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Extracts from a review in The Journal of Transport History (by Matt Thompson, 38 (1) 2017, 157):

New Uses provides the reader with a series of case studies that surround the broad trajectory of the ‘disuse, transformation, and reuse’ of railway infrastructure with examples from Great Britain and continental Europe.

Part one essentially examines the ways in which defunct railways are transformed into heritage assets. ... The international nature of the book works well here; the case studies from France, Portugal and Italy and the unpacking of specific local, regional or national factors in the development of railways and their reuse are valuable.

The second part of the book deals with some of the different ways in which one can explore the causes and impacts of railways when the either transform into heritage assets or are lost forever.

The final section of the book covers ‘practical applications’ and again provides a series of case studies. The first of these covers railbiking which involves riding modified bicycles along railway tracks, in this case in Portugal. What is interesting to note are many hundreds kilometres of railways, now closed to traffic, where the track itself has been left in place. The authors bemoan the removal of the track as ‘forever destroying these unique structures’. This is an interesting perspective as ... we tend to visualise a closed railway as nothing more than trackbed with rail, ballast and sleepers removed; in situ rail would be considered precious archaeology!

As an English language text this book will be useful, not only because of its international perspective but also because of the refreshing viewpoints of several of the authors.

more information here.

flyer (pdf,A5) / (pdf, 9x21)