Cranleigh Line - Closure - The Reshaping of British Railways

The Reshaping of British Railways

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's announcement to the House of Commons on 10 March 1960 that "the railway system must be remodelled to meet the current needs" spelled the beginning of the end for the Cranleigh Line which had never run profitably in its history. Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport, was charged with remodelling BR, and he quickly appointed Dr Richard Beeching as chairman of the British Transport Commission in 1961. Beeching prepared The Reshaping of British Railways report, whose recommendations included closure of a large number of railway lines — colloquially nicknamed the "Beeching Axe". The Cranleigh Line was among those nominated for closure.

A survey of rail traffic on the line had been carried out during the week ending 23 April 1961, and it was based on these results that the Beeching report recommended closure of all five stations on the Cranleigh Line. The report showed that the line had fewer than 5,000 passengers per week and less than 5,000 tons of freight per week. Cranleigh and Bramley & Wonersh ticket offices received between £5,000 and £25,000 per year, and the other three stations on the line received less than £5,000 per year. At this time the line was losing about £46,000 per year or £884 per week. Under section 22 of the Transport Act 1962, the Act passed by the government to implement the new railway strategy, the Board of British Railways was required to run the railways so that its operating profits were "not less than sufficient" for meeting the running costs. This meant the end for uneconomic lines such as the Cranleigh Line.

The accounts used to justify the closure proved controversial. It was subsequently discovered that the £46,000 'annual' running costs included the majority of the costs of the replacement of the bridge over the River Wey, the majority of the work having been done in the year the accounts were compiled (actually a few years before the closure). The actual running costs, once the bridge replacement was removed were a far more modest £6,000. It had been realised that replacement of the steam traction used on the line with diesel, plus the replacement of the entirely manual signalling with automatic signalling would reduce costs. Closure of the largely underused part of the line beyond Cranleigh would have left a fairly profitable railway that would have become even more profitable with the subsequent increase of housing in Bramley and Cranleigh.