Work has started on restoring passenger rail services between Portishead and Bristol for the first time in 60 years.
A £63m investment from the government will result in two brand-new stations and reconnect more than 50,000 people to the railway.
The Portishead line was closed to passenger traffic in 1964, after 97 years in operation, as part of the infamous Beeching cuts. It continued to be used for freight traffic until the early 1980s.
But the line was not entirely dismantled or sold off, which is a major reason why it can be restored today at a relatively low cost. In 2002, a new, high-capacity freight terminal opened at the Royal Portbury Dock, which meant a section of the line from Bristol to the dock was reopened to handle this new traffic. As a result, only a 5km section of disused, overgrown track between the docks and the town of Portishead needed to be reinstated for the new project. An additional 9km of existing freight railway will be upgraded for the passenger services.
The...