On Monday, hundreds of towns and villages across Scotland may rue the day 60 years ago when Dr Richard Beeching unveiled his infamous report, The Reshaping of British Railways. With rail passengers haemorrhaging to private cars, the chairman of British Railways wrote a prescription which has ever since been associated with swingeing cuts in the network. The axe fell hard in Scotland, with some 850 miles of passenger railway closed between 1964 and 1972, the worst cut being delivered in 1969 when the entire 98-mile Waverley Route through the Borders was shut.
(Permalink) British Railways David Spaven Richard Beeching Waverley Route