Nicholas Crane looks at plans to open a Norfolk Orbital Railway, using a network of existing preserved railways and re-opened railway trackbeds which have been turned into footpaths since Beeching closed them in the 1960s.
in this episode of Beeching's Tracks, travel journalist Simon Calder retraces West Country branch-lines cut in Dr Beeching's controversial carve-up of Britain's railway network. More than 40 years later, Simon says its high time to reopen some of the lines that Beeching closed.
Stuart Maconie looks at the effect of the Beeching railway cuts on transport in Manchester. He focuses on a short 4-mile line between Marple and Stockport which used to allow the journey to be made in 12 minutes but which now takes over an hour to do by car or bus; the car is even beaten by a woman who jogs to work! There is little hope of the line ever being re-opened because obstructions such as a supermarket were allowed to be built on the trackbed.
