The charity calls on the Government to invest £4.8Bn in expanding the railway network, including reversing many of the Beeching cuts, in a new report published on Tuesday.

The priority schemes identified would add 550km to the passenger network – including 265km of reinstated route – and create 72 new stations to bring 500,000 extra people within walking distance of a train service. This, it is claimed, could generate up to 20 million additional passenger journeys a year.

‏“The Government should invest in a nationally led programme of expansion of the railway to help disadvantaged communities and tackle regional inequalities, reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, and create better and healthier places to live,” said Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Darren Shirley.

The report calls for the 33 priority projects to be delivered in two phases between 2020 and 2035.

The first phase would focus primarily on projects on the existing network, such as those involving the conversion of current freight only lines to allow passenger services to run in addition to freight services.

Phase two could then include larger and more complex projects such as those requiring the re-laying of track.

Examples of priority schemes include reopening the March to Wisbech line in Cambridgeshire, the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line in Northumberland and the Bristol to Portishead and Okehampton – Tavistock – Bere Alston lines in the South West.

In total 224 proposed schemes were considered in researching the report.

Campaign group Railfuture’s spokesman Bruce Williamson expressed broad support for the report’s proposals. “Many of the routes identified are on our campaign priority list,” he said. “It’s time the Government took a more positive attitude to rail, with all its immense benefits for the environment, congestion and the economy.”

He added: “The Government needs to make it easier for closed rail routes to be protected from development. Too many reopenable lines have disappeared under bypasses and housing developments, which is incredibly short sighted.

“As for the money, in the current economic environment, it’s going to take a lot of pressure to persuade the Government to open its cheque book, and these rail schemes seem to face huge obstacles even when there is popular local support.”

(Photograph: North Somerset Council)