Like the present Government in NZ, the UK Government of the early 1960s had close ties to the road construction and road transport industries and decided that 15 years after the railways had been nationalised was a good time to shut down most of them. The Transport Act 1962 prepared the way for the wholesale line closures that their Dr Beeching proposed in March 1963 with his report entitled The Reshaping of British Railways with its bean counter thinking.
The National Union of Railwaymen responded with this document, The Mis-shaping of British Railways
However, like Steven Joyce in NZ, the British Government got its way, although the scale of closures was reduced, particularly in respect of those lines which ran through marginal parliamentary constituencies. Nevertheless, nearly a third of the route mileage that existed in 1960 had gone by the end of the decade. A few of the axed lines were turned into successful heritage operations; most of the rest became rail trails and their scenic attractiveness can still be enjoyed albeit at a very slow speed.
This was a period when politicians in most countries displayed no vision about future transport needs (not that things are much different now). Undoubtedly some lines were past their useful public utility value as the communities they served were dying anyway, but others should not only have been retained but upgraded.
The above is one of the books in our library.
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