This was the infamous Beeching Axe, which gutted the network. Only recently have we realized how stupid it was to give up the right of way, as we struggle to reintroduce trains (for example) from Oxford to Cambridge. But what is remarkable is how rational and sensible Beeching makes it seem, back in 1963.

Speaks volumes when Beeching says when we look at the railways as a business it isn't profitable. There's a big difference though, the railway is a public service, it should not be a business.

@thesteelrodent1796

7 ай бұрын

in the UK they refuse to accept that public transport is a necessity to make society function. Even today the government doesn't want anything to do with it, and are completely blind to how difficult it is to move people and goods over great distances when the only option are the motorways Beeching were so keen to secure funding for

@percystreet

5 ай бұрын

How much are you willing to pay, though - even government is a business at the end of the day. This presentation shows that the actions were driven by rational analysis.

@elboobio5920

5 ай бұрын

@@percystreet I don't think you could just put a figure on it, but what I would say, is currently we're already paying for it, government is using public money to pay private companies to run TOCs. That means the private companies who have to make a profit to pay dividends to shareholders, are being funded by taxes. If it was reverted to the public sector, it would only have to break even and we'd know any money going in would be for the betterment of the service.

There is a difference between 'reshaping' and 'decimating' Mr Beeching.

@kiwitrainguy

2 жыл бұрын

It's Orwellian Doublespeak.

Short sighted approach, letting Marple's devastate the rail network!

@DarrenJCalvert

2 жыл бұрын

Short sighted for sure and sadly still how the governments of today still operate, line one’s pockets and fingers up to anything else, and unrealistic plans

@kiwitrainguy

2 жыл бұрын

"Railways? Who wants those? We'll build you some nice Motorways instead."

@geraldbrown2366

2 жыл бұрын

Remind me who signed the actual closure orders. Hint it was the Labour government if you were not around then!

@reynardbizzar5461

Жыл бұрын

Marples and the Conservatives didn’t devastate the railways. It was the Wilson government who closed most lines lines down. Check history!👺

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

It was the lack of patronage by the public that was the main cause for the railway closures, as borne out by the passenger traffic figures when the weekly study was done. Indeed, there should have been IMHO other surveys done, particularly in the summer when loadings were higher. If you don't use it, you lose it comes to mind. My opinion.

Awesome film.

Lines were closed before Beeching, lots of lines! But the revalation when the figures are looked at in depth is; Lines that carried hundreds of thousands of passengers to Summer holiday destinations had their passenger usage counted in deepest winter = no footfall. Coal train traffic was measured in the middle of Summer when coal was not used for heating most homes in Great Britain! Hatchet job or stupidity?

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

Yes, a number of lines were closed under the Branchline Committee prior to the issue of the Reshaping Report in 1963. The report colloquially called the Beeching Report, was written by Beeching and his staff, incidentally, his name is not in or on the report neither any of his staff. It is viewable as a pdf at the railways archive website. Now I am not sure where you are getting your figures on traffic information from. The report was based on a nation wide survey of both passenger and freight traffic week ending 23 April 1961. This is mentioned on page 10 of the Report.

@nicktheengineer5976

2 ай бұрын

Tory party corruption. Marples was no idiot. He knew exactly what he was doing that would benefit his civil engineering/road construction business

If Beeching was a heart surgeon, he'd remove all the arteries and veins from the patient, leaving them to die.

@barleyarrish

2 жыл бұрын

but think of the advantages, no more getting caught in the rain, no more getting up to go to work, no more arguments, no more headaches, and all the leisure time...

@geraldbrown2366

2 жыл бұрын

Good to see you ignore facts. 50% of the network carried 5% of the traffic

@abloogywoogywoo

2 жыл бұрын

@@geraldbrown2366 I ignore The British Transport Commission (BTC), yes. We're now in a position where we cannot reinstate the railway infrastructure even when there's an economic and environmental incentive to do so. We didn't safeguard the trackbeds like they do in America. Later councils sold the land off for £1 in many instances for housing development - we're screwed, it would cost BILLIONS to put the network back, so now nearly all freight must move by road.

@geraldbrown2840

2 жыл бұрын

@@abloogywoogywoo The vast vast majority of freight traffic in this country is NOT suited to rail. Rail is best at moving bulk (often lower value) materials which is why coal formed the bedrock of UK rail freight for decades. France is littered with rail connected industrial estates that nowadays have no traffic because wagonload traffic is hopelessly uneconomic there, as it is here. Who knew 60 years ago that privatisation would come along and passenger traffic double? What do you think our transport needs will be in 60 years time?

@abloogywoogywoo

2 жыл бұрын

@@geraldbrown2840 Of course not, Beeching and his tax evading bumchums got rid of all the marshalling yards and were pushing for the motorways (yay for leaded petrol poisoning us all!). You wouldn't see this level of corruption and incompetence happening in any other European or American country.

I sure hope that "container" concept works out

Awesome video!

Strikes me Beeching was handed a gun which he loaded & gave it back to Transport Minister Marple's who pulled the trigger. Oh yes, he had a Civil Engineering Company called Marples Ridgeway based in Bath I'm sure. They built motorways ????? amongst other things, or am I being cynical !! Add to that the sort sighted view of the plan & you end up with a complete failure.

@xr6lad

3 жыл бұрын

There were 2 corrupt idiots. There names should never be forgotten for destroying valuable infrastructure. How they retain their honours when it was obvious what they did to benefit themselves financially.

@geraldbrown2366

2 жыл бұрын

Oh dear. The Labour government with Barbara Castle as Transport Minister signed the closure orders, even though it would put mostly Labour voters out of a job. Even Labour could see what a hopeless financial situation the railways were in!

@michaelhearn3052

5 ай бұрын

@@geraldbrown2366 There were other Labour Minsters that also closed lines, Fraser, Castle) Marsh and Mullery.

@nicktheengineer5976

2 ай бұрын

Tory corruption as ever

Excellent video, an eye opener. I was an apprentice in Crewe Works Fabrication Shop, when this film was made, well remember the reaction to the “Beeching Cuts”. Thanks for posting.

I seem to remember that Marples divested his shares in the road building company to his wife !

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

No he did not. HIs wife stated in two newspaper interviews that she had received nothing in the way of shares from him, in spite of being harassed by reporters over this matter, at the time. Marples stated in Nov 1960, in the house, documented in Hansard was that ... perhaps I should sell the shares to my wife; when the newspapers discovered that he had not disposed of his shareholding in his former company as he was required to do so by Parliamentary law. Perhaps does not mean that he did, equally it also could mean that he did not. So far no hard original, traceable evidence, has been forth coming concerning his shares, and where they went, all we have had is a lot of rumour as to where they supposedly went. Indeed he had interests in Liechtenstein, and it is thought that they went into an overseas trust. I would add that he resigned his directorship in is old company in Oct 1951, as he was required to do so by Parliamentary law, as Cabinet ministers and above are required to do so today, and to dispose of their share holdings etc usually in a blind trust.

the whole Beeching thing has become a textbook example of how a rushed decision based on a limited study leads to long-lasting disastrous results that are very difficult to revert. It's almost as bad as when the US destroyed their public transport to make space for private vehicles and freight trains. Although Beeching is often blamed for the axe, it ultimately wasn't him who made the decision to cut all those lines that now sit abandoned and are desperately needed to remove traffic from the congested roads

Beeching wielding Marples' axe.. Funny how he lived in East Grinstead and that the line from London to there (via Oxted) stayed open while the rest of the line closed. Plus ça change..

@RHR-221b

3 жыл бұрын

I recall reading, many years ago, that Marples and its family had *Big Investments* in a road construction company. Pelters welcome ... Stay free, M. R 🍻😎

@clivegeary4587

3 жыл бұрын

@@RHR-221b Quite right. Marples of Marples Ridgeway went on to build loads of motorways. Funny that.

@CasinoWoyale

3 жыл бұрын

How did the volume of traffic on that part of the line that was closed compare to that part of the line that remained open?

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

@@RHR-221b He was a director in Marples Ridgeway a construction firm. He resigned from it in Oct 1951 when he was made a junior cabinet minister, as he was required to do so by Parliamentary law. From that point on he was not involved in his former companies day to day running or contract negotiations.

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

@@clivegeary4587 Resigned from it in Oct 1951.

Can someone please explain what's happened to all the drivers eye vids that were on the channel and have been removed from the channel???

This was a cost cutting exercise right across the network, I don't think Mr Beeching was very popular at the time, and even less so decades later.

Great vlog! How did this masacre end?

Beeching said the bus was the replacement. What Beeching didn't realize was the more people on the roads and the buses, means the system gets squeezed. Traffic becomes unbearable. Now it's squeezed to the point that we need the Railways back again. Closing the lines in the 60s was fair enough. Selling the land off for redevelopment and absolutely no chance of reopening along the line when the population of the country sky rockets and technology advances however, was not. Beeching did his job and nothing more. Though he recommended a lot of lines for closure that would pay for themselves easily today. Marples however deliberately destroyed the Railways for his road company, not thinking of caring of how this would affect the future generations. As a result it's very hard and very expensive now to reverse these cuts.

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

Marples resigned from his road company (sic) in Oct 1951, when he was made a junior cabinet minister.

That’s it get someone in who knows nothing about it to change it. Pure coincidence that Marples was in bed with the RHA. One of the things this clown got wrong was not realising branch lines feed the main,Ines. Like a lot of these types they reduce everything to mathematics, and forget it’s a service. The fact they are retro fitting some of his closures says it all.

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

The root problem was the lines had to operate at a profit as per the 1962 Transport Act. Those that did were OK, those that did not were candidates for closure. More lines were closed by the Wilson Labour Government elected in Oct 1964, than the Torys, in spite of Labour stating in its election manifesto that it would reverse the closures. The idea of a subsidy for remunerative lines that were of a social need was addressed in the 1968 Transport Act with grants for a 3 year period was introduced by Castle. Also Dr Terry Gourvish was invited by NR to write a history of the Railways from Integration to Privatization. He and his team when given access to the archives did not find any evidence that Marples was swayed by the RHA at all.

That graphic at 4.27 looked like ivor the engine 😂

I don't see what Beeching was supposed to do, since BR was in the middle of fundamental changes in its business model, already losing money on lightly-used trackage, competing against motor vehicles, etc. At least in theory BR was addressing long-term issues. Maybe the axe was dull, and clumsily wielded In America our Interstate Commerce Commission refused to let our privately-owned railroads abandon trackage, let alone passenger or freight service, under the theory of "it's a public service you have to keep running", even while losing money due to lack of freight or passengers now moving by motor vehicles. The long-term financial losses sustained weakened several U.S. railroads, until route abandonment and rail service cutbacks were finally allowed. But by that time there had been railroad failures, such as the Penn Central in the 1970's. In some places small regional or local railroads took over the lightly-used or abandoned branch lines trying to save freight rail service over the next 30 years or so. Passenger train service was taken over by our Amtrak; commuter services were sometimes contracted operations under State control, or still local commuter operators (Metra near Chicago, Boston's MBTA, etc.).

I wonder if Beeching regretted being the face of this when it was the Tory minister Marples (who owned a road building firm) who was really behind this

It's always Beeching who gets the blame for what happened in 63. In fact cuts to the railway network had been going on for decades beforehand. I did a rough calculation and it suggests that about 90 per cent of the stations in Edinburgh and the lothians were closed before the beeching report came along.

@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome

2 жыл бұрын

A video about that would be most interesting.

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

That was the branchline committee closures. The Book by Daniels and Dench, Passengers No more is a good read and lists in alphabetical order the closed lines and stations and their dates of closure.

There's no railway in the world that has not needed subsidization at some point or permanently. Most counties accept that it is or was, part of the heart of their system that kept their industry going. This guy was an absolute buffoon IMHO. As is being proven right now by the need for more rail, less road haulage. Men in suits that talk a lot, thats all they were. I'm 68 and I've seen some of the best companies in Great Britain ruined by Men In Suits. Thank you for the footage though lol.

@Charles-ey9qk

9 ай бұрын

I can't say I like what happened under Beeching and his kind. But I will say that if he hadn't closed so many lines there wouldn't be so many wonderful heritage railways today. The volunteers are absolutely brilliant. I worked as one for a few years and learnt so much from these real experts who bring so much pleasure to the public and who do it for love rather than money. Beeching never realised that so many lines would be restored to what they ought to be. Modern trains don't have much character. They are just sophisticated machines. The old railway🎉😢s were less efficient no doubt, but they provided a service ,especially on the branch lines. Then you could go shopping by train. Today the branch lines have largely disappeared and buses seldom run, so we end up in the car.🎉

@michaelhearn3052

8 ай бұрын

@@Charles-ey9qk Beeching did not close any lines. He and his staff wrote a report based upon data from a nationwide passenger and freight survey week ending 23 April 1961. Closures up to 1966, were undertaken by a set process involving the TUCC, for which the relevant Minister would decide on. Post 1966 BR took the decision which lines to close.

Everyone curses Beeching for doing the job he was given, which made complete sense at the time. Now with the huge anti CO2 push making people think of expanding rail, more curse him, the thing is though, most of the closed lines still wouldn't help much, twisting & turning from one wrong place to another. Don't reverse Beeching. Build new where it's needed now, not where it was needed 80 to 100 years ago.

@xr6lad

3 жыл бұрын

No. It was a lax oversight system of entrenched political corruption that couldn't occur today because you need to declare conflicts of interest. Marples appointing a man that was probably given 'instructions' and he did exactly what he was told, meanwhile Marples construction firm made money out of building motorways.

@beardyface8492

3 жыл бұрын

@@xr6lad I see.. so in what way does that not match MY statement above "Everyone curses Beeching for doing the job he was given"? If you're going to agree with me which you evidently just did, you don't start with "No."

@junkboxxxxxx

9 ай бұрын

The problem is the knock-on effect of closing the railway to these places. They didn't prosper by it, they were knocked out into ghost towns. (And so were later taken up by suburbs, who would have had a commuter line transit infrastructure ready to use, were it not yanked up and sold over in the 1960s.)

@beardyface8492

9 ай бұрын

@@junkboxxxxxx Possibly true, but that calls for waving a magic wand so it never happened. Just because closing a line was a bad idea, doesn't mean reopening it is a good one. Build new railways where they're needed now, you'll get a better result.

Ah ! We have H S 2 to look forward to nowadays!😂😂

@johnwalton6642

5 ай бұрын

Yes. We were informed by our illustrious leaders that HS2 would run from Euston to Birmingham. It would later divide with one section going onto Manchester and the other to Leeds. All this for the bargain price of £32billion. We now look like getting only, a line from Old Oak Common to Birmingham costing £60-70 billion. The journey from Old Oak Common to Birmingham will be 19 minutes quicker than it would have been from London Euston. That's how things work out when you trust Del Trotter!

Curse you Beeching. Thank you BBR.

@harrisonofcolorado8886

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, Jay Foreman even said he had a phobia of trains.

This guy was a bell end!! “Think of the cost?” Think of the future you knob

Before we all start cursing Beeching we ought to remove those spectacles of nostalgia: what Beeching (and his henchmen) did back in the 60's was necessary at that time for the reasons he pointed out - even today there are countries dealing with the exact same issues as he points out 60 years ago: too few passenger to make a stretch of railway track financially viable unless it is heavily subsidized by the government. There are with almost certainty some of you who argue that trains remove some of the congestion from the roads which is true, however, if this is only a problem during the rush hours in the morning and in the afternoon then a railway is a very expensive solution for dealing with this problem and it just grows even more expensive once the passengers demand more frequent trains, because most people just hate to stand and wait...

@Rickyrab

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, but as the Beeching Axe experiment ultimately demonstrated, cutting railroad service doesn't really solve anything and may actually increase costs due to induced demand on roadways and other side effects.

The coal mining industry and the shipbuilding industry and the steel industry have all been "reshaped" too, and British buildings are no longer covered in black soot. If you worked overtime you could make twenty quid a week and afford egg and chips any time you fancied.

@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome

2 жыл бұрын

And even a small bottle of HP sauce too I'll wager.

@kiwitrainguy

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds delicious, where do I sign up?

When the railway lines where Closed they should have left the lines intact and should not Have been built on They should have not singled The Waterloo to Exeter line The line between chinley/Buxton and Matlock another Line should have remained open as it takes four hours To get from Matlock to Buxton 4 Hours Other lines Uckfield to lewes East Grinstead low level To Hayward’s heath Beeching and Marples ruined the railway’s

The militant unions & their continuous strikes over the decades have caused the decline of the railway to the joke that it is today, and sadly there is no return from the abyss that they have created.

@kenstevens5065

7 ай бұрын

I agree, it's interesting to note that the 1955 ASLEF strike which lost up to half of railway freight traffic to road occurred at the same time as the huge BR modernisation plan was launched which was long before Beeching. The biggest loss from Beeching was surely no protection of closed rail routes for future use or the protection of alternative bus services.

Railways are very romantic and all, but if the alternative is that I have to subsidise rail travel then it's best to close it down. The fact that the government just finds other things to waste our money on shouldn't influence that decision.

Beeching cut nothing. Cutting was by the Labour government from Oct 1964 on .....

Tory Bas........

@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome

2 жыл бұрын

Politician Bas.......

@hoofie2002

2 жыл бұрын

Signed off and implemented by a Labour government you fuckwit