Editing Beeching cuts (section)

==Background==
{{See also|History of rail transport in Great Britain}}
[[File:Banchory 1961.jpg|thumb|[[Banchory railway station]] on the [[Deeside Railway]], Scotland, in 1961. The station closed in 1966.]]

After growing rapidly in the 19th century during the [[Railway Mania]], the British railway system reached its height in the years immediately before the [[First World War]], with a network of {{convert|23440|mi}}.{{sfn|White|1986|p=18}} The network had opened up major travel opportunities for the entire country that had never been available before. However, lines were sometimes uneconomic, and several [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Members of Parliament]] had direct involvement with railways, creating a conflict of interest.{{sfn|Clough|2013|p=15}} In 1909, [[Winston Churchill]], then President of the Board of Trade, argued that the country's railways did not have a future without rationalisation and amalgamation.{{sfn|Clough|2013|p=16}} By 1914, the railways had some significant problems, such as a lack of standard rolling stock and too many duplicated routes.{{sfn|Clough|2013|p=15}}

After the war, the railways faced increasing competition from a growing [[Roads in the United Kingdom|road transport network]], which had increased to 8 million tons of freight annually by 1921.{{sfn|Clough|2013|p=27}} Around {{convert|1300|mi}} of passenger railways closed between 1923 and 1939. These closures included the [[Charnwood Forest Railway]], closed to passengers in 1931, and the [[Harborne Line]] in [[Birmingham]], closed to passengers in 1934.{{sfn|White|1986|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}} Some lines had never been profitable and were not subject to loss of traffic in that period.{{sfn|Clough|2013|p=11}} The railways were busy during the [[Second World War]], but at the end of the war they were in a poor state of repair and in 1948 [[nationalised]] as [[British Rail]]ways.

The Branch Lines Committee of the [[British Transport Commission]] (BTC) was formed in 1949 with a brief to close the least-used branch lines. This resulted in the loss (or conversion to freight-only operation) of some {{convert|3318|mi}} of railway between 1948 and 1962.{{sfn|White|1986|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}} The most significant closure was that of the former [[Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway]] in 1959. In opposition to these cuts, the period also witnessed the beginning of a protest movement led by the Railway Development Association, whose most famous member was the poet [[John Betjeman]].{{sfn|Henshaw|1994|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}} They went on to be a significant force resisting the Beeching proposals.

Economic recovery and the end of [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|petrol rationing]] led to rapid growth in car ownership and use. Vehicle mileage grew at a sustained annual rate of 10% between 1948 and 1964.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dft.gov.uk/statistics/tables/tra0101/ |title=Table TRA0101: Road traffic (vehicle miles) by vehicle type in Great Britain, annual from 1949 |date=23 June 2011 |publisher=Department for Transport |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207101445/http://www.dft.gov.uk/statistics/tables/tra0101/ |archive-date=7 February 2012 |archive-format=XLS}}</ref> In contrast, railway traffic remained steady during the 1950s<ref name="The Great Vanishing Railway">{{cite web |url=http://www.timmonet.co.uk/html/body_beeching.htm |title=The Great Vanishing Railway |work=timmonet.co.uk}}</ref> but the economic situation steadily deteriorated, with labour costs rising faster than income{{sfn|Henshaw|1994|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}}<ref name="The Great Vanishing Railway"/> and fares and freight charges repeatedly frozen by the government to try to control [[inflation]].{{sfn|Henshaw|1994|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}} By 1955, the railways' share of the transport market had dropped from 16% to 5%.{{sfn|DfT|2007|p=38}}

The [[1955 Modernisation Plan]] promised expenditure of over £1,240 million; [[steam locomotive]]s would be replaced with [[diesel locomotive|diesel]] and [[electric locomotive]]s, traffic levels would increase, and the system was predicted to be back in profit by 1962.{{sfn|Wolmar|2005|p=}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}} Instead losses mounted, from £68 million in 1960 to £87 million in 1961, and £104 million in 1962 (£{{Inflation|UK|0.104|1962|r=2}} billion in {{Inflation-year|UK}} terms).<ref name="ndad">{{cite web |url=http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/AH/37/detail.html |title=Department details: AH/37 (British Railways Board) |website=The National Digital Archive of Datasets |publisher=The National Archives |place=Kew |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061014033802/http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/AH/37/detail.html |archive-date=14 October 2006}}</ref>{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} The BTC could no longer pay the interest on its loans.

By 1961, losses were running at £300,000 a day,<ref name="Chairman">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1961/mar/21/british-transport-commission-chairman |chapter=British Transport Commission (Chairman) |title=Hansard |date=21 March 1961 |publisher=House of Commons |at=Vol. 637 cc. 223–343}}</ref> despite the fact that since nationalisation in 1948, {{convert|3000|mi}} of line had been closed,{{sfn|Daniels|Dench|1973|p=}}{{failed verification|date=March 2015}} railway staff numbers had fallen 26% from 648,000 to 474,000,{{sfn|Beeching|1963a|p=50}} and the number of railway wagons had fallen 29% from 1,200,000 to 848,000.{{sfn|Beeching|1963a|p=46}}