Tory ?500million plan to restore railways built just 11 miles of track in four years

The Tories' £500 million railway restoration project has resulted in just 11 miles of track being reopened in nearly four years.

Grant Shapps^[1], then the Transport Secretary, announced the cash fund in January 2020 to deliver a Tory manifesto commitment to reopen lines and stations closed by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. The UK's rail network has roughly halved in length over the last 100 years.

Dr Richard Beeching, later Lord Beeching's 1963 report, The Reshaping of Britain's Railways, dramatically hastened the reduction, earmarking 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of track for closure. But since 2020, just one line has been reopened after receiving Restoring Your Railway funding from the Government - the Dartmoor Line between Okehampton and Exeter - according to the House of Commons^[2] library.

And even this wasn't a fully closed line - it was a former freight-only railway still in use by heritage trains, which was upgraded to allow a regular service to operate. Just two stations - Marsh Barton and Thanet Parkway - have reopened under the programme.

Former minister Kevan Jones, the Labour^[3] MP for North Durham, said: "These figures expose this £500 million programme as little more than an expensive fund for press releases for Conservative MPs. Those who have benefited most from it are highly-paid consultants, drawing up expensive reports that will sit on a shelf."

The most recent update on the Restoring Your Railway fund was published last June, with ministers tight-lipped about its progress since then. The first "ideas" round of the fund was intended to provide funding for "early-stage" ideas. But while the Government published a list of successful bids in October 2021, it did not include the amount of cash allocated to each project.

Mr Jones added: "In the North East, £50,000 was spent on a feasibility study to give credence to the local Conservative MP's flippant fantasy idea of extending the Tyne and Wear metro system to Consett. Smoke and mirrors won't improve my constituent's railway services but that is what we get from this Government."

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Restoring railways drives tourism, boosts local businesses and encourages investment to the region. We’ve already delivered the restoration of the Dartmoor line between Okehampton and Exeter, new stations in Bristol and Thanet, and the Northumberland line is currently under construction with services returning in 2024.

“Our Network North plan, redirecting £36bn of savings from HS2, includes funding for numerous further restorations including lines for Don Valley, Ivanhoe, Barrow Hill and Stoke to Leek – as well as new stations at Ferryhill, Haxby, Meir, Cullompton and elsewhere.”

References

1. ^{^} Grant Shapps (www.mirror.co.uk)
2. ^{^} House of Commons (www.mirror.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Labour (www.mirror.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Join our FREE Mirror politics WhatsApp community for all the latest from Westminster (www.mirror.co.uk)