Railways (Abortive Projects)
Current project status
The current status of this project is: .
List of project stages:
- Pre-project
- Pre-consultation
- Consultation
- Analysis of responses
- Complete
In our consultation paper we propose the repeal of more than 200 obsolete Acts relating to 19th century railway projects that failed to materialise.
The usual reason for their failure was lack of finance. Many railway projects collapsed in the banking crisis of 1866, a crisis partly caused by ambitious speculative investment in railway building.
Most of the projects were in England and Wales, though a few were planned in areas that today form part of the Republic of Ireland.
The closing date for comments is 4 September 2009.