Reopenings special: East Yorkshire’s plan to bring back the trains

Dozens of rail reopening plans are reported to be under threat. Aandy Comfort reports on how those behind a campaign to restore train services between Hull, Beverley and York remain optimistic…

In this article:

• The Minsters Rail Campaign seeks to reopen the Beverley to York railway, closed in 1965, to improve transport links and reduce congestion.
• Despite government funding cuts, campaigners remain hopeful, working with local authorities and infrastructure firms to develop a business case.
• The project faces challenges, including new alignments around built-up areas, but could offer economic, environmental, and transport benefits if approved.

It was in January 2020 when then-Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched a government fund to kickstart the reversal of some of the Beeching cuts.

The cuts, following The Reshaping of British Railways in 1963, ended passenger services on around a third of the rail network, closing more than 2,300 stations and up to 5,000 miles of track across the UK.

The thousands of miles of railway axed under Beeching are in various states of repair. Freight trains still run over some, others sit unused and overgrown, while some have had houses or roads built over them or have been converted to cycle routes or footpaths.

Launching its scheme in 2020, the Conservative government of the time provided funding to develop proposals for reopening two lines in the near future: £1.5 million to the Ashington-Blyth-Tyne Line in Northumberland, which partly reopened to passenger services in December 2024, and £100,000 to the Fleetwood line in Lancashire.

The Transport Secretary invited MPs, local authorities and community groups across England to come forward with proposals on how they could use funding to reinstate axed local services.

However, in October 2024, it was reported in The Independent newspaper that 36 rail projects were on a list of those at risk of being scrapped, as the new Labour government sought to save money.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves had already announced in July 2024 that Labour would be cancelling the 2020 Restoring Your Railway programme, but The Independent reported that “individual schemes would be reconsidered in a review by the [then] Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, in a bid to save £85m”.

One of the projects said to be on that list of 36 was a plan to reinstate services along a 32-mile disused line between York and Beverley, the market town of East Yorkshire. With grand minsters in both places, the group lobbying for trains to return is called the Minsters Rail Campaign.

The direct line from Beverley to York via Market Weighton and Pocklington closed in 1965 at the height of the Beeching cuts, and a campaign to reopen the route has been active for 20 years.

James Connelly, Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Hull, chairs the Minsters Rail Campaign. He says the campaign to reinstate train services along the old route is now getting on better than before.

“For many years we were knocking on doors and not getting too many replies. But since just before COVID, we started getting a lot more replies. We went to see government ministers… and the then-Rail Minister commissioned a report on it.”

In Yorkshire, despite the October 2024 newspaper report of the government reconsidering proposals to reopen some railways, those behind the Minsters Rail Campaign remain positive. They cite support from Beverley MP Graham Stuart and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, through whose patch the railway would run.

Over the past five years, the Minsters Rail Campaign has been working with the infrastructure organisation AECOM, which has recently been involved in the reopening of the railway line between Ashington and Newcastle.

With AECOM, the campaign developed a strategic outline business case, which the campaign chair James Connelly calls “a first recce”, partly using money from the Restoring Your Railway (RYR) fund.

However, the abolition of the RYR fund does not necessarily spell the end for campaigns such as the Hull-Beverley-York group.

Connelly notes that the fund was never intended to be sufficient to rebuild any lines: “There was a certain degree of hyperbole about that fund under the last government. But nevertheless, from our point of view we work with whichever government is in power and whichever MP we can work with.”

With the strategic outline business case completed in early 2024, the next step for the Minsters Rail Campaign is a full outline business case (OBC), which will require funding to the tune of about £3m.

The group is hopeful that the planned Hull/East Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority might be a source of income, with a reported infrastructure and development fund of about £400m.

For the campaign, this will be the complete make or break. If the OBC returns a negative result, Connelly says the campaign would probably go into abeyance for a long time.

“We’re throwing all the dice, and it’s the last throw,” he says.

The Minsters Rail Campaign has clear stated aims: improving transport links between places such as Hull, Beverley, Market Weighton and York; cutting down travel times; and relieving pressure on the adjoining A1079 road, which is single carriageway for most of its length.

Environmental resilience is another reason for reopening the old route.

Connelly says the main railway line out of Hull to the west is highly vulnerable in environmental terms, and thus a new line via Market Weighton would provide a vital diversionary route.

Between Hessle and Ferriby stations, to the west of Hull, the Hull to Doncaster/Leeds main line runs right alongside the north bank of the wide Humber Estuary, and has already succumbed to nature.

In March 2020, Network Rail closed the popular footpath which runs between the line and the Humber Estuary, to allow for work to protect the railway embankment from coastal erosion.

Engineers installed a steel coastal defence wall, 138 metres long and around 20 metres deep, in an £8m investment. It was needed to protect the railway embankment from damage caused by coastal erosion, after ground movement was detected in 2018.

As the work finished in February 2021, Matt Rice, Route Director for NR’s North and East Region, said: “Installing this coastal defence has been a huge undertaking, but it was absolutely vital to make sure that towns and cities on the route stay connected and to provide passengers with a reliable railway. I’m glad that the footpath has now reopened so that residents can enjoy this walking route once more.”

Those involved in the Minsters Rail Campaign are keen to point out that the proposal to reopen the route between Beverley and York is a transport solution to a transport problem, and that they are not enthusiasts being nostalgic about the past.

They recognise that there are significant challenges to overcome - not least finding new routes around Market Weighton and Pocklington, where the trackbed has been lost to development.

It is currently possible to travel from Beverley to York on a direct train. Northern runs an hourly service from Bridlington to York via Beverley and Hull, with a typical journey time of 1hr 22mins from Beverley to York.

The Minsters Rail Campaign estimates that trains on a reopened direct route via Market Weighton would take about 50 minutes between Beverley and York. In fact, the fastest train in the 1965 winter timetable, just before closure, took just 43 minutes.

Before its closure in 1965, the direct line diverged from the existing Hull to Scarborough line just north of Beverley, serving the towns of Market Weighton and Pocklington. Both have seen population growth in recent years - Market Weighton’s population was recorded as 7,458 in the 2021 Census, up from 6,429 in 2011 and 5,212 in 2001.

Both towns are blessed with regular bus services, but these have to contend with traffic on the busy A1079 road and on York’s narrow streets.

Journey times on East Yorkshire Buses’ X45/X47 services are around 1hr 10mins from Market Weighton into York, and about 45 minutes from Pocklington to the centre of York.

Compare that with the December 1965 railway timetable, when the fastest train took just 27 minutes to travel from Market Weighton, and 18 minutes from Pocklington to York.

In 2005, rail consultant Carl Bro produced a report into the possible reopening of the Beverley to York line, which said: “The estimated annual 2004 passenger figures are a total of 395,000 journeys per annum for one train per hour, 584,000 journeys per annum for two trains per hour, and 622,000 journeys per annum for two trains per hour with one extended to/from Leeds. A sensitivity analysis suggests that these figures may vary by up to 30%.”

On its website, the Minsters Rail Campaign quotes a then-Northern Rail spokesman suggesting that these figures were probably on the low side, given the increases in national rail travel.

The Carl Bro report looked at a possible route for reinstated train services. Much of the old route is still intact, and now forms a long-distance foot and cycle path - the George Hudson Way, named after the railway pioneer.

However, the old trackbed has been built on in Market Weighton and Pocklington, towns which would be key to the success of any future service.

The old station in Market Weighton is difficult to pinpoint, with housing now built on the site - only the name of Station Road gives away its location. Carl Bro’s 2005 report suggested alternative sites on a new alignment to the north of the town.

Towards York, there would be no prospect of building a railway line into the centre of Pocklington because of development. There, the station site is now only marked by the remaining station building, which is a private dwelling, and the Grade 2 Listed goods shed which is now home to a builders’ merchants.

A location to the south of Pocklington was identified by Carl Bro as a likely site for a new station, being close to residential development in the area, the Pocklington Airfield Industrial Estate, and Pocklington Grammar School.

It would mean that any new station for Pocklington would be outside the town and therefore require a new railway alignment to avoid the town itself. But the Minsters campaign group says the site would be convenient for access off the A1079 and for use as a ‘Park and Ride’ station and public transport interchange.

The final station before York would be Stamford Bridge - scene of a battle between Saxon and Viking forces in September 1066, but overshadowed by a more famous battle on the south coast of England just three weeks later.

The site of the battlefield is poorly preserved, with part of it lying under Stamford Bridge itself. But the site of the old railway station is much easier to find.

The station building is intact, and is owned by East Riding Council and leased to a not-for-profit organisation which uses the building as a youth and social club with a heritage centre. The old goods shed has been converted into a sports hall, which is available free of charge to local schools every afternoon.

The buildings at Stamford Bridge sit alongside the disused trackbed, part of which now forms a section of Sustrans cycle route 66, linking Yorkshire with Greater Manchester.

The cycle route crosses the most significant structure on the old Beverley to York railway - Stamford Bridge viaduct, opened in 1847 and consisting of 15 red brick arches on either side of a single 27-metre cast-iron span that crosses the River Derwent. The National Transport Trust describes it as the oldest remaining railway bridge of its type.

Had it not been for protests from rail campaigners, the viaduct would have been demolished by the former East Yorkshire Borough Council in 1991, as it had fallen into disrepair. Since then, the viaduct has been repaired and made safe for cyclists and walkers.

Despite the old trackbed being open as a cycle path to the west of the village, development elsewhere in Stamford Bridge would necessitate another new alignment if trains were ever to return.

The Carl Bro report of 2005 highlighted three possible new alignments north and south of the village, with potential station sites outside Stamford Bridge itself.

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, has long been a supporter of plans to restore train services between Beverley and York.

In February 2024, the MP carried out a survey of constituents asking what local communities should do with their share of the £168m Local Transport Fund - money to be spent on transport projects at the East Riding Council’s discretion, with consultation from local MPs.

Around 100 people responded, with the most popular suggestion being to reopen the direct York to Hull railway (57%), followed by road surface improvements (36%), and more rural buses (31%).

In October 2023, Stuart told the BBC that connecting Hull to York via Beverley would “light a rocket” under the region.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council is supportive of the campaign to reinstate train services between Beverley and York. In its most recent Local Transport Plan Strategy (2015-29), it states: “Potential improvements to further increase the coverage and capacity of the transport network could include the longer-term aspiration to reopen the Hull/Beverley to York rail line, which attracted strong support during the preparation of the council’s emerging Local Plan.

“A feasibility study to investigate possibilities for reinstating the route was completed in 2005 and showed that this was feasible in engineering terms and that the overall benefits would exceed the overall costs over a 60-year period of time. The study costed the reopening of the line at approximately £240m.

“At present there is no prospect of funding being available to bring forward the reinstatement of this route. However, the council recognises the benefit that such a proposal could bring to the wider area and will work with neighbouring authorities, partners and funding bodies to explore opportunities to promote this course of action.”

After campaigning for 20 years to reinstate the Beverley to York direct route, and after surveys, reports and one business case, the people behind the Minsters Rail Campaign will now have to wait to see if the proposal will find favour with the latest Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander.

Minsters Rail Campaign Chair James Connelly is clear on where they now stand: “This scheme can’t be scrapped because it’s not started…. we’re at the stage of getting that outline business case. Now, if that outline business case were positive from our point of view, then the government would have to make a decision about whether it should be supported or not.”

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