Why British train enthusiasts hate this man - Dr. Beeching's Railway Axe 

Oh, I still have all my railways, the axe goes chop, chop, chop, If Dr.Beeching gets a swing, my railway will come off

Lets be real here folks, while Beeching was certainly not innocent in all this, Ernest Marples was far more to blame for what happened to British Rail than Beeching ever was.

Fun fact: Wilbert Awdry, creator of the Railway Series, wrote that only a single halt on Sodor was affected by the Beeching Axe, and said halt was reopened by the 1990’s. Paints a pretty funny picture of the Fat Controller and Beeching being bitter rivals. Edit: The only reason he did this is because he couldn't fit that station on his portable model layout of the line it was on.

This act arguably killed the cultural fabric that made Britain such a legendarily productive and cohesive community in the first place. Close knit community ties and routes used for a century, closed in exchange for soulless motorways that funneled everyone in to now overcrowded cities.

I’d say Ernest Marples is the bigger villain in this tale. Beeching merely wanted to temporarily close a lot of those lines until finances improved. Marples tore them up because he owned a road construction company

It's actually very sad. The UK had such a dense railway network! A push to the right direction and it could have become something similar to Switzerland.

The island of Sodor was never the same.

The biggest mistake was not protecting the track beds from redevelopment.

As others have mentioned, the real villain in all this was Ernest Marples, a transport minister who had massive financial conflicts of interest through his involvement in road building. Beeching did what he was asked to do and halted the haemorrhaging of money from British Railways. He was responsible for improvements, one of the most significant being the development of the Freightliner container network - a decision that turned out to very far sighted indeed. For a balanced view of Beeching, read "I tried to run a railway." by Gerald Fiennes written by a senior BR manager who worked under Beeching.

Oh, Doctor Beeching what have you done? There once were lots of trains to catch, but soon there will be none, I'll have to buy a bike, 'cos i can't afford a car, Oh, Doctor Beeching what a naughty man you are!

I like travelling by train but wouldn't describe myself as an enthusiast. I'm old enough (just) to remember the railway system pre-Beeching. Family friends lived near one of the axed branch lines in Devon. After the cuts we rarely stayed with them in the holidays. Beeching didn't take into account how it would affect people's jobs and local industries. A lot of seasonal income (not just seaside holidays) was lost overnight. Market gardens as well as cut flower nurseries that relied on trains to quickly transport their goods to the cities became uneconomical. Instead of HS2, it would revitalise rural areas to bring back branch lines, particularly as deregulation of bus services meant loss of public transport. Even today more public transport services are being lost.

The fact that at the same time Japan was having the same issue but instead they just invested in the railways, you know the economically literate thing to do. Makes it more infuriating that we put a corrupt physist in charge of the railways economic future.

The spiteful way in which this was implemented is what really sticks in the throat for a lot of people. There was no provision for mothballing for instance just a full on tear it all down approach.

I can't help but find it funny that, in a lot of things like Thomas fan stories, he's portrayed as a cruel uncaring man but when you actually look at the real guy he looks like a kind grandpa

I live and grew up in a small East Anglian town wich used to have a huge Victorian railway station. The bane of my teenage life was the terrible rail connections and equally as bad bus connections. I didn’t know about Mr Beeching until now but his his decisions and ramifications clearly has long-lasting results.

Beeching is an interesting one, and I must admit I personally lay the blame at Marples more than him - for all intents and purposes, Beeching was a civil servant performing a task, whilst the origin of the policy lay with the minister. The policy itself was based upon a flawed premise (that the railways could realistically be profitable), the zeitgeist towards modernity ("trains are old, cars are the future" in this instance, but this also affected 60s policy making in a lot of areas, such as the "streets in the skies") combined with the immaturity of city planning as a discipline ("we can solve traffic with more roads!"). The fact that Marples was demonstrably corrupt also adds to my tendency to blame him over Beeching - alongside the Hammersmith flyover controversy, Marples hired prostitutes, and eventually fled to Monte Carlo so he wouldn't get done for some moderate-to-heavy tax dodgery. It is also worth noting that lines were closed that Beeching did not recommend closing, and that the Minister (and in some cases, parliament) had the final say over line closures, not Beeching. That's not to say Beeching is entirely innocent - he was deliberately brought in as an outsider from ICI (a chemical company) and was thus ignorant of many facets of the railways. As such, his data gathering was very flawed, often using single day snapshots which may have not been indicative of long term line usage, amongst other flaws. However, it is worth noting that Marples was the one who brought him in...

I go to Britain twice a year and am very impressed with the rail service, from major cities to small towns. Here in Canada, like in the USA there's almost no rail service to speak of. Major cities like Calgary, Alberta or Columbus, Ohio have no passenger rail service at all.

Damn it's almost like a railway should serve its communities not make a profit, especially a nationalized one

I know Beeching was heavily hated for closing hundreds of lines, stations and a number of engines and rolling stock were scrapped, but considering he was chairman and seemed to have the final say you do have to ask: Did he really enjoy it? I mean, being the man in charge he was making these difficult and unpopular decisions and knew a lot of staff were gonna go unemployed. But however you view him, Dr Beeching will always be looked upon as the Axe Man.

Dr Beeching is treated similarly to Edward Thompson in a way. They’re both infamously criticised for things that were out of their control. In Thompson’s case, he designed locomotives that are crapped on by people and with Beeching, he was told by the government to shut down railway lines.

Britain needs a rail revival.

The little branch lines fed into the larger lines - you wanted to go from "Little Puddleton Marsh" in Somerset to some equally tiny Scottish place? You'd get the train to the main line station and then go from there - chopping them out destroyed the whole network - as soon as you had to drive to get to a train, you may as well drive to your destination.

the only time i’ve ever heard someone say “thanks to dr beechimg,” was on james may’s toy stories. where he was looking for a suitable location for his world record longest model train layout.

I'm an American and even I've heard of and reviled Dr. Beeching.

When the Bluebell Railway opened it's doors they asked Dr Beeching to be guest of honour. The reason the line to East Grinstead was saved because Dr Beeching lived in East Grinstead. It is said he remarked " if l hadn't closed it you wouldn't have the chance to reopen it".

What I find most interesting; and this is especially relevant in today's world for both the UK, Australia, and many other countries that were mass populated with railways. Prior to the 40's, there were operational railway lines everywhere, and the railways helped out a lot of communities. The roads then started coming about and the railways soon became something in the background as roads took over. But now; in the current day. The roads are overcrowded, and the demand for rail transportation is higher than ever. Because the roads mostly don't have a whole lot of space to build new roads in areas of mass population; whilst rail corridors (operational or not), still exist. Governments are taking full advantage of previous infrastructure and working towards rebuilding the railways to help ease the mass clogging of traffic that comes from the roads. Unfortunately at the time, the Governments look at what money can be made then and there; and not what sort of money can be made in the distant future. If half of the railways that were abandoned; were continued into the current day; things would be a lot different. Especially given to the extent, of where some railways closed; only a few years before areas and towns that the railways once served, began to boom in population, and would have proved vital to keeping a community moving, as car traffic became an issue. I live in Australia; and such routes as the Mornington Branch; Queenscliff branch, and Heathsville branch, in Victoria Australia; all closed due to the government not seeing enough profit being made from said lines, and deciding to close them, then and there. Heck; when the Mornington line was on its last day in 1981; the entire town blocked the train from leaving Mornington, in protest, because they knew the town was about to boom. And they were right. The line closed, and shortly after, the Mornington Peninsula boomed as a tourism hotspot. Worse still, is that for such a large area, there isn't rail transport anymore down that direction what so ever, (except for the Stony Point line that runs via the back end of the Peninsula but doesn't hit the bigger towns). And every single weekend, the roads are bumper to bumper with holiday makers, where as all these roads wouldn't be as crowded if they had of just kept the lines open...

I think one Example of a railway route that suffered the most due to Beeching's Axe would be the ever loved Somerset and Dorset line

My local town lost its station in 1967 and is now widely believed to be one of the largest places in England without a railway connection. With only one main road connecting us to Cambridge and an overstretched bus service which is heavily relied upon by commuters, the effects of the Beeching Axe are still being felt almost 60 years later. Funnily enough, the closure of the railway also coincided with the London overspill, which saw the town's population pretty much double over a period of 10 years.

To me, the main issues with Beeching Axe was these 2 things British Rail was a government owned business, so why did it need to profit, it does not make sense to expect a public service to profit Why were the alignments not kept? Would have made sense to have kept the alignments of these old railways intact, potentially as a Cycle path (or even normal road), so that if the line was needed again, whether for a Tram, or re opening, it could have been done easily and much cheaper.

I myself make videos about trains and infrastructure in the Netherlands. and here also many lines were scrapped during that time. which is a pity because there is less track to film haha. but if a bus can provide the same service for less cost it is probably the right thing to do. Still, I'm always afraid that when you break the smallest lines. fewer travelers will use the network and new small lines will then be created that will then be closed again, and so on and so forth

The interesting thing I find is that, a lot of us that didn't live through this era put much of the blame or most of the cause of Marples. But for the people who lived through that era, I think they will always hold a bitter grimace for Beeching. One man said "A 5-year-old could have done what Beeching did."

A perfect example of panicking leading to long term dilemmas.

Insightful and balanced view. As a child I grew up with the stories and in some cases the extant infrastructure of some of those axed lines. Some of them had only been closed to freight traffic a couple of years before I was born. I spent many hours as a young child walking along the alignments of recently lifted p-way. Even then I could comprehend how devastating the loss of the railway must have been. Fast forward to today and I'm positive my own city's problems with traffic and congestion would not be as severe, if we only had those three axed lines running into it, because those were the lines that had the urban stations. A quicker, less stressful commute to be sure. But... Less trains, more cars, more roads, more jobs, more tax, more finance, more profit. Profit win. People lose.

Beeching was merely a puppet in the Beeching Act the real mastermind was Ernest Marples

Beeching was understandably hated, but doesn't deserve to be hated half as much as the real culprit in this mess - Ernest Marples.

Ernest Marples sounds quite a bit like Charles Erwin Wilson here in the US. Wilson was the head of General Motors who became the Secretary of Defense under Dwight D. Eisenhower where he pushed for the National Highway Act. Eisenhower heartily supported it due to how much the German Autobahn impressed him. Wilson later went back to GM as a board member. The Act plus suburbanization led to heavy car dependence (and many countries like Canada did the same to emulate the US.) Cutting service to save money means losing revenue in the long run, with the losses compounding with the increasing of cuts. Investing in rail like Japan did yields better results in the long term, despite the great short-term pain. The birthplace of railways should be a world leader in rail transport and not repeat our mistakes from here in the States (of course, I want decent passenger rail in the US too, as country size doesn't mean that we are obligated to spread things further apart.)

So, as an American growing up in a part of the country where trains aren't as prevalent, I have a bit of an outside looking in perspective, as while I find what happened careless for the millions of lives that it affected in a negative way, I don't have the kind of context to how a contemporary British person or someone going through this at the time would've felt. That being said, it's sad that I've seen this kind of pattern far too well when it comes to all different aspects of life. You'll find cuts and cancellations in all walks of life, from jobs and transports to our own entertainment. Sometimes it's like how Beecher saw it, something using solely facts and logic and not realizing (or caring about) the pain that is inflicted on the people affected, and other times it's like Marples, who selfishly snuffs it out just to push their own selfish agenda. It frustrates me that this is the way the world is run, with lack of care for our fellow man, and where the rich people in charge can just ruin someone's livelihood or joy just because they can. This kind of shit just makes me sick, and makes me wish that everyone could do better.

Beeching did little good for British passenger service, but it’s interesting to see that his ideas for rail freight have become the industry standard across the world at this point. Shows a lot about the different operating mindsets that make a successful freight railroad versus a successful passenger railroad.

If you mention beeching around my Grandad he flies into a mad rage because he just couldn’t commute thanks to Beeching shutting the branchline, if he ever got his hands on the man he’d probably strangle him to death

If I ever find myself needing an idea for a weapon in a game or something, I’ll make “Beeching axe: statistically proven to cut through branches, rails, and costs!”

The mistake lies in the basic assumption that a railway must necessarily be profitable. But there is so much more at stake. Sensible local passenger transport is a service of general interest. It is a core task of the state, just like electricity, water and education. It is an investment so that the economy can be successful. And it would secure a lot of jobs. The railway has always been a great leveller. With good rail connections also to rural areas, we would almost certainly have much less car traffic today. The new satellite towns are being built around a railway station.

I have an interesting take. While so many communities and individuals were horribly affected by Beeching. He has unknowingly been the keystone for British railway preservation. We would have nowhere near the size and scale of the preservation scene that we do today. The fact that the UK has over 100+ heritage railways with thousands of saved steam and diesel locomotives showcasing the history and splendour that the railways once had. Beeching was not the best man by any means, but he can almost certainly be regarded as a forunner of railway preservation.

I find it quite ironic now considering places such as Leeds and Liverpool are now suffering capacity issues as all their services run into a single central station rather than the multiple of stations they used to have. In hindsight it would have been beneficial to keep these other stations open to allow traffic to flow easier such as Leeds Central which was pretty much next door to the current Leeds station. As an added point, the railways were also constrained by an age old transportation law in regards to carrying goods where they had to carry anything and made losses while road companies could refuse unprofitable contracts. They were actually in process of getting rid of this law in the 30s but WW2 stopped this and they never picked up afterwards, so freight continued to be unprofitable.

I wasn't aware of this because I only fan in The States. This was very informative for such a short video on the subject. I have to assume there were others at work behind the scenes. The "I'll always be looked upon as the axe man" kind of gives that idea. It almost seems obvious that Marples was heavily involved. This is all sadly fascinating.

Don't forget Ernest Marples, he appointed Beeching when he was Minister for Transport , and his family's business of building motorways.

I always did wonder how Dr Beeching felt after his reports were executed, feeling he'd done what was best for Britain to keep the railways alive and yet as a result becoming one of the most hated men in the country. I can't help but imagine he led a pretty miserable life afterwards.

A similar thing happened in New South Wales in the 1970s. Due to poor track condition, a country train from Dubbo to Coonabarabran could only run at 60 km/h and took ages to travel. The bus that replaced the train ran at 110 km/h. Ironically, now all the major capitals have standard gauge track across Australia, very few take the train. Flying or even driving is faster.

Great Video and it goes on unfortunately Derby City council have plans to demolish the Friargate Station and famous Arches now

Grandchild: Grandpa, who is Dr. Beeching? Grandpa: Well- Victor Tanzig: But that's a story for another day.

I'm continually puzzled by the insistence that railways _must_ be profitable (or at least self-sustaining) while roads _must_ be free to use and then people rip up the marginally-profitable rail in favour of guaranteed-loss roads and call it 'financial sense'.

I heard somewhere that Dr. Beeching saved Fenchurch on the Bluebel Railway. Apparently BR was giving the Bluebell an ultimatum while they were trying to get the money together to buy Fenchurch. BR apparently only gave the Bluebell 4 weeks to buy the engine, but Dr. Beeching intervened and had them hold Fenchurch for 6 months.

The same thing happened in the United States in the 1970s with deregulation where thousands of miles of railroad were abandoned

It's still interesting to wonder how my valley would've looked with its railway, now I just walk along the cycle track and can see the old viaducts, platforms and even tracks in the bushes.

I enjoyed that 'Oh Dr. Beeching' show as a child. An age before recordable shows, so it was either watch it live or.. take the rarity of it appearing six days later in the early hours of the morning. And as far as I am aware, that show never got repeated / replayed on BBC. And once, I knew the show was to come on but, I was a mile away from home with a hill in the middle. So I remember running home as quickly as I could to watch that weeks episode. I do not remember the plots but .. its a show with a steam engine!! *happy child me*.

Beeching was simply the hit-man hired by Marples. But let's not forget that it was a Labour government from 1964 to 1970 which oversaw the implementation of Dr Beeching's recommendations.

One thing overlooked in this video - public transport will NEVER be a profitable business on its own. And that´s what people in Beechings era still didn´t know. Beeching cut and similar actions throughout Europe (both on west and east side of Europe) reached a similar point in their studies in the end: you cannot make profitable branch lines, but you need them to feed the main line; though everything except main lines will hardly ever be profitable. If you take a train to work, it might be full and really profitable, but the opposite direction wouldn´t be full as much. And you also need to run in other then peak times, otherwise you lose a significant portion of customers due to uncertainity and unreliability of your service throughout the day. Thanks to this, well designed and effective system will still be able to sell only 20-30% it´s total seat capacity. You either - subsidize the system, so it transport as much people as it can, or - cut the system and leave only main lines (that will still stay somewhat profitable). The biggest issue afterwards is that all the people in your country NEED some way to get things and make living. You then resort to motoring traffic and run into many other problems like not many car parks, not enough lanes on roads and all in all end like USA, where car infrastructure cannot pay for itself even through all those taxes and such, because walkability and public transport are both considered "rude words". You need to find a balance or sort.

8:31 lobotomy was considered a surgery as well

I think the correct answer is why everyone in Britain (who doesn't own or have shares in a car manufacturer or making roads) hate this man

"Sodor was not spared from the axe. Thomas, Percy, and Toby were put in storage after the Ffarquhar branch was closed. They later came out and went their separate ways. Thomas would take Annie, Clarabel and Henrietta and leave sodor and head to the bluebell railway, where they now live, Percy formed a rebellion against British Rail with many other engines that were withdrawn throughout the country, which got Percy assassinated 3 months later, a statue was constructed in his honor. Toby fell off the face of the earth and was missing until a week ago. When flying Scotsman visited sodor in '67, Gordon begged Flying Scotsman to come with him when he was to leave, and left sodor with his brother. Henry was left to die in his forest after a crash, but was rescued decades later by The Sodor Steam Locomotive Trust. Edward was used as a test for steam diesel conversion, the results were disastrous. James was withdrawn in 1962 and the fat controller saved him from scrap. Duck, Oliver, toad, old slow coach, and the auto coaches were saved by the ditcot railway center. Donald and Douglas were saved by a railway in Scotland."

You can’t argue with the economics. 50% of the network contributed 1% of revenues. Also, it was pre computerisation, automation and www. This mean the smallest revenue stations had to be overmanned 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nowadays many could have been saved with online ticketing automatic ticket barriers etc. I was a railwayman but some of it had to go.

Japan at the same time had similar issues and it did what any sane nation would do and invested in the railways. As we can see now one country was not just right it runs rings around the other.

If that was “surgery” then I hate to consider what “amputation” would be. We didn’t really have a Dr. B in the states, just an incremental decline of rail service, with many factors tossed in that led to accelerated decline.

I really like some of the explanations from the (german?) Wikipedia why the Beeching Act didn't work as thought: - The small savings resulted primarily from the fact that the closed small railway lines served as feeders for the large ones. Without these feeders, the number of passengers on the existing railway lines also fell. Beeching's assumption that passengers would only use their car to the nearest major train station in order to continue their journey from there by train proved to be wrong. - Another reason the plan failed was that many of the small railroads ran very small deficits. The important and heavily frequented commuter routes generated much larger losses; but even Beeching recognized that closing these lines would not be politically feasible. - The failure of the Beeching plans is also attributed to the fact that they focused unilaterally on route closures and largely ignored other savings opportunities. For example, the potential use of cost-saving railcars and railbuses was rejected by Beeching with the argument that the route costs alone were decisive, and he also almost completely ignored the costs for administration and staff.

Beeching stated that the 1955 plan had failed, but it did initialize the modernisation of the signalling, which, over time, reduced costs astronomically.

nice video. Considerng the nature of Bulgy the double decker bus in Thomas the Tank engine i wonder if he was a dig at Beeching as well

Interesting U.K. railway history I didn't know as an American. Of course, we have had our own mass losses of railway lines and services over here in the name of "free enterprise" and "cost-cutting," oblivious to the larger national interests served by better passenger rail service to isolated towns and communities. There is a U.S. misconception that things are handled better in Europe. Thanks for posting this one!

Without Beeching, there would today not be as many preserved lines, or indeed engines left today!

Beaching gets the blame for all closures, however, a lot of lines closed in the 1950s. Marples was the true villain.

9:45 this sounded so much like a Thomas song 😂

IT WAS MARPLE

You wanna hear something eye brow raising? apparently, in 1962, he opened Holywell Halt on the Bluebell Railway...and apparently gave the railway preservation movement, and the Bluebell in particular, his blessing.

I find very funny that 364 days ago, Victor Tanzig uploaded his "Beeching" episode of Stories of Sodor. I quite like the touch of you singing the theme to Oh, Dr. Beeching at the end of the video

Well tbh screw Dr Bitching, Dude was one of the MAIN reasons steam ended. I. Do. Not. Give. A. Crap If steam was outdated at the time, Such elegant machines, I will forever love steam locos of any country!

Setting aside the pros & cons of Beeching's infamous "axe" & Marple's dodgy double-dealings, one winner is the Heritage Railway complex. Steam was been scrapped wholesale & beyond BR's list of 100? locos designated as suitable for preserving as museum pieces, enthusiastic amateurs were buying up locos to restore (thank you again Mr Dai Woodham!), but where could they run them? The answer was some of the branch lines which had been closed, now reopened & run both for the local population & that much-needed tourism boost.

What a wonderful picture of Yeovil Town Station. So many happy days spent their.

Excellent! And the tuneful rendition of "Oh, Dr. Beeching!" was an unexpected little bonus 😅

Hard to imagine Britain once had the single most comprehensive railway network in the world. Seems that it would have been sensible to have kept some of the essential rights-of-way.

Great work ToT, I like your narration.

A fair number of rail enthusiasts, and a lot of senior railwaymen at the time, feel positive about Dr Beeching. Most of the lines he closed carried virtually no traffic and still would not today. Just another drain on public finances. He also oversaw and encouraged the development of InterCity, Freightliner containers, Merry-go-Round coal trains, traffic far more suited to the railway. And some of the lines he is blamed for closing were done by his successors when he had advocated retention, notably Oxford-Cambridge.

my local railway was part of those cuts. they tried preserving it, but failed. its now a marina/dock/cafe/walking path

Thanks to this dude every time I'm in Glastonbury I have to take a hour's bus ride (sometimes longer) to get to the nearest stations in Bath or Bristol. Even Wells, fucking Wells, doesn't have a station.

I'm a railway enthusiast and also worked on the railways for 20 years .some of beaching rail closures was needed but some where absolutely ridiculous great central railway would have been a great frieght route also Buxton to matlock

Okay folks let's be practical. It's ridiculous to blame Dr Beeching for the end of steam. This was called for by the British railways modernisation plan of 1955 - years before Beeching had any association with railways. It was an act of lunacy by the British transport commission who only a few years before had commissioned a fleet of new modern steam engines to cover the next 30 years until electrification was widespread. As a result some of these excellent engines served as little as five years. I think he did show a lack of foresight in some cases as to what could be done to develop lines particularly in tourist areas. However some rural branches never had a hope of being anything but money pits. Also he did not foresee that the car would become a victim of its own success and ultimately some of us would be driven back to the railways to avoid sitting in long queues of traffic.

Ernest Marples (Baron) had been Managing Director of the road construction business Marples Ridgeway. As Minister of Transport he opened the first section of the M1. The British government took the decision to cut British Rail costs and Marples was the man who oversaw the whole process. Yes Beeching was the man who managed the day to day of the ‘axe’, in accordance with the task he was allocated. As a measure of the man who was Baron Marples in later life he hurriedly emigrated to Monaco to avoid prosecution for tax fraud. Less railways = more buses and cars and lorries = more and better roads needed. Blame Beeching all you like, he was only a relatively small part of the process. The guilty parties were mostly Government and Marples.

I don’t know if Britain 🇬🇧 or America 🇺🇸 had it worse when it came to ruthlessly abandoning lines that were unprofitable.

One thing to remember up and till 2013 Britain was still paying off its war debt. Britain did not come out of austerity until the mid 1960s. It could be argued that was not really about cost saving at all, if so why scrap a seven year old engine costing £33,500, the 9F? Britannia Locomotives were doing a sterling job on the East Coast Mainline only to be replaced by Deltics and the N.E./ EASTERN regional board would not touch any other diesel as they were consider underpowered for the route. Also it is recorded that one 9F on a passenger run hit 90mph. As the Labour Government kicked all steam off the railway network in 68, commentators blasted that decision during the '73 fuel crisis, and steam would have not left British metals. However thanks to the preservation groups restoring 500 miles of closed lines and people clubbing together to return new steam locos to British metals thankfully equipped with modern technology! With the oversight of the government and local government initiatives, stations and lines are reopening. The preservation movement in good old 'Titfield' fashion have shown H.M.G don't mess with 'our' railways, at long last they have seen the benefit that railway tours bring to the railway network and local councils are now supporting the preservation movement and wanting one in their own backyard. Who would have thought of Whitby having a platform added for the N.Y.M.R steam locos and summer locos running from Fort William to Mallaig. I long for the day when I will see another 500 miles of lines reopen and forty more stations built!

All I will finally add is that I was close to tears when they closed the Bath Spa line from Bath to Bristol Temple Meads plus the line north to Gloucester and the Pines link. The beautiful station of Mangotsfield (built in a Y section of the triangle) was gutted and vandalized. Now we wish we had kept it. At least part of the track is now used by cyclist.

In the Early eighteen hundreds, Railway mania saw many lines constructed willy nilly on pen and paper, without much thoughtful planning !! There were 5 rail ways of getting from Rugby to Leicester at one time!

I was an engine cleaner at Hull Dairycoates in the early 1960s, when Beeching devastated Hull's railway, they gave me a one way ticket to Leeds as a fireman in 1966. I had to live in a doss house as I was homeless. Thanks Dr B.

I’ve never been so early to a new video, but great as always

In the US,there was- pre-Conrail,a USRA REPORT,which could and did destroy a good part of the North East railways,and there is,now,many lines being relaid! One good example,the former Erie main,through the Southern Tier,in New York state. When the double stack trains were coming online,the Erie main was found to be ideal,as it had NO RESTRICTIONS ON WIDTH,AND HEIGHT,i.e.HIGH AND WIDES! The line had to be relaid and upgraded,and the New York government breathed a sigh of relief! Also Nelson Rockefeller,then governor,had the Empire Service put in,because of the dreaded 4 letter word-SNOW-of which upstate New York is notorious for,as the highways would be totally shut down! The winters of 1977-78 were extremely heavy in that regard,and later in the 2000's,the New York City area got a dose of upstate weather,and found the only things running were the railroads and subways,a bitter lesson there! People and politicians seem never to learn,that there are reasons why things are done,and arbitrary and capricious actions have deleterious long term effects! Thank you 😇 😊!

Ernst Marples and Barbara Castle, conservative and liberal, both approved of the Beeching cuts, with most of the damage occurring under Castle. (Ironic as part of the Liberal platform was opposition to the rail cuts.) Beeching's literally said that some of the slated branch and main lines shouldn't be cut due to social issues, but that was a matter for politicians. Castle went ahead anyways. As for railbanking, the Americans invented that in the 70s. No one thought of the idea back in the '60s and '50s. I guess it's easier to blame Beeching than the foolish parties.

I'll never forget the Reverend Awdry's little jab in the opening of his book Oliver the Western Engine. " 'We reopen branches' they boast."

Please tell the full story. Mention of the acts of Parliament which enforced the railways to move loss making single wagon loads, while nothing similar was imposed on road hauliers might put the reality into perspective. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!

a nationalised railway should be seen as a service, never as a profit/loss business.

It was a long time ago but Beeching accepted an invitation from the Tory government to act as an accountant and chairman of BR in an effort to save money. He costed every line and route and simply shut one third of the railway on that basis. There's no doubt that Ernie Marples was pushing his road building programme on the expected results of railway closures. The whole thing made the expensive modernisation exercise in the mid 1950s look like a waste of money.

I know several old railway bridges in Lancashire are still standing from the Blackburn to Chorley line. They demolished the longest viaduct that ran over the Botany Bay Area but there are still several on walking routes and there’s one in Blackburn itself still standing. The line ran past my parents house

Mainland Europe electrified their railways whereas the UK moved from steam to diesel and ripped up the infrastructure. Billions is now spent building new lines.

Road transport never will be more efficient than rail... 👍

I'd say Nationalisation was the biggest culprit. BR was losing money but incapable of sorting the problem. If the big four had been kept in operation and private they could have looked to the government for money, but as private companies their first aim was to make profits for share holders. Beeching and Marple had agendas. Today we see the chaos caused by over use of the road systems. The expense of maintaining them. Having a countrywide rail network functioning as an alternative parallel transport system would have been a good alternative, considering how much money every government seems to waste every god damned year.