What came after the Beeching Cuts, people travelling alone in their cars in isolated bubbles of asocial non-interaction, was the dawning of a less kind era, where we no longer looked out for our neighbours, no longer took such an active role in the . 2022 BBC. [citation needed] In this respect, Beeching can be thus seen to have taken a courageous approach to implementing an unpopular policy which politicians had deferred for many decades. [3], Beeching was born in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the second of four brothers. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . More than 3,000 miles disappeared in the 1950s and the government wanted to axe a lot more. [5] Around 1,300 miles (2,100km) of passenger railways closed between 1923 and 1939. in this thread in this sub-forum in the entire site. "It will be the longest rail route reopening in modern British history. Read about our approach to external linking. Half of the 17,830 miles of line carried just four percent of the traffic. [note 8], By way of example, he noted that the line from Thetford to Swaffham carried five trains each weekday in each direction, carrying an average of nine passengers with only 10% of the costs of operating the line covered by fares; another example was the Gleneagles-Crieff-Comrie line which had ten trains a day and five passengers on average, earning only 25% of costs. He told me: "Beeching has had a really bad press the reality is he made the tough decisions that anyone in that position would probably have had to make, the shame was it wasn't followed on with investment in the subsequent decades after that.". Labour came to power at the general election in October 1964. Beeching was undeterred and argued that too many lines were running at a loss, and that his charge to shape a profitable railway made cuts a logical starting point. On the other hand, retaining a railway on these routes, which would obviously have increased maintenance costs, might not have earned enough to justify that greater cost. On the back of his 1963 report 'The Reshaping of British Railways'', more commonly known as the . The Times, "I.C.I. In a public information film at the time he said: "On one half of the whole route mileage of British Railways, there is only one 20th of the traffic the real question is whether you, as owners of the railways, want us to go on running these services at very high cost when the demand for them has very largely disappeared.". The policeman who tried to stem Seoul Halloween crush, Aboriginal boy's killing puts spotlight on racism, Billions being spent in metaverse land grab. Richard Beeching's brief as chairman of the British Transport Commission was simple: "Make the railways pay". News quiz: What was Erling Haaland blamed for this week? Underpinning Beeching's proposals was his belief that there was still too much duplication in the railway network. [18] Beeching denied this, pointing out that he had returned early to ICI as he would not have had enough time to undertake an in-depth transport study before the formal end of his secondment. He went for a straightforward profit and loss approach and some claim we are still reeling from that today".[27]. [citation needed]. In 1953 he went to Canada as vice-president of ICI (Canada) Ltd, and was given overall responsibility for a terylene plant in Ontario. Some have accused him of being part of or even the scapegoat for a conspiracy against the railways involving politicians, civil servants and the road lobby. Thousands of stations and hundreds of branch lines were closed between 1964 and 1970 after a report by Dr Beeching. [4] By 1914, the railways had some significant problems, such as a lack of standard rolling stock and too many duplicated routes.[3]. Jump to Latest Follow 1 - 19 of 19 Posts . The Great Railway Conspiracy. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes, including a switch to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight, and the replacement of some services with integrated bus services linked to the remaining railheads. "Beeching Report Proposes Closing Nearly a Third of Britain's 7,000 Railway Stations." [citation needed]. Legislation allowing this was introduced in the Transport Act 1968 (section 39 made provision for a subsidy to be paid by the Treasury for a three-year period) but this was later repealed in the Railways Act 1974. Closed station buildings on remaining lines have often been demolished or sold for housing or other purposes. . At the appointment of the British Transport Commission in 1947, the question of uneconomic branch lines and their selection for closure was the subject of a Railway Executive branch line committee. Vehicle mileage grew at a sustained annual rate of 10% between 1948 and 1964. ; The station fell victim to Dr Beeching's cuts and was closed in the 1960s. Smith declined but recommended Beeching in his place, a suggestion which Marples accepted. Beeching's legacy as described by Dick Hardy. He returned after two years to become chairman of ICI Metals Division on the recommendation of Sir Ewart Smith. The Times, "The Second Stage of Dr. Beeching's Reorganisation Proposals", 17 February 1965, p. 8. "I was summoned by the guard and had to get dressed and come out and address the people from the footbridge, which I did.". But Dr Beeching did not cut the rail lines - successive government ministers did, and. [26] In 1982, under the government of Margaret Thatcher, Sir David Serpell, a civil servant who had worked with Beeching, compiled the Serpell Report which said that a profitable railway could be achieved only by closing much of what remained. BR ignored this one and they also closed lines not included in part one of his report. Pre Beeching Railway Map Pin on COMMERCE INTERESTS Did Dr Beeching get it wrong with his railway cuts 50 years ago . His solution, announced on 27 March 1963, was equally straightforward - massive cuts. [23], Holiday and coastal resorts were severely affected by the closures. . [7] Replacement bus services were often run between the (now disused) station sites (some of which were some distance from the population centres they served), thus losing any potential advantage over the closed rail service. The following year he became chairman of Associated Electrical Industries, a role he also held with Redland from 1970 to 1977, Furness Withy from 1973 to 1975 and the Economic Insurance Company. After the. Some examples are East Lancs Railway, Mid Hants Railway, North Yorkshire Moors Railway, North Norfolk Railway and West Somerset Railway. He continued in research until 1943, first at the Fuel Research Station in Greenwich in 1936 and then the following year with the Mond Nickel Laboratories in London, where he was appointed senior physicist carrying out research in the fields of physics, metallurgy and mechanical engineering. The aim was to cut the mounting debts of the nationalised British Rail by removing duplicated routes and closing the least-used branch lines of the railway. But Dr Beeching did not cut the rail lines - successive government ministers did, and they would undoubtedly have cut the network anyway, report or no report. All four Beeching boys attended the local Church of England primary school, Maidstone All Saints, and won scholarships to Maidstone Grammar School, where Richard was a prefect. The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. [8] In contrast, railway traffic remained steady during the 1950s[9] but the economic situation steadily deteriorated, with labour costs rising faster than income[7][9] and fares and freight charges repeatedly frozen by the government to try to control inflation. Traffic to Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland would be routed through the West Coast Main Line running to Carlisle and Glasgow; traffic to the north-east would be concentrated through the East Coast Main Line which was to be closed north of Newcastle; and traffic to Wales and the West Country would go on the Great Western Main Line, then to Swansea and Plymouth. SAVAGE cuts to railway lines that were carried out in the 1960s will be undone - with the first track reopening to be announced later this year, the Transport Secretary said. From the 1920s onward . Like Fiennes and Hardy, Terry Gourvish's business history of British Rail sees Beeching as having a positive effect on railway management while not achieving perfection. [19], The first report was accepted by the Labour government of the day, but many of the closures it recommended sparked protests from communities that would lose their trains, many of which (especially rural communities) had no other public transport. [1], The Beeching Report remains controversial. He went for a straightforward profit and loss approach and some claim we are still reeling from that today". For Dr Beeching, commercial viability was central to railway policy in times of unsustainable and mounting losses. [2] Some lines had never been profitable and were not subject to loss of traffic in that period. British Rail was losing 140million a year when Dr Beeching took over as a chairman of the British Transport Commission. Rail lines and stations axed by Dr . Ernest Marples, previously Postmaster General, was made Transport Minister two weeks later in a cabinet reshuffle; Macmillan noted that the Northern working-class boy who had won a scholarship to a grammar school was one of only two "self-made men" in his cabinet. Dozens of branch lines. It is 50 years since Dr Richard Beeching's report on British Railways which led to hundreds of stations and 650 miles of railway line being closed in Scotland. [8] The cut-backs would include the scrapping of a third of a million goods wagons, much as Stedeford had foreseen and fought against. Most replacement bus services lasted less than two years before they were removed due to a lack of patronage,[31] leaving large parts of the country with no public transport. They initially set up home in Solihull, and remained married for the rest of his life. True, he took a clinical, bean-counting approach to the problem. [2] Transport minister Barbara Castle decided that some rail services, which could not pay their way but had a valuable social role, should be subsidised. He produced a report recommended cutting about a third of the network - 5,000 miles of track. [20], On 21 May 1969, Beeching performed the official opening ceremony for the heritage railway between Totnes and Ashburton, then known as the Dart Valley Railway. I met a famous trainspotter from Sheffield at an event to "celebrate" the 50th anniversary of Beeching's report. [25] Beeching's findings have also been reviewed in two books by his contemporaries: R.H.N (Dick) Hardy: Beeching Champion of the Railway (1989) .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}ISBN0-7110-1855-3 and Gerard Fiennes: I Tried to Run a Railway (1967) ISBN0-7110-0447-1. It was a shocker. Then again, his bland-looking booklet, called the Reshaping of British Railways, did change the network forever. . In his report, The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes, he set out his conclusion that of the 7,500 miles (12,100km) of trunk railway only 3,000 miles (4,800km) "should be selected for future development" and invested in. BBC News 2013 - Did Dr Beeching get it wrong with his railway cuts 50 years ago? [8] The cut-backs would include the scrapping of a third of a million goods wagons, much as Stedeford had foreseen and fought against. "Two very significant towns which lost their trains in 1965 and there's now the beginnings of a campaign to get part at least of these lines reopened.". ; The line closed on 3 October 1966 as part of Dr Beeching's railway cuts. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Beeching's plan was based on what seemed like logical analysis at the time. The first report identified 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of railway line for closure, 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and 67,700 British. His response was the notorious report "The Reshaping of British Railways". [12], In early 1965 Beeching unveiled the new brand for the railways British Rail and its 'double arrow' symbol, which is still in use as the symbol of National Rail now. [3] In 1909, Winston Churchill, then President of the Board of Trade, argued that the country's railways did not have a future without rationalisation and amalgamation. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. "Eventually a compromise was reached and they agreed the sleeper trains would be diverted from Dumfries up and round to Ayr to keep the service to Stranraer. Dr Richard Beeching has a bad reputation among rail enthusiasts. There is little in the Beeching report recommending general economies (in administration costs, working practices and so on). More than 40 years after the closure, some of the Waverley Route is to be revived in the form of the new 300m Borders railway, which, after years of wrangling, is set to be completed by the summer of 2015. [22] One of the last major closures was the 98-mile long (158km) Waverley Route between Carlisle, Hawick and Edinburgh in 1969; the reopening of a 35-mile section of this line was approved in 2006 and passenger services resumed in September 2015. His solution was simple - close down the bits that lost the money. 27 Mar 2020. Lord Steel, who still lives in the area, also hopes the rail line will improve tourism and thinks Tweedbank station should be renamed Abbotsford to mark its proximity to the former home of Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. Also Known As (AKA) (original title) The End of Steam: The Story of Dr Beeching's Railway Cuts. It has been suggested that by closing almost a third of the network Beeching achieved a saving of just 30 million, whilst overall losses were running in excess of 100 million per year. Some of the branches closed acted as feeders to the main lines, and that feeder traffic was lost when the branches closed; the financial significance of this is debatable, for over 90% of the railways' 1960 traffic was carried on lines which remained open ten years later. Many bridges, cuttings and embankments have been removed and the land sold for development. A further 2,000 miles (3,200km) were lost by the end of the 1960s, while other lines were reduced to freight use only. Several ex-railway sites have been named after Beeching: Second Beeching Report and creation of British Rail. Dr Beeching. The Beeching Report - Rail.co.uk looks at the report 50 Years on Beeching rail lines campaigners say should be re opened | Daily . [9], Unsurprisingly, Beeching's plans were hugely controversial not only with trade unions, but with the Labour opposition and railway-using public. [46], The general election in October 1964 returned a Labour government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson after 13 years of Conservative government. There was something about the scale and the brutality of the attack that I remember at the time made me feel that this is wrong.". [26], Whatever the figures, towards the end of the 1960s it became increasingly clear that rail closures were not bringing the rail system out of deficit and were unlikely ever to do so. The bids are being considered under proposals to reverse cuts to the railways made in the 1960s. Dr Richard Beeching, in two reports, The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965), identified that 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles (8,000 km . True to his nature and previous track record he'd had the railways in his sights for a while, He just needed the official excuse and remit to do his thing. Doctor Beeching. From an economic . At that time the Government was seeking professional advice from outside the railway industry to improve the financial position of British Railways. In 1965, he produced a second report, "The Development of Major Railway Trunk Routes", outlining a future railway . In 1966 he was appointed as chairman of the Royal Commission to examine assizes and quarter sessions; he eventually proposed a mass reorganisation of the court system, involving the setting-up of regional courts in cities such as Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds leading to the Courts Act 1971. It was described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854". He chose the subject "Organisation". [41] Beeching, with a PhD in Physics, had been appointed to the main board of ICI at the age of 43.
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