Reverse the Beeching Cuts!

I am on a train again for the first time since before March. Don't worry, I have a genuine reason! I'm on the train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, and as the train rolls through the Stonehaven and Mearns countryside in the south of Aberdeenshire, with farmland and greenery on one side and the North Sea on the other, I'm reminded of its supreme beauty, something I greatly missed. I wouldn't choose to live anywhere on this planet than Aberdeenshire; with its rolling hills, winding rivers and its threaded connection with working people in its long gone granite industry. Having the majesty of the Cairngorms National Park in our back garden definitely helps, too. Mass transit in the form of buses and trains should be the future. I fully support the campaign to #BringBackBritishRail (https://www.bringbackbritishrail.org/), however I definitely think we should aim for a more local and place-centred railway, rather than rigid bureaucracy managed down in London, involving communities, workforce and customers in the management of the railway in different regions of the country. 

As we enter Stonehaven train station memories come back of the day in August earlier this year when, after heavy rain, a landslip caused the derailment of a train, causing the deaths of two crew, the driver and a conductor, and a passenger on the railway just outside the town. Their names were Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Christopher Stuchbury. May we never forget them. The Sun newspaper must be forever condemned for its shameful headline about the disaster.

We have recently seen the construction of a new railway station in Kintore, rebuillding one of the victims of the Beeching cuts of 1966. I was watching series four of The Crown, and in one of the episodes it showed the Royal train meandering down the Deeside Railway to Balmoral Castle, except this was during the Thatcher era, many years after Beeching. The Deeside Railway ceased to exist after 1966! I definitely think that any sane national rail strategy needs a competent plan to reverse the Beeching cuts in full, and restore rail services to communities across the country, many of which wouldn't exist without the railway in the first place. We also need to ramp up the amount of freight and non-passenger transport on our railways, as a much more environmentally friendly alternative to air, sea or road haulage.

Many of the former railway lines, especially in Aberdeenshire, are now lovely walks, intersecting through the countryside. However the history of these lines should never be forgotten. I remember walking on the old railway line which runs past Kemnay, Monymusk and Alford, long overgrown, the physical railway is hardly there anymore. Another reason for the reopening of these lines is the abysmal transport links between many towns and small villages within Aberdeenshire on the bus.

Kemnay Railway Station, the building no longer exists. Source: http://www.kemnay.info/history/kemnay-railway/