British Rail: The Beeching Cuts | Costly Mistake or Necessary Sacrifice? | History in the Dark

One of the more infamous, and debated, decisions from British Railways in the 1960's was to shut down many, many different lines that once connected the whole of the United Kingdom. Defenders will say it was needed to save the railway. Critics will say it was a wasteful, useless attempt to fix unrelated problems to railway operation. Either way, the decision is directly linked to two infamous reports penned by Dr. Richard Beeching, and the axe that followed.
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0:00 - Intro
0:43 - The Backstory
7:21 - The Reports
12:54 - The Effects
19:21 - Aftermath
"The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalized railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board. The first report identified 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of railway line for closure, amounting to 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and 67,700 British Rail positions, with an objective of stemming the large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running. The second report identified a small number of major routes for significant investment. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicized changes, including a switch to the now-standard practice of containerization for rail freight, and the replacement of some services with integrated bus services linked to the remaining railheads."
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#history #truestory #documentary

[@nicktallfox5266]

Dang it, I'm too late and no one will read this but a similar thing happened where I live, except far more stupid. Basically after transitioning from a centralised economy to a free market, the people who were running the railways for the government were left in charge of them. And oh boy did they have no idea what the hell they were doing in a capitalist world. It got to the point where they would run trains only at the most inconvenient times possible, just so they could point at a branch line and go ”See? Nobody is using them!” just so they could cut them out to keep the profit margins up. This complete ouroboros of idiocy ruined our railways for years until people who knew how to business properly came in. God I wish someone would cover this stuff in English so that the whole world could learn from our mistakes and slam their heads on their desks in frustration like our rail enthusiasts do. But i don’t know if there are any sources on this in English, sadly.

[@HistoryintheDark]

What country, sir? Google translate has helped me in the past with foreign sources.

[@nicktallfox5266]

@@HistoryintheDark Poland as a matter of fact. But i do apologise if i got something wrong as i got this knowledge second hand from another polish youtuber called Kuracyja, and his "20 years of cuts" series. The process i described was called "demand extinguishing" and Kuracyja even used the phrase "Celiński's axe" as a reference to lord Beechings shenanigans.

[@nicktallfox5266]

His videos and more importantly written sources are all in polish, and i know google translate struggles with our language sometimes.

[@HistoryintheDark]

I'll look into it, sir. I've been wanted to cover more stories from other countries and if your cuts are anything like Beeching's it should be interesting.

[@nicktallfox5266]

​@@HistoryintheDark The mismanagement also lead to this absolute meme of a prototype which i HAVE to share. www.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comment_NR19x3q7TZrt37JsPd0DC44F7t0cFFtD,w1200h627f.jpg i really hope the link works, because it beutifully illustrates the state of our railways back then. (Yes, this was a serious prototype for a doodlebug-kind-of-railcar.)

[@geoffbarry9540]

The trouble with Marples was, as noted, he was a road man. The problem with Beeching was that his brief was to critically examine the railways as they then operated and make purely economic decisions on their future. He was not charged with either looking at how to improve their economic efficiency within the context of retaining them as a transport network or, probably more importantly, assessing them in a social benefit context (i.e. take away the costs and look at the transport mechanism as a necessary means of getting people from A to B, which is exactly how road building was assessed). BR at the time didn't help because they supinely pursued the hard economic line (including some famously hyper-exaggerated cost/benefit analyses of line which even the adjudicators couldn't swallow, thank heavens), because their mandate from Ernie et al was to fundamentally do away with railways as a universal public transport function. I lived through it, hated it and still would not piss on Marples if he was on fire. Especially as he cravenly slunk behind Beeching and let him take the public flak.

[@mickmcnich]

I was going to say something very similar but this hits the mark.

[@johnthomas5966]

One of the best reviews of Beeching I have seen. The accuracy of your research is impressive, and your composition skills are amazing. The silent montage of derelict railways and stations brought a tear to this 62 year old British Railwayman's eye.

[@chasselmes8141]

I echo this 100%, Wonderous. Ex BR-1972-2017. I have the impression that when railways in other countries do away with services they just let the rails and land lie fallow, not sell it off. No foresight here. Haverhill in Suffolk is a point in question. Major town now and a London overspill almost the same time as the railway was done away with.

[@HistoryintheDark]

Wow, thank you!

[@stevehill4615]

@@HistoryintheDark yes i agree with the above, as an idea to bring things up to the present would you consider making a video of the BR privatisation?

[@classicforreal]

But also, cat.

[@davidty2006]

@@stevehill4615 And how it's a bigger faliure than the modernization plan....

[@squeaksvids5886]

It did have one big benefit. If it wasn’t for the Beeching Axe we wouldn’t have all these amazing heritage lines that have done some amazing work restoring and preserving old steam, diesel and electric locomotives and rolling stock.

[@Daisysdomain]

My local line was down to be axed in the report. The Witham to Bishops Stortford line, otherwise known as the Flitch Way, was a link line between the east coast main line and the east Anglian main line. One Braintree commuter didn't want to see the line disappear so he took it upon himself to post the timetable though everyone's door. Because of that the Braintree to Witham line remains a busy commuter line to this day and there are still occasional talks about re-establishing the line to link with Stansted airport. A great video, keep them coming.

[@TheFarix2723]

On your Amtrak comment. Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner does want to shutdown all of the inter-regional routes. He think that Amtrak should focus on a few select corridors, mainly located in the Northeast and abandon everything else.

[@MarceloBenoit-trenes]

A lot of Amtrak CEOS and board members that have no idea of how long distance trains are more profitable than corridors (and carry more people than some of those) repeat the same mistake.

[@JackCarsonsRailroadVideos]

Welcome to the Beaching Cuts, how can we destory your favorite rail line today?

[@davidty2006]

So want the woodhead and the Durham coast line Via Haswell back...

[@thetrainstation2helpee933]

Howzabout the Somerset and Dorset Railway? Can we have that back Mr. Beeching?

[@anzaca1]

1:50 This is reminding me of the infamous 1957 Defence White Paper, which led to the cancellation of incredibly promising aircraft like the Saunders-Roe SR.177.

[@fuynnywhaka101]

Not to mention the CVA-01 project

[@gottjager760]

@@fuynnywhaka101 that's the 1966 defence whitepaper

[@Biker_Gremling]

This man legit be making more money out of British Rail than British Rail himself

[@DKS225]

Two of the routes he infamously closed were The Waverley Route which has partially re-opened and The much Lamented Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway that closed on The 7th of March 1966 and is immortalized in Ivo Peters's 16mm film collection.

[@andrewlong6438]

Beeching never closed any railway lines. He wrote a report which proposed closures. It the Transport Minister of the day - Tory or Labour which did the deed. His report could be ignored if needed.

[@Simon-Davis]

Without shadow of doubt, a good number of the Beeching cuts were justified. Others were questionable at best while some were clearly deliberately run down to justify closure. I'd say the true villain in the story is the Labour government who followed up with the Beeching axe, specifically Barbra Castle. It was in their manifesto when voted into government that they would overturn the Beeching cuts. Not only did they renege on their pledge, they added in a whole glut of additional closures, particularly in opposition strongholds.

[@Bungle-UK]

Indeed, Beeching was just accelerating a process that had begun decades earlier. I agree with the point you make about Labour, and her in lies a cautionary tale for those who advocate full state control today. If rail is fully under state control, it is subject to the whims of individual governments and political interference. Rail requires long-term investment and vision, whereas governments tend to focus on the short-term.

[@SudrianTales]

Don't forget Richard Marples, the Disney Villain caricature of a transportation minister who had stocks in road building companies and was about when Beeching was walking around. Beeching has always been a scapegoat

[@Simon-Davis]

@@SudrianTales I agree that Beeching was a scapegoat, and I'll apologise first as this'll be a long post! You've heard of the 'Bumble Hole' line? Its a perfect example of why Beeching was called on in the first place. The Bumble Hole ran right through some of the busiest parts of the area linking Birmingham with Dudley. At its peak, there was 37 timetabled passenger trains and at times just one passenger used that service...not per train, but all day! And it kept running like that until Beeching put it out of its misery, a line which should have closed in the 1940s when passenger numbers were already lower than the number of trains running. It was WW2 traffic which kept it going though as it was a strategically important diversionary route, and as such it was maintained as a two-track main line right to the end; with massive mining subsidence problems for good measure and added costs!!! And therein lies the rub. UK railways were in decline before WW2, it was only the intervention of that event which kept parts of the system open for as long as they were and then a nationalised golden goose took over with an endless pit of money to throw at an ever-unionised workforce. Near where I live, I have the Black Country practically on my doorstep. Lines were still opening here in the 1910s and into the 1920s which by the 1930s were on their knees. Here we had some of the most profitable coal seams in the country beneath them, so you can imagine the scale of industry and number of people moving around. Yet by the 1930s passenger numbers were often so low that those services ceased and the routes relegated to colliery and other industrial traffic. More often than not the collieries just shifted which shafts they raised coal from to ones still rail served, and in more than one instance they opencast right through the old railway alignment as soon as BR shut up shop. These lines were on borrowed time and closed later than they should have, and even then the private colliery lines outlasted many BR lines by a considerable margin. I think a bit too much stock is given to Marples as a true villain. Yes, he had a vested interest in the roads, but all he really did was to exploit the rules which British Railways was bound by, he was more a pantomime villain feathering his nest with road construction money. The common carrier status did major harm as it made it a lot harder to close routes, and to be honest I think this is what inflicted the most damage from Marples shenanigans. In my immediate local area, Barbra Castle on the other hand saw fit to close passenger facilities on an entire route which had two huge housing estates being constructed directly on either side the route. The site of Castle Bromwich aerodrome, famous for building and testing the Spitfires on one side, and Bromford Racecourse on the other. These housing estates were started in 1963 with 5000 homes built on the aerodrome and the other of 2000 homes on the racecourse started in 1965. Bromford station closed with the racecourse but was retained and could have been brought back into service, Castle Bromwich wasn't on Beechings list and remained open until 1968 when closed by Castle. That is 7,000 homes built with public services deliberately removed. To add insult to injury the route remains open to this day and is an extremely busy artery on the network for passenger and freight; but no local service.

[@SudrianTales]

@@Simon-Davis I never heard of the role of Barbara Castle in all this, I need to look up

[@Simon-Davis]

@@SudrianTales She was the minister for transport of the Labour government from 1965 to 1968. Basically the one who signed off the majority of the Beeching closures as well as any further cuts added to the list. Don't get me wrong, she did preside over a lot of good things, but with the railways she's now mostly remembered for not closing lines in marginal seats to garner voter favour while other more vindictive closures have been clouded by the Beeching closures over time.

[@glennmandigo6069]

One can't help but feel emotional when you look at the pictures all the abandoned and/or demolished rails and stations... I know I do...

[@bigtinasoup2927]

If you havnt already. Give the film "titfield thunderbolt" a watch. It's about a little village fighting the cuts. It my all time favourite film. I'm 32 and I've loves since in nappies.

[@jonathanng2390]

Just because an industry is nationalized, doesn't mean said industry can't be cut up to pieces and partly eliminated. In America, Conrail was formed in 1976 to fix the bankrupted northeast railroads. They fixed the northeast railroad industry by abandoning lots of lines everywhere. Conrail became profitable and was sold to back into private hands (Norfolk Southern and CSX) in the '90s. Conrail is a rare success story for government intervention.

[@JosipRadnik1]

I am Swiss. You can call my country all you want but I think I'm not totally wrong when I say that it most certainly isn't any sort of communist entity. Yet we were among the first to nationalize our railway system back in 1902. Since then we've been constantly upgrading our railway infrastructure and coordinating our public transport system instead of cutting down on costs by reducing services. Today we have a very active public transport based on a dense railway network that has a lot to show for and offers itself as a real alternative to private cars as the principal mean of transport for a large part of our population. I know that britain had different problems to cope with while we probably had some more cash hidden somewhere so I certainly don't want to bragg about in any way, but I think it might serve as a hint that sometimes the best way to reduce cost is to invest into the future.

[@superjesse645]

I wanna visit Switzerland someday. You guys seem competent.

[@TheRubberDuck]

One point you failed to mention in Beachings report he mentioned about routes that had multiple lines that connect to the same stations however for the South West he closed off the Exeter - Plymouth via Okamption and Bere Alston, these days the track can often be closed due to storms via Dawlish/Dawlish Warren, but when they tried to carry out a study to see if they could reopen the line via Okamption and Bere Alston they found that extending the current line past Okamption is not viable due to the amount of cost it would take to bring the old line's up to code plus most of the original track bed have now been converted to cycle paths.

[@beckster181]

would love to see you do a over view of Australian Rail especially the fact we have 3 different Guages STILL across the country.

[@darylcheshire1618]

In Victoria, we had the Bland Report and then the Lonie Report, the VR version of the Beeching cuts. I remember the closing the Hamilton Balmoral line attracted a lot of opposition from farmers and the local MP lost his seat.

[@joshuaW5621]

Never thought they would find a way to make the sad Thomas theme even more sad.

[@fanofeverything30465]

It's a cover by Luke Pickman

[@thetrainstation2helpee933]

​@@fanofeverything30465 it's Luke Pickman

[@fanofeverything30465]

@@thetrainstation2helpee933 Thank you for the correction 🙏🏼

[@matthewpowell2429]

Yeah. And speaking of which, I wondered what would've happened if Beeching visited Sodor in the RWS.

[@Pensyfan19]

Great video as always. Very interesting to know that some of the board members were allegedly double agents for the highways! Likewise, this story goes to show the endless economic disasters that result from shutting down pretty much any rail line, since even if it's not profitable, it still serves a significant number of people and businesses which rely on other lines as well. I must commend Britain and their strong rail based culture for reopening many of the lines that fell to the Beeching axe, whereas other nations like the U.S. aren't so lucky. Even Amtrak, the government funded passenger railroad of the U.S., saw a series of cuts throughout their first two decades, with most of their cuts being a few LD lines and even some intercity lines until the 90s. Whenever a passenger rail project gets proposed nowadays, it has to go through so much red tape established by NIMBYs and pro car politicians that it ultimately becomes too expensive or forgotten about. Had the U.S. cared more about their railways instead of funneling their funding on highways, then maybe we could have at least half of what the nation used to have (which is also why I'm seriously considering the opposite applications of the method that Beeching used to cut lines; instead of cutting them without providing pros and cons, we should restore and build new lines without stated pros and cons, thus saving millions in studies that ultimately say train good). With all of that said, may I suggest a video on the fall of the New Haven Railroad, preferably under the leadership of Patrick McGinnis? (Don't forget his Cadillac road railer).

[@nathanchan4653]

Just to clarify, Dr Beechings isn't the major villain to British Railways, the person who introduces Dr Beechings is Ernest Marples due to Mr Ernest Marples wanted people to drive in cars more than take public transport (trains or trams) because.... 1. Mr Ernest Marples believes a motorcar is the symbol of freedom 2. Mr Ernest Marple's family run a tarmac company for making tarmac roads

[@grahamariss2111]

It is an often repeated claim but it does not stand up to analysis. Because the Beeching cuts freed up space on the railways to allow the introduction of the fast InterCity service a key recommendations of the Beeching reports and enabled the railways to compete with the motorways. If Marples had wanted to favour the roads he would have left the railways as they were with their largely 19th century services and infrastructure.

[@nathanchan4653]

@@grahamariss2111 Ernest Marples was the British Transport Minister at that time, he introduced Dr. Beechings and he had control on what he wants as transport minister

[@Trainman10715]

the car is a symbol of freedom, hence why the west wont give them up, the car was an totally wonderful thing till the roads started getting clogged up. beeching isnt a villain anyway, he got rid of what needed ridding of

[@grahamariss2111]

@@nathanchan4653 Yes, nobody disputes that Marples was Transport Secretary just the absurd claim that he employed Beeching to undermine rail transport in the UK. Beeching did the opposite he enabled the railways to compete and exist in a world of wide spread road transport, something that had started to come about in the 1930s and by the mid 50s was in full swing when construction of the motorway network. Beeching was not a result of the growth of road transport, that happened across the post war modern war railways or no railways, it was as a result of the failure of the modernisation plan, which led to a political realisation that there was something fundamentally wrong with our railways that was not going to be fixed through simply deploying new technology.

[@Bungle-UK]

The demonisation of Marples doesn’t really stack up. Yes, he employed Beeching, but most closures happened under Labour when Marples was out of the picture. It is reasonable to ask why, if Marples was acting in his own self-interest, his political opponents carried on his policy? In addition, as has already been pointed out, Beeching really wanted to develop the InterCity railway, which competes with motorways for traffic. In reality, the world was changing, car usage was on the up and the railway simply couldn’t compete with the freedom and convenience of the car. Passenger traffic would have continued to fall, as would freight, so it’s illogical to suggest a network build over 100 years before would suit the needs of the second half of the twentieth century.

[@TheGreekModeler]

Greece did something similar to the Beeching Cuts in the late 2000s with many popular routes closing down.

[@andrewlong6438]

Ireland both north and south lost many of their railways too. Some were hopelessly uneconomic.

[@NontasK]

Ναι, είχαμε τον Έλληνα Beeching, Δημήτρη Ρεππα.

[@madzyboy7111]

The Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton line was used in the 70’s as a diversion after its closure to get from York to Northallerton. Now if it was needed as a diversion you can cycle as far as Ripley and that’s it.

[@davecockle4551]

Yes some of the cuts interesting as the financial models used tended to flexible on a case by case method It was not surprising that Beechings own branch line survived even though it also made a loss Now we are spending millions if not billions of pounds reverse the cuts.

[@theoneandonlynumber1253]

I just got done watching victor tanzig the stories of sodor episode literally called beeching lmao

[@N00N01]

Season 4 : beeching

[@musclrcarg2090]

Same

[@rhodrage]

You know what the most annoying thing about these closures are? A lot of them the tracks are still there, derelict. The least they could have dine was redevelop them. There's a line near me that keeps getting talks about being reopened but nothing yet, and its all still there. Also annoying is the further from London, the more were shut. But, we got the preservation movement out of it, and man I love Heritage Railways.

[@andrewlong6438]

Many have been redeveloped into public cycle and footpaths.

[@rhodrage]

@@andrewlong6438 That changes absolutely nothing about what I said. At all.

[@upthebracket26]

His inspectors would visit stations outside of rush hour to count the number of passengers.

[@robindtgriffiths6487]

I have proof of that as I objected to the Isle of Wight closures so got all the data. The bogus traffic reports done on the quietest of days at the quietest time of the day are all there in black and white but buried in the report to see clearly the dates and times. Station staff I knew well (I used the trains a lot all year round and got to know a lot of the staff) they confirmed it that the came unannounced at the quietest possible time. The big flaw in line like the IoW was never to credit income from the vast number of incoming passengers. Only actual cash receipts for local and outbound trip wre given. If honest accounting had been done, it would have been likely the IoW lines were in fact running at a modest profit. Like most seasonal businesses winter losses were more than wiped out by huge profits in the summer months plus some from early summer and early Autumn.

[@melina001a]

British Rail: The Beeching Cuts: Jobs For the Boys, road building and truck driving of course. Beeching should not have been anywhere near british rail.

[@DaiElsan]

Passenger service in the Ebbw Valley in South Wales ended Mid 60s. The railway stayed open to coal and steel freight until all the coal mines and the Steel works finally closed. Shortly after an experimental passenger service was started in the 90s(?) Its been a rip-roaring success. Wishing they set removed track back up to Brynmawr from Aberbeeg junction.

[@DaiElsan]

@Google moderator team Correct, but not known at the time, was how successful the experiment was going to be after the Festival closed. In those narrow valleys I grew up in, rail transport is such an obvious way to cut traffic congestion.

[@neomacawofficial3119]

If the woodhead line wasn't closed we would never have received the EM2's as NS1500 class here in the Netherlands.

[@None-zc5vg]

"Woodhead Line": I used it in the 1960s

[@neomacawofficial3119]

@@None-zc5vg yeah didn't notice the autocorrection 😂

[@garethmccash5986]

Kitteh 😍😍😍 Thankyou for this insightful clip into British rail. Maybe you could look into the nz rail privatisation as an idea in a future video?

[@foxgaming1084]

I live in Morden Manitoba in Canada. We used to have a station from 1905 where it was built until somewhere in the 1960s when it was closed down probably due to road traffic. It’s later moved from what today is a Giant Tiger grocery store, to the Pembina Threshermen’s Museum in 1972 where it’s still there to this day and freight trains still run on them running by Boundary Trails Railway Company and Canadian pacific.

[@TB76Returns]

There is a place not that far from where I live called Ripon, which is famous for being a Cathedral City. I lay on the Harrogate to Northallerton line before that ended up getting 'Beechinged' as I like to put it. The trackbed is now the Ripon ring road. Not just Ripon, but quite a bit of North Yorkshire, my own home county suffered as a result of the Beeching Cuts. I am lucky, I live on the other end of the electrified Airedale line to Leeds. I like to think the failure of BR's Modernisation Plan was part of why the Beeching cuts happened. Also it is worth noting that climate change and pollution were not issues as they are today, had they been, things may of played out differently.

[@1RichieRich]

Back then everyone thought the car would rule ,no one had the long term vision for train travel ,don't get me wrong there were some lines that didn't make much sense and others where it was absolute vandelism and now we're kinda going ..yes we need them lines again to go greener

[@alanwatson5929]

The last 20 miles of the line which ran from London to Lewis via East Grinstead was closed leaving a long dead end branch line running only as far as East Grinstead. Interestingly the good Dr Beaching lived in East Grinstead and didn't want to lose his direct train into London.

[@theenigmaticst7572]

Something similar happened to North Berwick and Haddington in East Lothian near Edinburgh - both branch lines weren't paying their way, but a lot of company directors lived in the seaside resort of North Berwick, and few lived in Haddington. Guess which line got cut? (Not part of the axe, but happened earlier)

[@fanofeverything30465]

​@@theenigmaticst7572 The Haddington Branch Line

[@fanofeverything30465]

Wasn't some of it later reopened as part of the Bluebell Railway?

[@theenigmaticst7572]

@@fanofeverything30465 That's the one!

[@theenigmaticst7572]

@@fanofeverything30465 And yes it was - the Bluebell Railway got back to East Grinstead in 2013 (I think!)

[@merafirewing6591]

Nice cat, beautiful mackerel tabby.

[@QTXAdsy]

You should do a video regarding the closure of the Waverley Route, arguably the worst closure of the lot and has quite a fascinating history and its rebirth.

[@mastertrams]

I mean, the Great Central, Woodhead, Portishead and Okehampton are also contenders for worst closures... But yeah, why they decided to close the Waverley route, I'll never know.

[@MarceloBenoit-trenes]

@@mastertrams I cannot understand the logic to close Woodhead.

[@mastertrams]

@MarceloBenoit-trenes Neither can I. I mean, I get that it was basically duplicating the Hope Valley line, and from an engineering perspective, the Hope Valley line is the better railway (I.e. straighter so capable of higher speeds), but then we haven't done anything remotely close to upgrading the Hope Valley line to be even close to a mainline. It's stupid.

[@mastertrams]

So, ideally, you wouldn't close either, but if you were forced to close either the Hope Valley or Woodhead, I'd probably choose to close Woodhead and keep the Hope Valley.

[@connormclernon26]

I lean towards "it was necessary, but Ernest Marples screwed everything up." The lines were supposed to be mothballed, not torn up altogether.

[@fanofeverything30465]

What does mothballed mean

[@andrewlong6438]

@@fanofeverything30465Exactly ? The Oxford to Cambridge line which is being restored is being relaid from scratch. Drainage sorted out, new bridges, signals and stations too. Not cheap. You cannot leave a line for 50 years and simply restart services on it. Keeping the trackbed is a great idea but but you need to spend vast sums on the infrastructure and this is why there are few lines reopened.

[@fanofeverything30465]

@@andrewlong6438 Not to be rude but how does that relate to what I said

[@samwilsamwil-pr6so]

My local town lost its station before br refused to keep the track bed despite local demands and sold it to stubborn farmers, its now a footpath and we now have to suffer with shit buses

[@samwilsamwil-pr6so]

Richmond Station in North yorkshire

[@watershipfalls5520]

You should try building a railline of your own.

[@davidty2006]

My town used to be a major port with 2 stations and alot of yards.... Now it's just a stop on the durham coast line with just the western station remaining that was built by a railway owned by a tory....

[@Bungle-UK]

Beeching and Marples are wrongly demonised, in my opinion. Yes, some closures shouldn’t have happened, but in reality they were just continuing a process that began decades earlier. They way the network developed in the nineteenth century meant that there was indeed duplication in places, and many lines carried little traffic from day one. However, the real villain for me is the incoming Labour government who could have halted the process, but didn’t. The reality is that roads offered better freight options for non- bulk traffic, and rail could never compete with the freedom and convenience offered by growing car ownership. Time moves on and technology changes; roads eclipsed rail, just as rail, in its day, eclipsed the canals. The real shame may be that the terms of reference for the report didn’t explore ways of making a marginal line pay its way, such as running a ‘basic’ service with unstaffed stations. Perhaps the unions need to take some responsibility here, for doing there best to keep the railways running as they did 100 years earlier. It’s the age old issue of adapt to a changing world or face the consequences, modernise or die.

[@sameyers2670]

I suppose the unions were always going to fight for every job, I wonder if the railways had said if we can cut costs on lines we might be able to save some of them would the unions in 1963 have accepted that if the alternative was closure?

[@Bungle-UK]

@@sameyers2670 I doubt it….logic and long term thinking have never been hallmarks of British trade unions.

[@zingxiu6123]

0:12 Cat reviev

[@1stdaybreaker707]

Cat

[@bitterdrinker]

The rural communities of Wales suffered terribly from the Beeching cuts. Small communities in often mountainous areas become almost cut off as roads could never cope with the bus and truck traffic. Wrecking local economies. The miss judgement of these cuts was huge.

[@Trainman10715]

thats not miss-judgement thats them not having the benefit of hindsight, they didnt know the roads were gonna get gridlocked in 30 years

[@stubrooks2667]

Two points I would like to make.. 1. The closure program had already begun post nationalisation. Beeching just put the tin hat on it. 2. This was the swinging sixties and the fashion was to demolish anything old and victorian . Roads and cars were in - railways were out! Additionally the decline in heavy industries post war did nothing to advance the railways cause. It’s easy to see mistakes from a 2022 perspective but they were dealing with problems that were a world away back in the 1960s

[@thesudricmerman3318]

my view is beeching and the government at the time got many things wrong and today we are still suffering and i strongly believe we must reverse the cuts and built new lines to get the public out of the car and onto the railway.

[@fanofeverything30465]

Especially with emissions

[@sameyers2670]

I agree some of the cuts should be reversed and shouldn't have happened in the first place, though some lines were complete no hopers and had to go

[@leoroverman4541]

At 2:39 you mention Marples and his conflict of interest. But the real conflict of interest goes way back to just after WW1 when the railways were regionalised. Government had a lot of people who could drive and a New HGV industry, which they made very favourable concessions, like forcing the railways to publicise their freight rates. This allowed competition without the cost of infrastructure investment that the railways had to make. During WW2 the rails were used at WW1 rates and those debts were never paid. Beeching was right in context, wrong in terms of how dependent we are on a motor industry we no longer control.

[@paulnolan1352]

You conveniently left out the fact that the Railways had an obligation to be ‘common carriers ‘ which meant they were compelled to accept whatever traffic was offered to them. Road Hauliers were under no such obligation.

[@leoroverman4541]

@@paulnolan1352 I don't think that's a convenient omission, it was implied in any event. If one side has to disclose to the benefit of a competitor, it's hardly fair. I think the point I've been trying to highlight was the fact that the Government had to have it's feet in both camps to keep up demand, but the one thing railways can't fight is convenience.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

We had the Branchlines Committee and the Unremunitive Lines Committee looking at the uneconomical lines. These were busy cutting the lines the Big 4 were already looking at closing before WW2.

[@andrewlong6438]

The contraction of the railways started in WW1 and there were closures most years after that. There were many duplicate lines and stations built by different Victorian railway companies which was great when they made money but not so good when they lost it. The groupings of 1923 and later nationalisation showed up these duplications and over time they were closed. The railways at the time of the Beeching report were losing a shed load of money and they had to break even. Even closures in the 1950s and early 1960s didn’t make things any better hence Beeching was bought in to stem the losses. He wrote a report but never closed any lines. Transport Ministers from both Tory and Labour governments did the axe wielding.

[@joshuabessire9169]

"I am Beeching! I demand children for sacrafice!" "We don't do that anymore." "Unblemished animals?" "Kinda scarece in post-war Britian." "Your rail network?" "Yes... that would hurt the plebs and benefit your priests." "Bring me... YOUR FEEDER LINES! And money. Lots of money."

[@kimcooper4751]

Using wife’s phone not her opinions This is a awesome channel the format keeps me interested and actually learn something I get schooled and entertained all in one a lot of stuff I heard of but never heard the real story like the head on steam engine crash in Texas for a show or the Amtrack electric flops that they would like you to forget also the British mid 1900s locomotive engineering or lack of it was like they just said oil mate let’s just eh ruin it all and buy EMDs and they did as you had in a video

[@awesomealbertt1150]

Close to where I live, there is a *CAR* *PARK* made up of old sleepers from the Beeching axe.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I understand Amtrak was created in 1970. I wonder if the Beeching cuts and the social and voter impact was considered when Amtrak was created.

[@Madnessofmusic]

The city where I live was absolutly devistated by Beeching, having all the local (within the city and surrounding country) stations closed, and some major mainline connections removed, meaning its nearly impossible to get from my city to the bigger cities in the area, without changing tonnes of times on the journey. That would have been bad enough but our local bus provider (first) doesnt even run a reliable or large enough service, to the extent you cant even catch get to nearby towns anymore unless you drive (places like woore, market drayton etc).

[@Slime.tsunami]

My local station was closed in the mid 60s during the beaching cuts but was reopened in 1985.

[@johnjephcote7636]

There were suspect things going on under Beeching. He closed one line that I know because the passengers using it were not enough, but being a holisay line, there was a lot of through traffic, which was not taken into consideration. People noticed that when their station was being repaired and repainted, it usually meant it was going to be closed.

[@srfurley]

Portishead, near Bristol. got a brand new modern station building not long before closure.

[@MercenaryPen]

I think some of the pressure on British Railways to cut costs and save money was as a result of the government needing to try and deal with outstanding debt from buying US weapons and commodities during WW2

[@neilharbott8394]

and ironically cost more than if they'd left it alone.

[@nicktrains2234]

Even today, there are parts of the country where naming Beeching will bring conversation to a halt with disgust

[@robindtgriffiths6487]

I have always said that the villain was Marples. I read a biography of him recently. He was never investigated for his conflict of interest. His shares in his road construction business wre not sold off but transferred to his wife!. Later he was investigated for shady business practices and he fled the country to avoid serious charges of income tax evasion. Although as noted by some commentators some closure's were justified, the biggest blunder of all those involved was the failure to look at the potential of each line. Quite a few have been reopened and others are in the pipeline. I live in Cornwall now. The St Ives and Looe lines were slated for closure but local opposition reprieved them. Both now are thriving.Devon suffered more but the Okehamton to Exeter line reopened 3years ago and is a roaring sucess as is the Barnstaple line that managed to survive but is now thriving.

[@bishopcorva]

For a moment there your cat was looking at you like, "so... This is what you consider an important use of your time. Pathetic."

[@kevwebb2637]

Mr. Marples = US Roadway Policy (Same methods of Advertisements which would cause chances of Backfires for Disruption of Business).

[@joedoran6994]

I think a big loss was the GCR it would be such an asset if it was still in place these days taking a lot of congestion off the current mainlines

[@adelestevens]

What people forget about Beeching is that he was for improving the railways too. He wanted better stations , trains and infrastructure for what would be left after the cuts. He was for fast containerised traffic and bulk block trains for goods to replace slow goods and coal trains.

[@justin10347]

This actually made me cry now all I can think of is that song that Johnny cash did called "tell me if you can, what time do the train's roll in"

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The Woodhead route was closed due to falling traffic levels due to the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s. What didn't help was the electrification equipment was life expired and needed replacing.

[@davidty2006]

A route that was such a big pain for the LNER they wanted to make it all electric to stop pushing trains up with that coal eating garret.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@davidty2006 that's correct, but sending trains that way and switching to the electrics meant 2 loco changes (one at each end) which started to become expensive in time and money.

[@davidty2006]

@@neiloflongbeck5705 I don't think they were swapped like at all. Think at most they just hooked an electric to the front of the existing train and dragged it through.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@davidty2006 no, they did take off the diesels at each end of the Woodhead route. Only the wagons made the entire run whilst the line was still electrified. I've never seen a Class 76 hauled train with a dead diesel in the consist.

[@richardlockett5034]

PS. Sparrentley Earnest Marple resolved his conflict of interest by transferring his shares in road building companies o his wife

[@SudrianTales]

Just a question, didn't Beeching help early preservation efforts?

[@fanofeverything30465]

Indirectly

[@Wotan2900]

Generations still unborn when he published his first report grew up hating Dr. Beeching. I wonder if he ever realised how his name would resonate through the decades with disdain?

[@CullenRick]

I'll say it for you. Marples was as bent as a 9 Bob Note. He sold his shares ... to his wife. He later bolted from the UK to escape prosecution for tax fraud. Beeching was a hired goon, happy to take the funds as a meatshield for Marples. In regard to the report, some of the lines needed to go - but others were nonsensical and several of the very few lines that Beeching wanted to cut but failed to close now make a good living. As you noted with your feeder-line comment, he also only used passenger/goods data from originating stations and kind-of forgot that journeys starting on main lines and ending on branches wouldn't be possible without the latter existing. It's also worth remembering that British Railways was formed to save the government from having to make proimised payments to the Big Four companies for the damage and wear and tear of WW2. There was very little investment made, and the closures then saved the government from having to even make good on the required repairs. A lot of recovered track was then used to prop up the rest of the network - again saving the government from having to make that repayment.

[@Bungle-UK]

This demonising of Marples completely fails to explain why the incoming Labour government closed more lines than he did. Yes, he commissioned the report, but Labour failed to halt closures as promised. Can’t blame Marples for that.

[@CullenRick]

@@Bungle-UK Stating the facts about the man isn't demonising, it's reporting. The fact that Castle was as bad, worse when you consider that her government was elected partly under promises to reverse Marple's actions, does not change the facts about Marples, does it? it just points out that self-serving British politicians and lying political parties are an ongoing problem. However, unlike Marples, she remained in the UK and was involved in politics until her death (no running away to dodge taxes for her), and was also responsible for the survival of the Looe branch and others cited for closure and introduced rail subsidies for unprofitable but important routes (in addition to pushing through a lot of road safety laws).

[@Bungle-UK]

@@CullenRick describing Marples as “bent as a 9 bob note” is an opinion, not fact. Yes, he would appear to have been conflicted, but we can’t say for certain that this influenced his opinions. Many factors were at play, and the rail industry certainly wasn’t helping itself given it was running at a loss, had badly managed the modernisation plan and the significant cash that went with it, and was still operating with many outdated practices and too many staff. I think there could have been more effort to make the railways pay their way, for example keeping some branches but removing staff from stations, but governments unfortunately operate in the short-term and closures (the continuation of a decades old process) provided what was seen as quick wins. In a decade heavily influenced by modernism, there seemed to be little political interest in rail from either side - how much, for example, did the Labour government throw at the Concorde project compared to the marginal savings from closing a branch line.

[@CullenRick]

@@Bungle-UK Yes, the opening phrase is an opinion - also known as a hook. The reasoning for that is then given in the following paragraph.

[@SirKenchalot]

I wonder if a biologist may have done a better job understanding a complex system of interconnected 'living' organs than a personal who deals with impersonal systems of simple cause and effect. It is such a shame to rip up 100+ years of infrastructure based on unproven presuppositions about what would happen if the railways were removed and there was no trial or experiment done to verify the hypothesis which seems very unscientific for a man of science.

[@dmroth2495]

You should do a video on the S&DJR. The whole damn railroad, sorry railway was drawn,quartered and hung.

[@fanofeverything30465]

*Hung, Drawn and Quartered

[@tim3172]

It's called an 'act' because it's an act(ion) of Parliament. The US has acts of Congress. An Act of Parliament creates a new law or changes an existing law. An Act is a Bill that has been approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and been given Royal Assent by the Monarch. Taken together, Acts of Parliament make up what is known as Statute Law in the UK.

[@eliotreader8220]

seeing the motor way with no barriers like it has today is a bit strange for me as I have only seen it with them

[@neilharbott8394]

and no shoulder!

[@CharlesStearman]

@@neilharbott8394 Originally they had no speed limit either.

[@neilharbott8394]

@@CharlesStearman I used to have a highway code which listed the white disk with black diagonal bar as "unrestricted speed limit" - it was redefined in later copies as 70mph.

[@DKS225]

@15.03 That and The North Sea Oil and Gas boom of '73 which was one of the reasons The Far North line to Wick and Thurso remains open today. Plus The HST would end up being the iconic face of Britain's Railways even now despite being downgraded to secondary routes they still are popular as they were when they first came on scene and two HST Power Cars hold the world speed record for Diesel Traction on November the 1st 1987 with a recorded speed of 148.4 mph. The power cars are 43102 now preserved and 43159 whose whereabouts is unknown.

[@MarceloBenoit-trenes]

No, that record was breaked in 2002: "Talgo XXI is the fastest, high-speed diesel train in the world. On June 12 2002, it recorded a speed of 256.38km/h on the Madrid - Barcelona line, exceeding all previous records."

[@musclrcarg2090]

Henrys sadness theme and the diseasl

[@PiersDJackson]

Two of the great "What if..." conjectures out there are firstly either World War Two was different, or the UK money-men weren't tied up with US farnarckling (ie. The Wall Street Crash), so that the LNER and SR has developed their electrification, and LMS continued their diesel experiments..... remember although the UK was hesitant about using (imported) diesel in preference over (local) coal, the burning of coal doesn't just mean in thousands of steam locomotives, but a consistent amount being used to superheat steam in large static turbines to be turned into electricity to power electric locomotives. The second concept was "What if..." the modernisation plan bypassed dieselisation in favour of electrification.... imagine seeing ex-LNER A3 and A4 Pacific's in British Rail Blue, with the twin arrows on the tender side, into the 80's the latter possibly even gaining a safety yellow front... these being the older models, and the BR Standard Classes in use, including the current orphan Class 8 "Duke of Gloucester", being supplemented by a minimum of 19 additional members of the class. Working on the assumption that the development would later revert back to the roughly currect situation of globally sourced services, mostly electrified.

[@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014]

🎵Oh Dr Beeching what have you done? There once were lots of trans to catch but there will be none. 🎼 I’ll have to buy a bike ‘cause I can’t afford a car, Oh Dr Beeching what a naughty man you are! 🎶

[@grahamariss2111]

You made the case that these Branch Lines were feeding the mainline services. This is an often repeated argument but does not stand up to analysis as closing the branch lines freed up a lot of capacity on the mainline as they removed a lot of slow moving traffic from the branches. Ths enable the introduction of the great success of the Beeching era, the InterCity services, where for the first time you got at City stations regular timed with regular running time inter City services. Before this for example the Midland Red motorway coach services were almost as fast in services between Birmingham / Coventry to London and faster Birmingham to Worcester, where the M1 and WCML run parallel, BR's diesels would often be left behind by Midland Buses touching 100 mph when the gradient and or wind was in their favour, there was a good chance you Midland Red services would arrive early while an almost inevitability that the train woukd be late and the bus was cheaper.

[@Railman1225]

15:33 Me: Yeah, that'd be horrible! If they were to do that, that would be an outra-... *_wait a frikin minute._* (I do realize that they weren't nearly as bad as BR, but they still shut off some routes that were pretty important to the people who lived there. Heck, nowadays, if you wanna get from Nashville/Chattanooga to Chicago, you have to drive 3hrs/5hrs to Memphis or some other station along Amtrak's line, WHICH IS ONLY ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!!)

[@Nate_Etron]

Marples would be Dep. PM with that suspect behaviour nowadays 🤫

[@FlapJacks7]

Nice cat

[@matthewpowell2429]

While I have a dislike towards Beeching, especially since a part of feels he's the reason why many steam engines in the UK didn't live up to their full potential, I do have to admit that many of his decisions were justified and did do good. I also have to give credit to him because he did manage to help save a steam engine.

[@matthewpowell2429]

Also, in my RWS AU, while Sodor was independent and thus spared from the actual Beeching Cuts. The Fat Controller at the time did bring Dr Beeching to Sodor for an "evaluation" of the NWR to see what should be cut.

[@launcesmechanist9578]

Kinda wonder if Bulgy the double decker bus was inspired by this ‘more roads’ mentality of the Government at the time.

[@grahamariss2111]

I have been looking forward to you doing this, but sad that you throw the claim about the cuts being done to favour road transport, because the very thing Beeching enabled with his cuts, the InterCity express services enabled the railways to compete with the new motorway network. If the politicians had wanted to help road transport the best thing to do would have been to let railways stay as they are and just wither away.

[@harrisonallen651]

Oh shit, run!

[@davidty2006]

quick deploy the class 101.

[@sandraschwarz666]

I hope the most of the lines reopened

[@fanofeverything30465]

Some were reopened as Herertage Railways as stated in the video

[@spyfan62591]

Ah.... beeching, the ( sorta ) stalin of British rail

[@kimberlyknox4426]

Poor lines they look like they have seen better days

[@OleJanssen]

Thomas ghost train theme out of nowhere xD

[@user-qp9cd5ng3w]

Great video summarising the controversial Beeching cuts and their lasting impacts on Britain's railways. For those wanting to dive deeper into this topic, I'd also recommend checking out this video Dr Beeching report by Hand Drawn History: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIbTm5KPpLeoms0

[@N00N01]

My timing in livechat is killer

[@fanofeverything30465]

I've always been interested in the Beeching Cuts ✂️

[@classicforreal]

Beeching Cat😺

[@fanofeverything30465]

@@classicforreal I meant I've been interested in the process

[@kevwebb2637]

Also, Automating everything including Unmanned vehicles, PTC and One man Freight Trains (poor PTC Excuse). In the United States cases, More and More Gun Control under Concealment as "Gun Safety" will cause lost of Jobs. When Automated systems get replaced with Manual Labor, Jobs increase and Homeless Shelters Decrease, and When Manual Labor gets replaced with Automated Systems, Jobs Decrease and Homeless Shelters Increase. With the 2nd Amendment (United States) When you remove Restrictions of Gun ownership and Give Freedom to use Firearms no matter if it's Automatic/Machine Gun or not, Cases of Crimes will Decrease faster than a Local law Enforcement (Police, Sheriff, State Trooper) and even Faster than the National Guard when All Lawful Gun Owners are present. Simply, Increase Lawful Gun Owners will Decrease Crime to the level where it's a Suicide run to try to pull a Crime in a place Full of Lawful Gun Owners. Yet, when you Decrease Lawful Gun Owners, Crime will Increase at a Moderate-High rate with the Local Law Enforcement (Police, Sheriff, State Trooper), National Guard, and a Clean Pure Justice system. When you Decrease Lawful Gun Owners remove the Local Law Enforcement (Police, Sheriff, State Trooper), National Guard, and Corrupt the Justice System, Crime will increase at a Hell-Satanic Rate which will allow All Terrorist Groups at any level from Looters and Criminals to BLM, Anti-Fa, and I will blow the whistle on them which is the LGBT which is another Terrorist Group specialized in Sex Crimes. So, Automation and Removal of Lawful Gun Owners, Local Law Enforcement (Police, Sheriff, State Trooper), National Guard, Clean Pure Justice System that stops Criminals & Terrorist(Includes LGBTs) will cause a Huge loss of Jobs, Rise of Homeless and a Bloody truly Hell that will even cause the Innocent to loose their life in that Hellish place.

[@tim3172]

"loose their life" is the smartest phrase of this absurd rant.

[@joeblow9657]

VIA Rail in Canada basically closed a bunch of stations/route in the 1980s. Notably where the Conservative government had fewer votes.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The Labour Government of October 1964 were busy dealing with a series financial crises cause by financial ineptitude of the previous Conservative government (sounds familiar). These economic policies that rewarded overmanning in all types of busines not just the nationalised ones. Coupled with a lack of investment by business owners and union militancy caused falling productivity levels. The money markets started selling off the Pound after the new Labour government announced the trade deficit figures that were double what had been expected (£800 million against the expected £400 million). These crises lasted until November 1967 when the Pound was devalued by 1967.

[@andrewbowen4544]

60 years today

[@alfiewenn9440]

a huge amount of frieght could still be moved by rail from bristol to poole bournemouth if the sdjr still existed rather than fill our rural roads with trucks from gillingham dorset to go to bournemouth 30miles away we have to travel to salisbury winchester romsey southampton back to bournemouth where as on the sdjr we would simply have changed at templecoombe next stop south of us its utter madness

[@simonleyman9290]

i want those routes AXED NOW

[@andrewmeah3082]

Hi He closed SnowHill Station in Birmingham now this has been reopened so a lot of the closures he made were not justified as a lot of old routes are now being opened I cannot see how you would close a mainline station in Birmingham 2nd city when there were only two mainline stations crazy thinking

[@the-bananatrain]

Beeching does tend to get a bad rap for the railways but but as you said and "d he said it wasn't mad chopping it was just trying to make the numbers go up instead of down and even though yeah he failed in one sense technically speaking he did do he did do a good thing because it did cause preservation to go faster

[@levidarling5107]

I always knew that modernization in things not just railways is bull crap for the most part.

[@cjmillsnun]

You forgot to mention who Marples sold his shares to... His wife. Yeah. No conflict of interest there...

[@Weesel71]

Smelleth of central pllanning.