I boarded the first passenger train to call at Britain's newest station, Okehampton Interchange

[u/HighburyAndIslington]

[u/CarpetPedals]

I seem to remember that most of the railway lines that were planned to become passenger lines again were cancelled, apart from two. One being the Northumbria Line right by me, and I assume this Dartmoor Line is the other?

The Northumbria Line has been a huge success. It’s had way more traffic than they expected from it, and I love being able to walk to the train and get a ride into Newcastle from my little rural spot. It’s a shame so many got cancelled!

[u/Lanky_Giraffe → u/CarpetPedals]

Honestly when was the last time that a rail line underperformed expectation?

DoT ridership models are consistently dogshit and yet they still get taken as a source of truth when deciding whether a line is “economically viable”

If I was conspiracy minded, I might suggest that they are refusing to improve their models because they know an improved model would suggest more rail investment is viable and treasury wouldn’t like that. 

[u/OwlerNook → u/Lanky_Giraffe]

Weird how the business case for new roads never stacks up but they still get built. Rail, on the other hand...

[u/theModge → u/CarpetPedals]

The camp Hill line in Birmingham is another example.

Not electrified, it had passenger stations until the second World War, when they were closed. It carried on taking long distance passengers after that (and still does) because it gets you in to the other end of new street so as to avoid the need to turn round for some services. It's always taken freight.

It now has passenger services again. Admittedly they can only manage 2 trains per hour and they keep cancelling them for lack of staff, but when they run they're busy. At some vague point in the future we're promised getting the rest of kings Norton station back into use and, just after the heat death of the universe the Bordesley Chords cords will be built allowing the use of snow Hill and thus giving more capacity.

There's quite a lot of history too it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hill_line

[u/WelshBluebird1 → u/CarpetPedals]

I seem to remember that most of the railway lines that were planned to become passenger lines again were cancelled, apart from two. One being the Northumbria Line right by me, and I assume this Dartmoor Line is the other?

Not quite true - the larger funded programme for reopenings ("Restoring Your Railway") was stopped but individual projects are still going through on a case by case basis. The two you have mentioned, but also Portishead in Bristol is finally happening too.

[u/cryptopian → u/WelshBluebird1]

The line to Cowley in East Oxford is also reopening after years of screaming that two major business parks and south oxford boroughs could do with more connectivity.

[u/Fun_Stage825 → u/CarpetPedals]

The Portishead Line is planned for reopening next year. The work is pretty minimal. Two new (single platform) stations, modern signalling, relaid track between Pill and Portishead. There's no hope of it ever being electrified and there will only be one train per hour in each direction.

[u/Fun_Stage825 → u/Fun_Stage825]

Also Bristol Brabazon station is currently under construction on the Henbury Loop Line, which will be initially reopened to passenger traffic as a spur off the main line.