He is backed up by the man running the railways today, Network Rail boss Sir David Higgins. Back then most people assumed that cars, lorries and buses were the future. Also Known As (AKA) (original title) The End of Steam: The Story of Dr Beeching's Railway Cuts. Read about our approach to external linking. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. He chose the subject "Organisation". Meanwhile communities are being invited to pitch other rail restoration proposals. On this day in 1963, Dr Richard Beeching produced his infamous report that saw many railway lines closed in favour of bus services. But that is what he was meant to do. The axing of the 98-mile Waverley Route from Edinburgh to Carlisle was the worst of all the Beeching cuts, according to author and railway expert David Spaven. Part of the reason for retaining the Ayr-Stranraer line was a compromise to keep politicians and businessmen in Northern Ireland happy, says Mr Livingston. Even in today's more enlightened times, the government is still reluctant to acknowledge that the rail system . There are doubts over his figures and in the end the railway never did make the savings he promised. Were railway closures simply a conspiracy by those with investment in the road network? But now, in one corner of Britain, a new line is being laid that will restore a link cut by Beeching's axe. Roughly 5,000 miles of track were closed and more than 2,300 stations were axed in the 1960s, mainly in rural areas, following the Beeching report. [41] Beeching, with a PhD in Physics, had been appointed to the main board of ICI at the age of 43. "It will be the longest rail route reopening in modern British history. [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. Rail lines and stations axed by Dr . [23][24] The report was commissioned by a Conservative government with strong ties to the road construction lobby and its findings were largely implemented by the subsequent Labour governments whose party received funds from unions associated with road industry associations. Lord Steel says the new Borders rail plan is very similar to the one he proposed in the 1960s and it would have been much cheaper if they had not removed the track. The End of Steam: The Story of Dr Beeching's Railway Cuts TV Special 2012 55 m YOUR RATING Rate POPULARITY 276,138 77,186 History Add a plot in your language Director Ian MacKenzie Writer Ian MacKenzie Stars Nick Coady (voice) Richard Beeching (archive footage) Ernest Marples (archive footage) See production, box office & company info [7] However, the precise savings from closures are impossible to calculate. 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. There will be prices which would be different for various options and also time taken. [17] In Scotland, only the Central Belt routes and the lines via Fife and Perth to Aberdeen were selected for development, and none were selected in Wales, apart from the Great Western Main Line as far as Swansea. By David Lynch. The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. But does Dr Beeching really deserve his reputation as the bogeyman of the railways? His father was Hubert Josiah Beeching, a reporter with the Kent Messenger newspaper, his mother a schoolteacher and his maternal grandfather a dockyard worker. It was based on a survey carried. [52] Beeching was unrepentant about his role in the closures: "I suppose I'll always be looked upon as the axe man, but it was surgery, not mad chopping". Instigated by British Rail chief Dr Richard Beeching in 1963, the cuts closed more than 2,300 stations and up to 5,000 miles of track across the UK. Many of the closed lines had run at only a small deficit. In particular, the railway system must be modelled to meet current needs". Vehicle mileage grew at a sustained annual rate of 10% between 1948 and 1964. [14][43] In December 1960 questions were asked in the Lords about this "secret" and "under-the-counter" study group. 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". 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. There was widespread concern at the time that, despite substantial investment in the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the railways continued to record increasing losses from 15.6M in 1956 to 42M in 1960. [citation needed]. David Steel, now Lord Steel of Aikwood, was just 26 when he was elected to parliament in a by-election in 1965 called after the previous Conservative MP, who had backed the Beeching report, died. The failure of the modernisation plan to stem BR's losses led the author, Dr Beeching, to propose wholesale route closures in an attempt to concentrate resources on the core routes. ; Marple featured in a 2010 BBC documentary on Dr Beeching and the effect of axing the railway. An item on the BBC website "Did Dr Beeching get it wrong with his railway cuts 50 years ago?" here. Beeching is an English surname. 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. The way they gathered useage data and statistics was poor. [13] his second report set out his conclusion that of the 7,500 miles (12,100km) of trunk railway throughout Britain, only 3,000 miles (4,800km) "should be selected for future development" and invested in. Dr Richard Beeching sparked uproar in the 1960s when he closed 4,500 miles of railway line and 2,128 stations to save money. Had that report come into effect in 1965, Cornwall would have . Video, Jeremy Bowen on reporting from Ukraine's frontline, Waverley Route: the life, death and rebirth, French parliament stopped over 'racist' remark, Dutch wolves to be paintballed to scare them away, Why Scholz's trip to China looks out of step for EU, Black Panther stars arrive at European premiere, Donald Trump sues top NY lawyer for 'intimidation', Lapid congratulates Netanyahu on Israel election win, FBI warns of 'threat' to New Jersey synagogues, Twitter to lose 'magic' with 7 blue tick fee. Beeching forecast that his changes would result in an improvement in British Railway's accounts of between 115M and 147M. His younger brothers both attended Downing College, Cambridge. It is a point of contention whether he left by mutual arrangement with the government or was sacked. 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. It was reported that he had transferred his shares into an Overseas Trust. . [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. Boris Johnson will reinstate local railway lines axed under the Beeching cuts in the 1960s as part of a package of measures to rejuvenate provincial towns. Once the Waverley Route closed it was nearly 50 miles from the nearest railway station.". "The police tried to force the gates open but they could not do anything and eventually I came to an agreement with the crowd that if I could get the minister released from the police station without charges they would go away. 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. No need to register, buy now! 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. [7], The Marshlink line between Ashford International and Hastings, threatened with closure in the Beeching Report, is now seen as important due to the opening of the Channel Tunnel and High Speed 1. [note 5] His analysis showed that the least-used 1,762 stations had annual passenger receipts of less than 2,500 each (61,000 as of 2022[13]), that over half of the 4,300 stations open to passengers in 1960 had receipts of less than 10,000,[note 6] that the least-used 50% of stations contributed only 2% of passenger revenue,[note 7] and that one third of route miles carried just 1% of passengers. His solution was simple - close down the bits that lost the money. Shortly after his birth, Beeching's family moved to Maidstone where his brothers Kenneth (who was killed in the Second World War)[4][5] and John were born. : Lessons from British Transport Policy 194599 Dudley and Richardson, "Britain's most hated civil servant" (BBC website), "16 February 1965: Beeching plans for 'bloated' railways", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Beeching&oldid=1114942262, There is a pub called 'Lord Beechings' at the end of the, The old station approach in the village of, This page was last edited on 9 October 2022, at 02:24. However, despite the considerable increase in railway journeys since the mid-1990s, rail transport's share of the total passenger transport market remains below that of the early 1960s, with road overwhelmingly the dominant mode: rail's market share was 13% in 1961, 6% in 1991 and 2001, and 10% in 2014.[57]. [14], These proposals were rejected by the government, which put an early end to his secondment from ICI; Beeching returned there in June 1965. 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. 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.". [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. Rather surprisingly this was the first time this had been undertaken in the railways' history. Studies showed that one half of the network carried 19 times as many passengers as the other half, and the under populated half failed to cover its overheads. Dr Beeching wrote two reports proposing cuts to British Railway services. [15] 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 from ICI.[16]. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [33], Marples had a background with a successful road construction company. There were a number of lines which escaped the Beeching axe despite being recommended for closure. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan stated in 1960, "the industry must be of a size and pattern suited to modern conditions and prospects. Then again, his bland-looking booklet, called the Reshaping of British Railways, did change the network forever. ; The industry today is very similar to Dr Beeching's vision half a century ago. After the war, the railways faced increasing competition from a growing road transport network, which had increased to 8 million tons of freight annually by 1921. [2] Some lines had never been profitable and were not subject to loss of traffic in that period. [21], Line closures, which had been running at about 150300 miles per year between 1950 and 1961, peaked at 1,000 miles (1,600km) in 1964 and had come to a virtual halt by the early 1970s. "Then the train got stopped at Newcastleton because the people in the village had closed the level crossing gates and were standing across the line. ; The line closed on 3 October 1966 as part of Dr Beeching's railway cuts. Beeching forecast that his changes would result in an improvement in British Railway's accounts of between 115M and 147M. By the early 1960s the industry was bleeding millions of pounds a year. A few of these routes have since reopened; some short sections have been preserved as heritage railways, while others have been incorporated into the National Cycle Network or used for road schemes; others have since been built over, have reverted to farmland, or remain derelict with no plans for any reuse or redevelopment. Instigated by British Rail chief Dr Richard Beeching in 1963, the cuts closed more than 2,300 stations and up to 5,000 miles of track across the UK. This closed as part of the Dr Beeching closures of the 1960s. [2], Beeching remained at Imperial College where he undertook a research PhD under the supervision of Sir George Thomson. The Great Railway Conspiracy. [26] There is a broad consensus that the detail of figures used in individual cases were imperfect, but a wide divergence of view as to the significance of and motives for this. Find the perfect beeching cuts stock photo. I met a famous trainspotter from Sheffield at an event to "celebrate" the 50th anniversary of Beeching's report. 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. As a result of the report, just over 4,000 route miles (6,400 kilometres) were removed from the system on cost and efficiency grounds, leaving Britain with 13,721 miles (22,082km) of railway lines in 1966. In 1965, he produced a second report, "The Development of Major Railway Trunk Routes", outlining a future railway . [note 9], Out of 18,000 miles (29,000km) of railway, Beeching recommended that 6,000 miles (9,700km)mostly rural and industrial linesshould be closed entirely, and that some of the remaining lines should be kept open only for freight. Times, 28 March 1963, p. 8. It is a powerful weapon to add to our transport system." RAIL services axed as part of a costing-cutting initiative named after British Rail chief Dr RichardBeeching who proposed it could now be reinstated. Critics have accused Beeching of ignoring the social consequences of his plans, with communities cut off. What's New; Forum Listing; Marketplace; . [32] Traffic on the single-track Golden Valley Line between Kemble and Swindon and the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester has increased significantly, and double track has now been reinstated on the Golden Valley Line, partly to facilitate a diversionary route during electrification and other works on the Severn tunnel line. Operating costs could have been reduced by reducing staff and removing redundant services on these lines while keeping the stations open. [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. For starters, he took over an old network that was losing a lot of money. Source: Disused Stations During the 2019 election campaign, Boris Johnson promised a 500 million cash injection into the railways in what he called a 'Beeching Reversal'. Dr Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board, cuts the tape to open the new 1 million railway station at Plymouth, Devon. "It could have been a crucial freight line because it would have allowed freight to the port of Stranraer to develop rather better than it did subsequently.". There are doubts over his figures and in the end the railway never did make the savings he promised. The railway lines closed to passengers in 1967 as part of the infamous "Beeching Axe" that saw 5,000 miles of railway lines closed after a report by Dr Richard Beeching. On 23 December 1964, Transport Minister Tom Fraser informed the House of Commons that Beeching was to return to ICI in June 1965. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. News quiz: What was Erling Haaland blamed for this week? 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. 2022 BBC. The Times, "I.C.I. The axing of the 98-mile. He didn't buy any of that. Many redundant structures from closed lines remain, such as bridges over other lines and drainage culverts. Read more. [38] There was no evidence of any wrongdoing on anyone's part in this or any of the other contracts awarded to the company during his term of office,[39] it did however lead to a sense of unease, not least within the railway sector. Using criteria such as the length of line closed, the population of the affected towns and their distance from the rail network, Mr Spaven analysed 15 significant British lines which were lost in the Beeching restructuring. [12][13] The BTC could no longer pay the interest on its loans. 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