Although the railways were carrying more passengers than ever before, freight was beginning to transfer to Britain's trunk roads and it was forecast that private car ownership was set to boom once petrol rationing ended. The prognosis for British Railways was an uncertain one, of big losses unless there was massive state investment in infrastructure and rolling-stock - ideological anathema to the Tories, of course. Inevitably and unfortunately, the road lobby (with unwavering support from Britain's car industry) carried the day. The Branch Lines Committee of the British Transport Commission was set up to identify railway lines to be closed - nearly 3,500 miles of track in the 1950s. But that was just the beginning.
Some of those old, abandoned routes have been repurposed as cycle tracks or hiking trails, others have been replaced by roads, still others are overgrown and largely forgotten. Our governing bodies have made some crass decisions in recent decades but the lopping of the branches off our national rail network looks in hindsight to be one of the more regrettable.
Richard Beeching was appointed chairman of British Railways by the Conservatives in 1961 with a mandate to get rid of routes that weren't 'viable'. Cue a huge contraction of the country's rail system. At a time when other nations (France, Germany, Italy for instance) were investing in the modernisation and expansion of their networks, Britain (the country that pioneered rail travel) was seemingly and short-sightedly hell-bent on decline and fall.
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| abandoned railway viaduct |
Beeching's 'The Reshaping of British Railways' report, when published in 1963, proposed axing a further 5,000 miles of track and 2,636 stations (over half of the country's total) plus 67,700 British Railways jobs and many Tory councils and corporations were complicit.
It was savage and seismic; many would argue totally the wrong thing to do; and it was a blow from which our railways have never recovered. To cite one example close to home, Blackpool Corporation actually argued openly for the closure of the town's Central Station (a building of Victorian splendour) so the site could be redeveloped for commercial gain (casino, bingo hall and carparks).
A similar decimation of our bus network and services is ongoing. And although the road lobby won out in the 1950s/60s, ironically the same reluctance to invest in that manufacturing sector has seen the British car industry decline to almost nothing, while French, German and Italian car companies have become pre-eminent in Europe.
The majority of branch lines were closed, the tracks ripped up for scrap, the stations allowed to fall into disrepair. Some stations were auctioned off - my father had a romantic notion of buying one but it never happened, just too impractical. And so, although a handful of wealthy individuals and some preservation societies did purchase stretches of line and a few stations, by and large the branches all disappeared and only the trunks of the railway network remained by the end of the 1960s.
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| abandoned branch line |
To conclude on a slightly more upbeat note, who remembers the TV series 'Love On A Branch Line' based on John Hadfield's comic novel of the same name from 1959? With a screenplay adaptation by David Nobbs and starring Michael Maloney and Lesley Phillips it was entertaining Sunday night viewing over four episodes in mid-1994 and I've just discovered that each 50-minute episode is available on YouTube. Filmed on the North Norfolk Railway, 5 miles of heritage steam railway running between Sheringham and Holt (a section of what was once the Melton to Cromer branch line), it's a riveting blast from the past and highly recommended viewing.
Here's a terse verse of sorts to conclude this Saturday's chunterings...
Beeching
goodbye no reprieve
the fall of an axe
no trains on the tracks
the wrong kind of leaves
Thanks for reading, S :-)
23 comments:
I understand your nostalgia and like your clever little poem, but wasn't there an inevitability about the decline of rail travel once cars proliferated and motorways were built?
One for the train spotters Steve? 😏
Beeching has become a bit of a bogeyman. I'm sure some rationalisation was necessary, however if the government of the day wouldn't invest (and it did all appear to be a cost-saving exercise rather than a blueprint for a great railway system for the late 20th century and beyond), then the man who ran the railways had to try and balance the books.
I don't know about trains. Privatisation doesn't seem to have made the system better. But I love your poem.
A cogently written rail away - expected nothing less of you. Why do people still trust Tories? It's a great little poem. 👏
Very good Steve. The local cycle path connecting us to the next village is on the route of an old branch line. At least it's safer than cycling along the road.
I remember Love On A Branch Line, really enjoyable drama series. 👍
All before my time. I'm sure more people would use trains again if they weren't unreliable and expensive (just the impression I've got from watching the news).
This resonated for personal reasons. My dad was one of the thousands whose job was axed by Beeching. It's the reason we emigrated to Australia when I was a kid. He's gone now else he might have enjoyed your blog. He always said Britain was going down the dunny! Your Beeching poem is powerful for being succinct, like Japanese verse.
Re-privatisation was the worst thing that could have happened to the railway network. I hope one day it will be brought back into public ownership and invested in properly by a government possessing a joined-up national transport policy.
My experience of British trains: cold, dirty, expensive and late; or hot, crowded, expensive and late but rarely a pleasant way to travel. Contrast with continental trains: clean, relaxed, punctual and affordable. How did we get it all so wrong in this country?
Well said Steve. The way our railway system has been mishandled is symptomatic of how poorly the country has been run on the whole, for most of the last hundred years, by a self-serving and rapacious public school elite - the wrong kind of government... (to paraphrase).
Bleak reading that (but neat little poem).
I used to love going in train journeys. It's such a shame that for a family of four travelling by car is cheaper and more flexible these days. I was going to say more reliable too, but sometimes motorway traffic is horrendous.
I read the Nes Statesman article you linked on your FB page about plans to delay HS2 and even lop some of its branches off completely. This country truly is in terminal decline (has been for a century or more) as successive Conservative governments have refused to spend on infrastructure. It's a shocking track record. On the plus side, I thought your Beeching poem was excellent - sometimes terse is just what's required.
Well the photographs told the tale as evocatively as the words. I'm sure some rationalisation was needed, but that should have been along massive investment to boost the economy and upgrade our rail network to world class again. Shoddy Tory short-termism and it continues to this day!
Let's face it, we've gone right off the rails in this country!
So sad. And nowadays trains are expensive and unreliable, unlike on the continent!
North Norfolk Railway (aka the Poppy Line) is a great experience. Open April through to October. Florence and I dined on it last year. Check out its website for details.
Don't get me started on our railways! Actually your witty poem says it all.
Ditto 'Brexit': the wrong kind of leaves! Myopic and impoverished thinking. We really are in danger of becoming the dilapidated sidings of Europe.
End of the line!
That poem - absolute brilliance!
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