However, due to rationalisation leading to track removal in order to save the costs of maintaining the tunnel north of Annesley, the through route was severed in the 1970s.

[2] When plans for the Robin Hood Line were drawn up, it was vital in the interest of keeping costs down to make as much use of the existing infrastructure as possible so, rather than trying to buy back the land to rebuild the line through the centre of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the existing GNR diversion was kept and a new partly single track stretch of railway built to re-create the missing link between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Newstead.

[3] The GCR's tunnel had been at a lower level than the MR's and so was much longer but it had previously been shared with the GNR and the elevation was a good match for the route through Kirkby.

During the day, trains run at half-hourly intervals between Nottingham and Mansfield Woodhouse, with one service an hour continuing to Worksop, and the full journey taking 67 minutes.

An understanding was made with the Department for Transport that, if the patronage reached an agreed threshold after two years, it would consider taking over the service and incorporate it within the East Midlands Trains franchise.

Nottinghamshire CC have remained keen on the idea, and met with the rail minister Claire Perry in March 2016 to press for the scheme to be adopted.

[9] A report produced for Nottinghamshire CC in February 2016 suggested that the likely costs of reinstatement, including the rebuilding of the three stations, would be between £18.9M and £24.5M, with signalling accounting for more than half of that figure.

In February 2020, they commissioned a public consultation on the idea,[13] and in November 2020 submitted a bid for the second round of the government's Restoring Your Railway fund, to cover the cost of a feasibility study.