Forty years ago today the notorious Beeching plan to slash 2,363 rail stations and 5,000 miles of track nationwide, was unveiled.

Among the victims was the Skipton to Ilkley line and about 80 stations and halts in the Aire and Wharfe valleys and in the Bradford area. Stations in Apperley Bridge, Calverley, Cononley, Kildwick, Frizinghall, Cross Hills, Pudsey, Saltaire and Manningham were all closed. They fell under the axe of Dr Richard Beeching's report The Reshaping of British Railways, published on March 25, 1963.

But the last four decades has seen a gradual reversal of fortune with some stations now reopened and thriving.

Operating once again are stations in Saltaire, Frizinghall, Brighouse, Cononley and Steeton. And out of the closure of the Skipton to Ilkley line in 1965 has come the new volunteer-run Yorkshire Dales Railway between Embsay and Bolton Abbey. Last year it carried 100,000 passengers over 150 operating days.

Business manager Stephen Walker said: "When we took over, British Rail had removed all the track apart from a small section near Embsay.

"One of our members, John Keavey, actually sat down on the track and refused to move until he had a promise it would be left.

"We are very proud of what we have achieved in the last 30 years but we have still some distance to go. Our aim is eventually to link with Skipton station." The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which closed in the summer of 1962, was part of a programme of cash-saving closures which had been under way since the late 1950s.

But the five-mile line between Keighley and Oxenhope was given new life by volunteers. Last year the railway carried almost 100,000 passengers and last weekend had one of its most popular festive steam weekends, with 4,564 tickets being sold, compared with 2,388 on the same weekend last year.

Dr Paul Salveson, general manager of the Community Rail Partnerships, said his association was adamant a new round of closures must not happen.

"People who glibly talk about buses replacing trains ignore the reality that when lines closed in the past, people either stopped travelling or switched to the car."