The Weymouth to Easton, Portland Railway Line: Then and Now 

Thank you for that, nice to receive a positive reply other than the wingers not knowing how to turn the volume down :)

As a kid I holidayed in Weymouth and remember the Quay railway well and also pedaloing on Radipole lake under the disused railway bridge

I would love to Les if I had the time and the resources, it just so happens I know Weymouth quite well and visit it a few times a year

It wasn't Dr. Richard Beeching who was responsible for withdrawing passenger trains from the Weymouth to Easton branch. This happened in 1952 - nine years before the portly Physicist from the Isle of Sheppey became Chairman of the British Railways' Board of Directors. There was a fast and frequent competing road 'bus service linking Weymouth to Portland which local people, voting with their purses and wallets, used in preference to the trains. Normal trade competition, just as happens between nearby branches of Waitrose and Tesco.

@@KempSimonThanks for putting me right on that one. But Beeching did a iot of damage to the rail network. E.G The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

In April 1964 there were four separate railway transport corridors linking the Bristol/Bath conurbation with the holiday resorts of the Dorset Coast. Two of these lines are still open today. It's possible to travel direct from Bristol and Bath to Weymouth via Westbury and Yeovil using a line which, for most of its length, ran parallel to the late, lamented Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway but had easier gradients and linked more significant centres of population. A Labour Government came to power in October 1964 having explicitly promised that, if elected, it would halt all major railway closures. The axe fell on the S&DJR main line and branch in March, 1966.

@@KempSimon Yes typical .Full of promises to catch votes. Once elected they conveniently forget those promises and go ahead with closures anyway. So many lines were victims of broken promises

Hi Derek, yes I think you're right, that section was filled in so the road at 4.10 could be built.

My PC has a volume control. Seemed to have been muted anyway!

+ScienceisTruth Elton John, 'This Train Don't Stop There Anymore', 2001.

Elton John

The Weymouth to Portland branch line lost its passenger train service in 1952 because local people voted with their wallets and purses. There was a competing road 'bus service which people used in preference to the trains. It's the basic economic law of supply and demand in action. Normal trade competition, just like that between two rival supermarket chains. We've only got a limited amount of money so we spend it where we believe it gives us the best value. It's not criminality, it's common sense.

Good luck to the locals saving their pennies if that's the case! I say it's a crime@@KempSimon because I feel railway lines ought to be protected and preserved wherever possible, particularly in areas of unique natural beauty which are being destroyed by pollution and traffic congestion. Portland is on a narrow peninsula linked to Weymouth by a causeway, so a rail link is doubly important - for freight as well as passengers. We can all see the benefits of hindsight. But the environmental, economic and social damage caused by removing vital railway connections like this is in a sense a crime against humanity. There are dozens of other similar examples all round the country, especially near the seaside, e.g. Hayling Island and many others in Scotland and Wales. That's why I say it's criminal.

Yes I know, I realised it after I'd finished it but left it in there so the pedants had something to point out ;)

They are NOT ‘Desperately needed now’. Thats the problem with misguided railway nutters. You fail COMPLETELY to understand that, by the mid 50’s, rail was facing REAL competition from road transport. Which hadn’t been invented when the railways were first built. Their only ‘competition’ was horse and carts that travelled over muddy tracks.

That's you that is...