Welcome to the 'New Somerset and Dorset Railway'
The original Somerset and Dorset Railway closed very controversially in 1966. It is time that decision, made in a very different world, was reversed. We now have many councillors, MPs, businesses and individuals living along the line supporting us. Even the Ministry of Transport supports our general aim. The New S&D was formed in 2009 with the aim of rebuilding as much of the route as possible, at the very least the main line from Bath (Britain's only World Heritage City) to Bournemouth (our premier seaside resort); as well as the branches to Wells, Glastonbury and Wimborne. We will achieve this through a mix of lobbying, trackbed purchase and restoration of sections of the route as they become economically viable. With Climate Change, road congestion, capacity constraints on the railways and now Peak Oil firmly on the agenda we are pushing against an open door. We already own Midford just south of Bath, and are restoring Spetisbury under license from DCC, but this is just the start. There are other established groups restoring stations and line at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone, and the fabulous narrow gauge line near Templevcombe, the Gartell Railway.
There are now FIVE sites being actively restored on the S&D and this blog will follow what goes on at all of them! Midford - Midsomer Norton - Gartell - Shillingstone - Spetisbury
6 comments:
Blog and content in this section of the website are really amazing.
To Dorset Waste, thank you for your comment, these are no brainer type scenarios if we are to be ready to face the future. Read the better quality tabloids and you can see what is starting to happen. Cheap energy is over. We must do more with less which means more efficient transport ie rail instead of 100,s of cars sitting in queues wasting fuel. We have an expanding population and the roads simply will not cope even without peak oil. I have had enough of the Wimbourne bypass when on the ay home on weekend leave from Gosport-it is becoming a pain both morally and financially to drive.
I don't think it will be that many years before the Wimborne by pass is reconverted to a railway!
Can't wait for the Portishead line to reopen, I've got the commute from hell at the moment! Even with the A369 junction improvements, it's still pretty awful. Hopefully if anyone in the greater Bristol area cares to lend some support to my plight, where I have no alternative but to use my car for 50 soul destroying minutes each way, every day, please get involved here:
http://greaterbristolrail.com/
Portishead is certainly a start and - at last - it looks like it will happen. My wife has a similar commute from south to north Bristol, about 5 miles, which can often take an hour! When they give us our trams she'll start using them, the journey will be quicker and we'll be able to cut out our car completely, which will be a great day! (Buses are far too slow to make this a viable alternative). I suspect that there are tens of thousands of Bristol commuters just waiting for the infrastructure to be put in place, it will also give Bristol much greater resilience to prepare for the end of oil
trolley buse, trams and trains.
didn't we all have them once?
well not me as i was born during Beeching, but i did enjoy road and rail during the eighties.
the roads didn't seem empty, but by today's standards they were!
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