‘The UK’s rail network has roughly halved in length over the last 100 years. Line closures began after the First World War, but the pace of line closures increased dramatically following a report published in 1963. This report, entitled The Reshaping of British Railways, [known as the Beeching Report] earmarked 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of track for closure’.
house of lords library report – Reversing the Beeching Closures: Full Steam Ahead? published 6th february 2020 (link here)
Investing in transport links is essential to levelling up access to opportunities across the country, ensuring our communities are better connected, local economies flourish and more than half a century of isolation is undone.
Published in 1963, the Beeching Report was followed by the closure of over 2,300 stations and around 5,000 miles of track. While most of the closures took place in the 1960s, some continued well into the 1970s. Many communities still remain isolated from the rail network following the closure of their local railway line or station more than 5 decades ago.
Changes in the recorded number of passenger journeys have not paralleled the reduction in the total length of the network. From a peak of over 2 billion in 1919, the number of passenger journeys made each year fell steeply to 1.77 billion in 1923 and 1.25 billion in 1928. The figure followed a downward direction until a low point was reached in 1982, when only 630 million journeys were made. From 1983, annual passenger journey numbers began to pick up and by 2018 the figure had recovered to 1.76 billion—around the number of journeys recorded just under a century earlier. (See Thomas Brown’s House of Lords Library Briefing here).
The Department for Transport launched a £500 million Restoring Your Railway Fund in January 2020, to deliver on the government’s manifesto commitment and start reopening lines and stations. We invited MPs, local councils and community groups across England and Wales to propose how they could use this funding to reconnect their local communities.
But Langport has been served with two stations in the past and Somerton had its own station also – both closed due to the Beeching Report.
A Brief History of the Langport and Somerton Railway Stations
Langport enjoyed two railway stations from 1853 until 1964. The first station at Langport was opened on 1 October 1853 on the Yeovil Branch Line, named ‘Langport’. With the opening of the town’s second station on 2 July 1906 it was renamed ‘Langport West’ while the new station became ‘Langport East’. Somerton also had a station that opened in 1906 and closed in 1964.
Langport West Station
Langport West station, originally named Langport, was officially opened on the 1st October 1853 on the Yeovil to Taunton line.
The Yeovil–Taunton line was a railway line in England, built by the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) to connect its main line with the market town of Yeovil in Somerset. It opened in 1853 using the broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) and was the first railway to serve Yeovil. It ran from a junction at Durston although in later years passenger trains on the line ran to and from Taunton where better main and branch line connections could be made.
Being in the heart of the Somerset Levels, the station was prone to flooding.
There are some great images of Langport West station on the Langport Heritage website here.
Langport East Station
Langport East was first opened to passengers on 2nd July 1906, on the Castle Cary to Taunton section of the Great Western Railway line.
Langport East station gave access to direct trains to London but was unusual for stations on the line as the main building was on the westbound platform. Between the station and Curry Rivel Junction, where the cutoff joined the old branch line, the line crossed some moors on a low viaduct and the River Parrett on a 105 feet (32 m) girder bridge. Passenger services were withdrawn from Langport East on 10 September 1962.
In the early part of the century visitors from London used to use this line to visit the splendid sight of peonies growing at Kelway’s Nurseries. It is said that a special temporary station called ‘Peony Valley Halt’ was made near the valley at Barrymore Farm, although no photograph of this halt has so far come to light.
Children attending local schools used to arrive at Langport East Station on a train affectionately known as ‘The Bucket’.
There are some wonderful images of Langport East Station on the Langport Heritage website here.
Somerton Station
Like Langport East, Somerton station was on the Castle Cary to Taunton Line and opened to the public on 2nd July 1906, in a cutting adjoining the town centre. The station had two signal boxes and a goods shed, however none of these are still standing. The station stopped handling passenger services on 10th September 1962 but continued to serve freight traffic until closing altogether on 6th July 1964. Despite all the stations between Castle Cary and Taunton being closed, the line remains open for trains from London Paddington to stations such as Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance.
Langport Transport Group 