| Re: Hereford / Ross on Wye / Gloucester - new campaign for re-opening Posted by Mark A at 11:37, 30th September 2026 |     |
I'm reminded of this video from the line, a wedding party at Mitcheldean Road. Thoughts of travelling from there into the Forest of Dean would have been far from their minds, particularly as this was filmed in the late fifties and the line to Drybrook had seen the rails lifted during the first world war - without so much as use by a single train in service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeL0uYzH2hY&t=2s
| Re: Hereford / Ross on Wye / Gloucester - new campaign for re-opening Posted by IndustryInsider at 11:03, 30th September 2026 | |
Not so sure it's a *new* campaign - see https://www.passenger.chat/r23538.html from six years ago, but it doesn't seem to have gained much traction since then. Having said which, the drip, drip, drip approach is often the ways things are achieved in the long term - took us 7 years from 2006 to 2013 to get a generally usable train service back at my local station.
The scale of Gloucester - Hereford via Ross on Wye is several orders of magnitude different to Melksham, of course - it's a (re)build-a-line job, and I have not seen the support for it at at the same level and Tweedbank to Carlsle, or Skipton to Colne. But then, perhaps, their campaigning is better targeted towards the movers and the shakers which I am not.
The scale of Gloucester - Hereford via Ross on Wye is several orders of magnitude different to Melksham, of course - it's a (re)build-a-line job, and I have not seen the support for it at at the same level and Tweedbank to Carlsle, or Skipton to Colne. But then, perhaps, their campaigning is better targeted towards the movers and the shakers which I am not.
Your positivity is always refreshing to see.
However, from what I can see on the map:
* The four proposed stations at Holme Lacy, Brampton Abbotts, Weston Under Penyard and Longhope would serve villages with a combined population of about 3000.
* Rotherwas is an industrial estate on the outskirts of Hereford and a station on the nearby existing main line would look to be a much better way of serving that area of south Hereford...if it needs to be served.
* Grange Court Junction, Oakle Street and Highnam on the existing Gloucester to Newport main line don't really serve anywhere apart from distant tiny villages.
* Ross-On-Wye itself is a much bigger settlement of course, but is still less than half the size of Melksham.
* There would need to be about 25 miles of railway reinstated and even if the old alignment is free of housing (and roads, car parks, solar farms, cycle paths, newts, bats, etc.), it's quite twisty and challenging terrain which I am sure would need all sorts of expensive work to stabilise it for a modern railway reinstatement.
You wonder what planet some people are on.
| Re: Hereford / Ross on Wye / Gloucester - new campaign for re-opening Posted by grahame at 09:12, 30th September 2026 | |
Not so sure it's a *new* campaign - see https://www.passenger.chat/r23538.html from six years ago, but it doesn't seem to have gained much traction since then. Having said which, the drip, drip, drip approach is often the ways things are achieved in the long term - took us 7 years from 2006 to 2013 to get a generally usable train service back at my local station.
The scale of Gloucester - Hereford via Ross on Wye is several orders of magnitude different to Melksham, of course - it's a (re)build-a-line job, and I have not seen the support for it at at the same level and Tweedbank to Carlsle, or Skipton to Colne. But then, perhaps, their campaigning is better targeted towards the movers and the shakers which I am not.
| Hereford / Ross on Wye / Gloucester - new campaign for re-opening Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 23:16, 29th September 2026 | |
From the BBC:
Pressure group calls to reopen rail link
BTRA's plan of the proposed revived rail route - Image © BTRA
A rail pressure group is calling on Herefordshire and other authorities to work together on making the case for a reopened Hereford/Ross-on-Wye/Gloucester railway link.
The British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) claim the link, which closed in the 1960s, is "strategic and brimming with potential". They believe it offers wider connections northwards to Shrewsbury, and connections to Reading and London to the east. As well as enabling people to get to work or college and to travel more, it would also cut traffic congestion and free up parking spaces, the group says.
BRTA chief executive, Richard Pill, said: "There is growing demand for rail services again and for that to happen meaningfully, you need the tracks for more trains."
Pill said recently reopened rail lines elsewhere in the country "have far exceeded usage expectation in both urban and rural locations. If the government can find millions of pounds for new roads, it is about priorities to switch some of that funding to the rail alternative," he added.
The chief executive urged residents to ask their local MPs "to seek all tiers of government support" for the scheme.
The proposal was given local impetus earlier this year when Ross ward members Louis Stark and Ed O'Driscoll asked fellow councillors to back a feasibility study into the idea. Having passed narrowly, the motion calls on officers to report back with a study in 12 months.
Stark confirmed that a December meeting of the council's environment and sustainability committee, which he chairs, will look at the county's wider rail strategy, currently under development. "Part of our intention will be to explore what is happening on the feasibility study and to ensure it is included in the rail strategy going forward," he said.
Meanwhile in late July, a BTRA meeting in Gloucester heard that "some relocation packages may be needed and engineering solutions found" for the proposed Hereford line.
It also discussed the viability of revived rail connections to Cirencester and between Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon, and the doubling of all the Hereford-Worcester-Oxford line.
BTRA's plan of the proposed revived rail route - Image © BTRA
A rail pressure group is calling on Herefordshire and other authorities to work together on making the case for a reopened Hereford/Ross-on-Wye/Gloucester railway link.
The British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) claim the link, which closed in the 1960s, is "strategic and brimming with potential". They believe it offers wider connections northwards to Shrewsbury, and connections to Reading and London to the east. As well as enabling people to get to work or college and to travel more, it would also cut traffic congestion and free up parking spaces, the group says.
BRTA chief executive, Richard Pill, said: "There is growing demand for rail services again and for that to happen meaningfully, you need the tracks for more trains."
Pill said recently reopened rail lines elsewhere in the country "have far exceeded usage expectation in both urban and rural locations. If the government can find millions of pounds for new roads, it is about priorities to switch some of that funding to the rail alternative," he added.
The chief executive urged residents to ask their local MPs "to seek all tiers of government support" for the scheme.
The proposal was given local impetus earlier this year when Ross ward members Louis Stark and Ed O'Driscoll asked fellow councillors to back a feasibility study into the idea. Having passed narrowly, the motion calls on officers to report back with a study in 12 months.
Stark confirmed that a December meeting of the council's environment and sustainability committee, which he chairs, will look at the county's wider rail strategy, currently under development. "Part of our intention will be to explore what is happening on the feasibility study and to ensure it is included in the rail strategy going forward," he said.
Meanwhile in late July, a BTRA meeting in Gloucester heard that "some relocation packages may be needed and engineering solutions found" for the proposed Hereford line.
It also discussed the viability of revived rail connections to Cirencester and between Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon, and the doubling of all the Hereford-Worcester-Oxford line.
