Dr. Richard Beechings

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Shackamaxon, Nov 29, 2022.

  1. Shackamaxon

    Shackamaxon Well-Known Member

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    I was reading about this person and his 'contributions' to the rail industry of the U.K.
    I have a suspicion that the source I was using is biased.

    What do you U.K. based folks think about it ?
    Those of you who live at the places where his 'axe' fell, does that changed your way of life ?
     
  2. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I think some of his closures were probably on the cards anyway, BR and those before it had closed railway lines before.

    However I think most of his actions were short sighted and didn't look to the long term, but most 1960's planning decisions were like that, the car was king. I am certain the road building lobby and contractors, some whom were party donors were instrumental in his thinking or that of the transport minister Ernest Marples anyway, who himself owned a road construction firm. Maybe more of the blame should be laid at Marples door.

    Ivo Peeters in the mid 1960's was already concerned at the amount of traffic in Somerset especially in the seaside towns as the closure of the Somerset and Dorest railway loomed.

    They closed the Stourbridge to Walsall line near me, a line cutting across a major urban conurbation, so it wasn't just rural lines which closed. Town like Brierley Hill and Dudley lost their railway stations. Driving to Walsall can be a nightmare, if there was still a direct train it would be so much easier.

    Plenty of sizeable towns were left without a railway connection.

    So for me I think it was an shortsighted and wrong headed also idealogically driven plan. Of which, some of it has been overturned and certain more to follow over the coming years.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2022
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  3. Shackamaxon

    Shackamaxon Well-Known Member

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    So any plans for reclaiming the lost assets ?

    What happened to the infrastructure like right of way, stations, bridges, and stuff like that ?
    Demolished, left to decay, or sold back ?

    Isn't encroachment / illegal use of such properties a problem ?
     
  4. junior hornet

    junior hornet Well-Known Member

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    Just to clarify. Richard Beeching didn’t close a single railway or station. The Government of the day did. They commissioned a report, which he produced, based on revenues at the time. Whoever led the report, the railway infrastructure was always going to be hugely cut back. Many routes and stations that people think were closed as a result of this report had, in fact, closed earlier, many in the 1950s.

    A couple of interesting points about Dr Beeching. Firstly, the line beyond East Grinstead was cut. The line as far as East Grinstead was reprieved. Guess where he lived. That’s right, East Grinstead.

    Secondly, Dr Beeching actually opened at least one railway - the preserved route between Totnes and Buckfastleigh (now known as the South Devon Railway). It was a line that he didn’t close. That preceded his report by a few years.
     
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  5. If you live in a village or town with poor transport links and no railway it's most likely dr beeching is the reason behind this.

    You can't blame beeching for being short sighted though, he basically looked at all the railways in GB and earmarked all the ones running at total loss for closure.

    You can't blame the government either! It's the developers that built over the land once occupied by the railways making sure they could never be used again. And it's the developers that build 1000s of houses in areas with poor transport links then expect them 1000s of families to head off to work everyday along roads that wasn't built to handle that kind of traffic.
     
  6. junior hornet

    junior hornet Well-Known Member

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    There are plenty of towns and villages in Devon and Cornwall (and probably eslsewhere in the country) that lost their rail services in the 1950s, well before Beeching.

    And who sold the land to the developers? What were they supposed to do with it?
     
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  7. It was around 4000 miles of railway that beeching recommended for closure.

    I know someone who purchased land on a disused railway (a old goods yard) and he remembers buying it from the great Western railway company. There's a bit of a story here, as he left it for many years to find it had been sold to a developer by the local authority in he's absence. So its hard to say who sold off all that land.
     
  8. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Richard Beeching was Chairman of British Rail for the period in the lead up to and shortly after the report which advised the closure of thousands of miles of railway, along with loads of stations
    He was chairman of ICI (a chemical company based in the UK) and the government brought him in to work out how to make railways PROFITABLE rather than to serve the nation as a whole, the comunities it served or the communities it went through

    There are a few caviats to this. At the time the railways were operated under a policy of "carrier of last resort" meaning that if they COULD carry an item then they were obliged to do so. All carriage costs were also publicly listed, so haulage firms could just look this price list up and then undercut the railways

    Also with a huge network serving almost every residential area, with each often having it's own freight, mail, parcels, sometimes milk or produce this was a huge task and heavy on manpower so it's no surprise it cost so much

    As with anything which has a cost, unless someone HAS to take action to remove something or there is a commercial benefit to do so, things will stay in place. It's often cheaper to inspect a bridge every year rather than remove it.
    As an example Gravesend West Railway station closed to Passengers in 1953, to freight in 1968 but the station frame is still there today, and a railway bridge leading to the station was only demolished less than ten years ago, in fact the restricted height warning sign is still in place!
    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4...4!1sV6T1fKHJiqUsF8ZXxzviCA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
    If you look at that streetview from google you can see the height sign, and up to the left the metalwork of the station pier and station roof
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravesend_West_railway_station
     
  9. pessitheghost

    pessitheghost Well-Known Member

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    i kinda see where beeching was coming from I think beeching was kind of smart, he was trying to strengthen the routes that brought in the most income, he was pro electrification and was one of the catalysts in wcml electrification. in my opinion the issue with the government is that they didn’t introduce a rolling electrification programme. and then again the government being stingy with rail upgrades is what kind of caused the issue to be affecting us. i personally believe the government should focus on bettering the mainlines before reopening closed railway. we should prioritise electrification of the mainlines, let’s work towards decarbonisation of our railways
     
  10. stijn.claessens

    stijn.claessens Well-Known Member

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    At least we got a decent comedy show out of it.
     
  11. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    He was an economist through and through. He came from ICI so not a railway background but he knew how to make savings.

    The closure of many lines was inevitable and impossible to avoid, the shortsightedness was selling the land and lifting the track.
    Even now, any spare yard or siding which isn’t being used is ripped up and sold off to housing developers.
    This strips flexibility out of the railway and then 10 years later they cry that they do not have space for more trains etc .

    There are plenty of stations opening this year which Beeching closed as passenger numbers increase and many more planned for 2023. The tricky bit is relaying branchlines which are built over in key locations. If they had just kept the land it wouldn’t of been a problem.
     
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  12. kevin hayes

    kevin hayes New Member

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    One of the greatest Railway Men in history is Dr Beeching it's a pity he isn't still around. We could do with him on the team of DTG then maybe he could sort out the mess on the railway Routes and Bugs what's in the game and kick out the ones that won't play ball in sorting out this heap of crap that we have to put up with when trying to play the game. I Take my hat off to Dr Richard Beeching at least he got things done by weeding out the crap. Thankfully I know longer play this Train Sim world 3 game as I have wiped it off my ps4 for the time being, I play a better train sim game on my pc and one I know that works all the time with no bugs or crashers. YOU CAN'T BEAT JUST TRAINS THE GAME FOR THE PC.
     
  13. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Beeching wasn't a railway man, he was a money and figures man, came from the chemical industry and was "inserted" by the government of the time to do a specific job
    Unfortunately as with most things government it was only interested in what they wanted right at that moment with little thought for future needs, and the cuts left a lot of the country stranded as far as provision of railway service goes, and these cuts are still being felt today by some communites.
     
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  14. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    Nicely trolled!
     
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  15. JJTimothy

    JJTimothy Well-Known Member

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    To be fair to Beeching he was brought in to attempt to make railways profitable (or at least less costly) by rationalizing a process that has always been part of railway history anyway- populations fluctuate, industries close and the railways that serve those populations and industries lose traffic and close. If one is to criticise Beeching for the report, the cack-handed way the survey it was based on was carried out and the short sightedness of some of the decisions made on the basis of it one should also draw attention to his successes. Freight in particular was revitalized under Beeching who was adamant that rail was best suited to moving freight by the train load rather than the wagon load.

    It should also be noted that he compiled a second report recommending modernization and considerable investment in key trunk routes- it got little publicity and little if any of it was acted upon.

    He didn't help his own case by giving a remarkably smug TV interview around 1980 though which I think is on line.
     
  16. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    They closed the Walsall to Stourbridge line, a route cutting through the black country conurbation where roads were already getting crowded in the 60's. It left Dudley, a large town without a central railway station. I can understand why some very rural branch lines were closed but there were plenty of routes which were not rural or served sizeable towns which were culled.
     
  17. pessitheghost

    pessitheghost Well-Known Member

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    Beeching wasn’t the issue, Ernest Marples was
     

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