This is not a strategy – it’s a fast track to the dark ages of rail | Simon Jenkins

As transport secretary, Chris Grayling should be investing in the northern axis, not vanity projects like the Oxbridge line

The transport secretary Chris Grayling announced this week that he plans to reopen five, possibly eight, railway lines closed by Richard Beeching, to cut overcrowding and increase capacity. Beeching, who wrote a report back in the 1960s that identified 5,000 miles of railway line for closure, has been dead for a quarter of a century. The lines he closed are reopening all...