JUST a few weeks ago the talk was of another round of railway network cuts, in scope second only to to Dr Beeching's hatchet job of the Sixties.
The Strategic Rail Authority was indeed planning a major announcement but it did not, thankfully, turn out to be of this depressing nature.
Instead support has been given to community railway partnerships to take over rural branch lines wih five - the Esk Valley line among them - to act as pilot projects.
By involving local communities in the running of such lines, giving them a say in how and when services run, it is hoped these rural lifelines will have their futures secured.
The rail authority's decision to allow these community railways to operate services to simpler standards than those which presently apply also makes sense. This is an opportunity to run services at lower cost without compromising safety. The standards which rightly apply to 125mph express trains need not be the same as those needed to safely run lightweight, low-speed and low frequency services.
For example it is possible that the problem the Esk Valley line had recently in transporting children to school in Whitby might not have materialised if there was a greater degree of flexibility in the way the trains had to be operated and the local community had been more directly involved in the management of the line.
This new approach, while at present specifically excluding independent and heritage lines, may have some spin-off benefits for those lines. The Wensleydale Railway, which no doubt considers itself a community partnership right now, could draw some advantages from this more relaxed approach to operating standards.
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