"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
The real shame is that the rights-of-way were not permanently held.
That would have allowed for them to be later re-used for rail, or
bus-ways or bike/walking routes f'rinstance. Such as parts of the Worth
Way in Sussex.

Well said. There should have been a clause which said that any former
transport route should remain a transport route (even if only for walkers
and cyclists) and BR should not have been allowed to sell off the assets
which at the time belonged to the nation (since BR was a nationalised
industry).

By all means save money by not running trains and not employing staff to do
so or to maintain the route to railway standard, but that's as far as it
should have gone. At least where lines have been closed since the days of
Beeching, it was been on the basis of mothballing, with routes protected
against development.