial "need" for houses in many cases. Much more genuinely, the Cotswold Canals and Wilts and Berks Canal have used the system to safeguard each Canal's route.

The worthy cause of the S and D should do the same.

new resource

An excellent photographic resource discovered by Nick Howes is the Bath in Time website which as well as having loads of classic rail images around Bath also covers other transportation including trams and canals.

more oxford to cambridge

Some more very recent shots from Mick Knox of the Oxford to Cambridge line around Winslow before the engineers moved in.

Mick added when sending these 'When I was out here, rushing about before going to work, I thought how the line blends in with the countryside, especially the blue engineering brick built bridges, and now our motorways are a blot on the landscape. '

Of course when railways were first built there were a lot of objections from country people that the lines would blot the landscape. For a few years no doubt they did, especially when accompanied by hundreds of navvies! But it's true, the railways (like the canals before) quickly 'bedded in' and in some cases even enhanced the landscape (think some of the S&D viaducts). I doubt even the most rabid petrolhead would claim that roads (apart from the little country lanes) have ever achieved this.

It helps that trains only run at intervals, even on the busiest routes. A busy road is an endless procession of cars and lorries, a total intrusion in lives rather than an occasional reminder of civilization.