Neil Middleton, director of RailFuture, said: “The Restoring Your Railway fund could have been a key way for the Government to deliver on its strategic objectives in terms of transforming infrastructure, promoting social mobility and tackling regional inequality.
“This isn’t HS2. The amounts of money involved are no more than rounding errors in the wider scheme of things, but the difference to isolated communities is huge. It’s just the sort of investment that we need to make if this country is to be more efficient and effective.”
The Campaign for Better Transport said Labour had damaged its green credentials in abandoning projects that would help to slash carbon emissions by luring people out of their car and onto the train.
‘This feels like a mini-Beeching’
The Dartmoor Line between Okehampton and Exeter in Devon, the first restored route to become fully operational under the scheme, created 550,000 additional rail journeys in its first two years of operation.
Douglas McLay, a campaigner for the return of passenger services on the Ivanhoe Line, which links Leicester with Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, said the announcement came as a “body blow.”
He said: “This feels like a mini-Beeching, and once again it’s not being done for any good reason. It seems that the programme had a Tory look to it, so it’s getting the chop.”
Initiatives that had been funded through Restoring Your Railway will still “be able to be reconsidered” as part of a review to be undertaken by Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, the Government said.
Eight projects have already been delivered under the scheme or are close to completion, including the Dartmoor Line, which received £40m from the fund, and the Northumberland line between Newcastle upon Tyne and Ashington.
Another 13 proposals were earmarked for further funding having already submitted business cases but are vulnerable to termination following the Chancellor’s decision.
They include the reinstatement of the lines from Bristol to Portishead, Somerset; and Preston to Fleetwood, Lancashire, and the restoration of passenger services on the Barrow Hill line from Sheffield to Chesterfield, Derbyshire; and the Waterside line bordering the Solent, as well as on the Ivanhoe line.