The UK government's 'Beeching Cuts' program

Background

The UK was still in post war economic decline and British Rail was losing money fast, so the government felt more roads and private cars were the answer. Transport minister and construction magnate, Ernest Marples, asked the government to do a report in to it and the civil service said only a few lines should close. The PM, Harold Macmillan, was also sceptical about the civil services’ report to. Ernest Maples asked his crony and chair of the British Railways Board, Dr Richard Beaching to wright a pseudo-report on it. Dr Beaching agreed with the road-centric ideas, but wanted to write his own report rather than just rant propaganda for Ernest Marples. The two reports – The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965).

The report

The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, centred it’s content on:

1. Corporate losses were running at £300,000 a day in 1961.
2. Small closures were continuous since 1948.
3. Improving the efficiency of the railways and the plan for achieving this through restructuring.
4. British Rail's post 1948 cuts had already seen the closing 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 the loss of 67,700 British Rail jobs since 1948.
5. Giving a small number of major routes for significant investment.
6. Switch fright to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight.
7. The replacement of some services with integrated bus services linked to the remaining railheads (may of which failed due to public disinterest).
8. Electrified intercity and cross country services were essential to a viable railway.
9. Scrapping surpluses locomotives and carriages.
10. Replace the older classes of freight trucks.
11. Retaining some surplus passenger lines as freight only lines or as emergency diversionary routs.
12. Scrap all steam trains by the end of the 1960s, not in the mid 1980s to mid 1990s as originally planned.

Aftermath

A few of these routes have since reopened and a few stations never closed. Some short sections became heritage railways, part of the National Cycle Network , country trails or road schemes, but most were built on or reverted to farmland. The Marples was elevated to the peerage before fleeing to Monaco at very short notice to avoid prosecution for tax fraud.

Reopenings

The historic Waverley Line closed in 1969 and reopen in in 2006. The Midland Metro network around Birmingham and Wolverhampton took over several long closed lines in 1999. The Great Central Railway (Nottingham) heritage railway and a local Gypsum works at the northern end of East Leake still use the line trough the site of East Leake station on occasions.

A short analysis of why 15 stations closed

1. Ettington
   1. .
2. Byfield
   1. .
3. Brackley Central
   1. .
4. Verney Junction
   1. .
5. Rugby Central
   1. .
6. Calvert
   1. .
7. East Leake: opened in 1899 and closed in 1969.
   1. It was not particularly popular or unpopular station. It was on a uncompetitive peace of line and was closed due to preserved duplication of routes. A heritage railway and Gypsum quarry use the track trough the station at times.
8. Banbury Merton Street: opened in 1850, closed to passengers in 1961 and but closed to goods in 1966.
   1. It held hope as fright only station.
9. Farthinghoe: opened in 1851, closed to passengers in 1952 and goods in 1963.
   1. Assumedly low passenger number given it's rural location.
10. Helmdon Village: opened in 1872, closed to passengers in 1951 and goods in 1952.
    1. Goods and passengers were both were pathetically low.
11. Woodford Hales: opened in 1899 and closed in 1966.
    1. It cold have continued on if the former Great Central Railway's London Extension and Great Central Railway Banbury branch had not been shut around it by Birth Rail leading to the station's closure in 1966.
12. Eydon Road Halt: opened in 1913, closed in 1956 and the line trough it closed in 1966.
    1. Assumedly low passenger number given it's rural location.
13. Buckingham station: opened in 1850, closed to passengers in 1964 and goods in 1966.
    1. The increased competition from buses and cars in the 1920s and 1930s the ASLEF strike of 1955 resulting in most of the milk traffic lost to road transport effectively killed off it's reason to exist since passenger use was light and local freight was it's life blood.
14. Chalcombe Road: opened in 1900 and closed in 1956 and the line through it closed in 1966.
    1. Assumedly low passenger number given it's rural location). The line though it served mostly as a place for freight trains going between sites on the MS&LR (now known as the Great Central) and the Great Western railways, but the station apparently saw little goods activity either.
15. Brackley Town: opened in 1850, closed to passengers in 1961 and to goods in 1963.
    1. The arrival of the Great Central Railway in Brackley undermined most of it's patronage.

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_Railway
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts
3. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/the-1963-cabinet-papers-british-rail-beeching-branded-pr-disaster-over-rail-network-cuts-1397205.html
4. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1961/mar/21/british-transport-commission-chairman
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Marples
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Leake#Transport
7. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/east_leake/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Leake_railway_station
9. https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/railway-stations-nottinghamshire-lost-over-5921800
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banbury_Merton_Street_railway_station
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farthinghoe_railway_station
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmdon_Village_railway_station
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodford_Halse_railway_station
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eydon_Road_Halt_railway_station
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Main_Line
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Railway
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford-upon-Avon_and_Midland_Junction_Railway#The_East_and_West_Junction_Railway
18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckinghamshire_Railway
19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford-upon-Avon_and_Midland_Junction_Railway
20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banbury%E2%80%93Verney_Junction_branch_line
21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_railway_station
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Main_Line
23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brackley_railway_station
24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcombe_Road_Halt_railway_station
25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verney_Junction_railway_station
26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brackley_Central_railway_station
27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byfield_railway_station
28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettington_railway_station
29. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_Central_railway_station
30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvert_railway_station
31. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Leake_railway_station
32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_Metro