Beeching Closures - The Closures

The Closures

The first report was accepted by the Government and sparked a prompt outcry from communities that would lose their rail services, many of which (especially in the case of rural communities) had no other public transport. The government argued that many services could be provided more cheaply by buses.

Annual railway line closures, which had been running at about 150-300 mile per year between 1950 and 1961 peaked at 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1964 and had come to a virtual halt by 1970. A long list of railway stations and lines which were closed following the report is available in Category:Beeching closures. One of the last major railway closures was of the 98-mile long (158 km) Waverley Route main line between Carlisle, Hawick and Edinburgh in 1969; the re-opening of a 35-mile section of this line was approved by the Scottish Parliament and passenger services are due to resume in 2014.

Not all the recommended closures were implemented. Reprieved lines include:

• Lines through the Scottish Highlands such as the Far North Line and the West Highland Line, although listed for closure, were kept open, in part because of pressure from the powerful Highland lobby.
• The Central Wales Line was said to have been kept open because it passed through so many marginal constituencies that no one dared to close it.
• The Tamar Valley Line in Devon and Cornwall were kept open because the local roads were poor.
• Other routes planned for closure which survived included: Settle-Carlisle Line, Ipswich–Lowestoft, Manchester–Sheffield via Edale (but the Woodhead Line and Bakewell routes closed instead), Ayr–Stranraer, Glasgow–Kilmarnock, Glasgow–Edinburgh via Shotts, Barrow–Whitehaven, Middlesbrough–Whitby, York–Harrogate, Leeds/Bradford–Ilkley, Nottingham–Lincoln, Boston–Skegness, Birkenhead–Wrexham, Liverpool–Southport (and other Merseyside commuter routes), Bury - Manchester, Leicester–Peterborough, Hastings–Ashford and Ryde–Shanklin.

Some lines not recommended for closure were, however, eventually closed, such as the Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield in 1981, after the freight traffic (most notably coal) on which it had relied, declined. Most of the Oxford–Cambridge "Varsity Line" closed despite its strategic location serving Milton Keynes—Britain's largest "new town". Fife in Scotland especially suffered closures not included in the Report; and King's Lynn was to have remained at the centre of routes towards Norwich, Hunstanton and Wisbech—all of which closed.

With a few exceptions, after the early 1970s proposals to close other lines were met with vociferous public opposition and were quietly shelved. This opposition likely stemmed from the public's experience of the many line closures during the cuts in the mid and late 1960s. Today, many of Britain's railways still run at a deficit and require subsidies.