This really can be only good news for the rail industry in England. For those branch lines that are related to tourism such as the Liskeard - Looe and the St Erth - St Ives line the number can be seen to be increasingly significantly year upon year. The Truro - Falmouth branch line alone has seen passenger numbers grow by 90.6% percent according to this BBC report, fueling claims from local communities that these lines are part of regional tradition that needs to be maintained.
Four Weekend's Travel Blog stated a while ago that 'The days of the great travel romance are, in the UK anyway, gone.' Yes in the main this is true, for long distance journies anyway..but I truly believe in the romantic power of regional branch lines through stunning countryside - and in many ways I think other people believe in that as well hence the growth of such a slow, winding form of travel. Slow, sustainable travel has become more and more popular in recent years and that's a very good thing for both the public's sensebilties and the communities that are being invaded year upon year.
Obviously railways journies and the British countryside are inextricably linked, and there have been hundreds of eulogies to the 'romantic' era of rail travel. If you look hard enough though, I'm pretty confident it still remains...it's just what the individual chooses to get out of it and how much they connect with the landscape in which their speeding through. One of the most resonant and one of my favourite films linked with this is Night Mail - the poetic nature of the railways never ceases to interest me. As the poet De Sola Pinto claims - it is 'the strong unchanging steel rails of necessity.'
For more information visit http://www.branchlinebritain.co.uk/
For a small film featuring the area of the St. Ives Branch Line called 'Noise & Silence,' visit my Vimeo. http://www.vimeo.com/14190145
Image - The Sandy Apartments, Carbis Bay
