Line Extensions

The western end of the line.
Credit: J.Cobb, 10/04/2004

The current line from Cranmore to Mendip Vale lies roughly in the middle of the original East Somerset Railway from Witham to Wells.

To the east of Cranmore, there is a short stretch of lightly used railway still in situ, which links the railway to the freight operations around Merehead Quarry. The line from the quarry down to the mainline at Witham is heavily used by quarry trains and so there is little prospect of extending the railway eastwards whilst quarry operations continue.

To the west of Mendip Vale lies Shepton Mallet, which is less than half a mile from the current end of the railway. It has always been the stated aim of the ESR to extend into Shepton Mallet and the simplest solution would be to extend along the line of the original railway to the outskirts of Shepton near Fosse Lane and the Tesco's store. Unfortunately, such a project would cost a significant amount of money and so require a lot of fund-raising. If you think you can help the railway in fund-raising activies, please contact the station.

Carrying on into Shepton Mallet and onto Wells, much of the original line is now built upon and several bridges have been removed. Therefore, it would prove very costly and probably too controversial to extend any further than Fosse Lane.

Therefore, extending to Shepton Mallet remains a long term goal of the ESR, but one which will require resources that the railway does not currently have.