COULD rail travel become a reality once more for passengers wanting to head from Hereford to the Welsh hills?

That’s the proposition put forward in a petition currently gathering support to reinstate the old line to Brecon and beyond.

Apart from the environmental advantages of taking traffic off the roads and on to the rails, the campaign foresees an enthusiastic take-up for those en route to Hay Festival and Brecon Jazz.

A dream for many, ever since Dr Beeching ordered rail closures all over the country in the early 1960s, there has long been a yearning to bring back the branch lines that once criss-crossed Herefordshire.

As chairman of British Railways, Richard Beeching prepared his report, The Reshaping of British Railways, thus leading to drastic changes in the network – it became known as the Beeching Axe.

Step forward Steve Collins, who does not seek the limelight, but has taken the bold step of mounting an on-line petition to Parliament.

Still early days for the petition, his call to ‘Rebuild the “Hereford, Hay and Brecon” and “Mid Wales” Railways has so far gathered 12 names.

The petition states: "The Beeching cuts of the 1960s closed a significant number of lines in the Marches and mid-Wales, the return of which would boost the economy and vitality of the area.

"There would also be a potential reduction in road traffic and therefore of carbon emissions."

A history of the line has been researched by John Lewis from Norton Canon, whose father, Gilbert worked on the railways.

A committee member of Norton Canon History Group, Mr Lewis was himself a frequent traveller with his family on the line from Moorhampton station to Hereford.

The cutting through Norton Canon posed major difficulties for engineers when the track was laid in the mid-19th century.

But an eyewitness account of the first journey through the cutting in 1863 describes: “We approach the head of the incline and the valley opens up to the enraptured spectator a panorama such as we have only see in the Wye Valley.”

To sign Steve Collins’ petition go to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/211666