Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journey's got to the bottom of the lack of mainline train service in Bury, Manchester as he took a trip on the only option available from the town - a heritage line.
The town has had no mainline station for sixty years since a report in 1963 led to its closure along with many other stations around the country.
The town once had a bustling train service but six decades ago it was closed down following the damning report which recommended mass closures of stations. Although the original Bury Bolton Station was destroyed by fire in 1947 it was rebuilt by the then state owned British Railways in 1952.
The station is now a heritage station and time appears to have stood still. Explaining how the town came to lose its rail service Michael explained: "The railways in Britain were built long before we developed a petrol and diesel engine, but after the Second World War, car ownership shot up, and from the 1950s Britain was building motorways."
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Michael Portillo explained why Bury in Manchester no longer has a regular train station (Image: BBC)The competition of passengers and freight made many railway lines uneconomic, and thousands of miles of track had already been closed before a notorious report in 1963 recommended a program of mass closures, and its author was Dr Beeching. The Bury to Acrington line was one of those closed under the Beeching cuts.
However it transpired people power ensured that it opened in its current format. "A campaign to resurrect it succeeded in 1987 and the East Lancashire Railway reopened as a heritage line, which today runs for 12 miles between Hayward and Rawtenstall."
To show viewers what they were missing, Michael took a trip on the heritage line which operates a steam train for its 12 mile journey.
A clearly impressed Michael described it as: "An enormous locomotive, extraordinarily modern, looking for a steam engine."
It was appropriate transport for a heritage line as Michael learned the North West of England w as one of the last places to have steam trains.
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On his journey he met up with a man called Richard Law who was part of the committee which successfully campaigned to open the heritage line.
He learned that Bury had lost not one, but two train lines in the cuts - the East West Line and the North South Line.
Reflecting on the loss of train lines in the 1960s Michael said: "Britain had won the war, but... focused on modernising the home country, building a network of motorways...
"The railways couldn't take the competition from the roads. Heritage lines like this one remind us of what we lost during the Beeching cuts," he said.
Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
Michael Portillo shares downfall of forgotten popular train line after horror fire
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