Re: Dr Beeching

["David Proctor" <daproc@spam_this.umpires.com>]

Daryl - I have cross-posted this to uk.railway - they will be able to answer
you better - I know a good deal of the history, but not all of it, and the
readers of that newsgroup will have a far closer view of it, as well as
being able to inject a bit of emotion and politics into the answer.

Suffiuce to say that Dr. Beeching, although despised at the time for closing
a lot of railway lines, was probably the saviour of the railways in the
United Kingdon, in that if those lines had NOT closed, the railways would
have lost far more money than they did, and the closures eventually would
have been greater!

Dave Proctor

Daryl Cheshire wrote in message <7718qd$2bv$1@eplet.mira.net.au>...
>I have heard of several references to Dr Beeching in regard to rail
closures
>in Britain. Who was he and what did he do?
>
>So far I have gathered, he held some sort of enquiry into rail services and
>recommended closures which were followed up (in the '50s?). Was he an
>external consultant or the head of BR?
>
>Seems like the Lonie reports in the early '80s which were not fully
>implemented at the time but were gradully implemented by default years
>later.
>
>Thanks
>
>Daryl
>
>