In 2003, Mr Bowker has come to the same conclusion about regional routes, rural branch lines and track used by freight trains.

BBC: Shadow falls on rural railways

The Beeching report recommended taking an axe to about a third of the network - 5, 000 miles of track, including hundreds of branch lines, 2, 363 stations and tens of thousands of jobs.

BBC: UK

When the search engine Ask.com launched a privacy protection program it calls AskEraser last December, it intended to hold out an olive branch to activists that oppose how search engines track people's private information.

FORBES: Ask.com's Search Policy Splits Privacy Groups

The track owner added that the Exeter to Barnstaple branch line was likely to be open for services on Tuesday, while in Cornwall, the Liskeard to Looe line was expected to reopen on Thursday.

BBC: Devon and Cornwall rail lines 'expected to reopen' soon