REGISTER OF CLOSED RAILWAYS
A Comprehensive Register of the Railway Lines of Great Britain Closed to Passenger Services
Welcome to the Register of Closed Railways website which aims to provide a comprehensive record of all railways in Great Britain closed to passenger services. For a detailed explanation of the background to the project and the criteria please go to the Introduction page.
As explained in Background, some information is vague, unconfirmed or simply non-existent. One of the aims of this website is to tap into the vast reservoir of knowledge and experience out there in the hope that some of these gaps might be filled. Consequently, this website will be updated, amended and improved over time.
The website is laid out in date order as this was considered to be the only practical solution to a problem that has dogged previous publications on this subject. Unlike records of individual stations, it is difficult, if not impossible to provide an alphabetical list of sections of line that would make any sense or be consistent. As it is anticipated that most users of the site will be approaching the subject by name rather than date, a keyword, as well as a date search facility has been provided. Simply entering the name of any station on the line in question will produce a positive result. See Introduction - Criteria - 13. Search Facility for more details.
Please note that only stations on closed sections of line are included here. This site does not cover closed stations on lines that are still open to passenger traffic, except, of course, where a line has closed and subsequently been reopened to passenger traffic.
The task of building this website has primarily entailed collating information from various existing sources, so my thanks go to all those involved in their publication, development etc. I have set out in detail those sources in Bibliography/Acknowledgements. If I have overlooked anybody or anything then please accept my sincere apologies and do let me know so the matter can be rectified.
A special thanks must go to Ffion Atkinson, webpage designer (ffionatkinson.co.uk), for her excellent work in building this website.
I hope this website will be useful to anyone interested in an important, if rather melancholy aspect of Britain's railway history. I would genuinely welcome any information, suggestions and criticisms. I will do my best to reply to each personally. But, please, website-content related matters only. No touting for business emails, they will be summarily deleted!
N.B. Unfortunately I am currently experiencing difficulties in sending replies to emails. For some unknown reason they are not being sent, as "something has gone wrong", though the system unhelpfully fails to say exactly what! My apologies if no reply is forthcoming. I will try to sort out the problem asap.
Martin Firth
Hebden Bridge
West Yorkshire
Website last updated: 03/11/2024