Re: Dr Beeching

[jim@sprockets.co.uk (Jim Guthrie)]

On Thu, 07 Jan 1999 23:56:58 GMT, news@nospam.freeserve.co.uk (Tony
Polson) wrote:

Tony

>But the *fact* is that the Conservative Government of the 1950s gave the British
>Railways Board £1.5 billion to spend on the Modernisation Plan with *precisely*
>the brief you suggest.  All they managed to buy with £1.5 billion after several
>years was ... Beeching.  (Is it any wonder the Tories are anti-railway?)

Well,  I do remember the modernisation and electrification on North
Clydeside which was reckoned to be a success - but maybe the populace
of that area were the only ones to get any benefit from the
Modernisation plan :-).

You question the competence of the BRB,  but maybe you should also
question the competence of a Government who should have monitored the
situation and done something about it and not let the situation fester
for years until the advent of Beeching.   The words "horse", "stable",
"door", and "bolted" spring to mind.

Jim.