Schemes include returning services to Consett in County Durham, to Ashfield on the Maid Marian Line in Nottinghamshire and from Bolton to Manchester through Radcliffe, with a radial Metrolink.

Restored stations could open at Ferryhill in Sedgefield and at Beeston Castle in Cheshire.
A proposal for a Mid-Cornwall Metro has also been awarded development funding to connect Newquay, Par, St Austell, Truro, Penryn and Falmouth. In addition, the Government has provided £400,000 each to develop two new stations in Haxby in Yorkshire and Deeside in north Wales.

This latest announcement marks the second round of funding from the £500M 'Restoring Your Railway Fund'. Entries were judged on their ability to deliver economic benefits and support left behind communities. Fifty one bids were received earlier this year and a further 28 bids will receive further guidance to help develop and refine their ideas for assessment in future funding rounds.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "For towns and villages left isolated and forgotten by Beeching cuts, restoring a rail line or a station has the potential to revitalise a community."

Welcoming the announcement, Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Paul Tuohy said: "Reopening a disused rail line can transform an area, and these communities will rightly be celebrating. But if we are to do more than carry out studies, a step change in investment is needed. We want to see a commitment to reopen these and many more of the lines closed under the Beeching cuts."

British Rail chief Dr Richard Beeching proposed in 1963 that passenger services end on around a third of the rail network, that more than 2300 stations should close and that up to 5000 miles of track be axed across the UK.

The winning bids, by region, are:

East Midlands:

• Melton Mowbray – Nottingham. Reopened lines and new passenger services.
• Alfreton – Ashfield (Maid Marian Line). Reopened lines and new passenger services.

West Midlands:

• Stratford Upon Avon – Honeybourne – Worcester/Oxford. Reopened lines and new passenger services.

North East:

• Consett – Newcastle. Reopened lines and new passenger services.
• New station at Ferryhill, Stockton-on-Tees

North West:

• Preston – Blackpool South. Enhanced existing passenger services.
• Bolton – Radcliffe / Bolton – Bury. Reopened lines and new passenger services.
• New station at Beeston Castle & Tarporley, Crewe – Chester

South West:

• New station at St Anne's Park, Bristol Temple Meads – Bath Spa
• Truro – Falmouth. Enhanced existing passenger services.
• New station at Langport & Somerton, Castle Cary – Taunton
• Kemble – Cirencester. Reopened lines and new passenger services.
• Wareham – Swanage. Reopened lines and new passenger services.

Yorkshire & Humberside:

• Gainsborough – Barton. Reopened lines and new passenger services.

(Photograph: David Ingham and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)