The Settle-Carlisle railway is England’s most scenic line, running through a spectacular landscape which challenged the Victorian navvies who built it by hand. In the 1970s it became apparent that British Rail had set its sights on closing this magnificent piece of industrial heritage, and the battle lines were drawn for a fight which lasted a decade.
Finally, on the 11th April 1989, Michael Portillo, Minister of State for Transport, announced that the government had decided to refuse British Rail’s request for closure. The Settle-Carlisle line lived on.
This programme, made by an international award-winning team, investigates the story of the battle for survival, and hears from Michael Portillo how the work of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line convinced him that there was an enormous level of support which could be drawn upon to secure its future.
We travel on the footplate of steam locomotive The Great Marquess and hear from passengers on Statesman Rail’s The Fellsman about why steam is so important to the line. There’s an exclusive guided tour and demonstration in Settle Station’s signal box of how it operates. And there’s the story of how a heroic dog, commemorated by a statue on the platform at Garsdale station, became the only animal to join the more than 22,000 human supporters who signed the petition against closure.
Alongside this fascinating David and Goliath tale, the stunning images of the line and the landscape capture the true nature of this railway and show why it has flourished over the past quarter century. The Saving of The Settle-Carlisle Railway is the perfect way to celebrate the line’s survival, and to understand why it remains a unique journey everyone should travel at least once in their life.
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