On the state of Britain's railways, I have to disagree with you. Unfortunately, Mr. Beeching had his counterparts practically everywhere in Europe (maybe Switzerland is the one true exception), some of the branchline killing sweeps were done already in the fifties, and some countries had mulrtiple waves (for example Germany). France included (I indicated that in my Un tour de France diary).
Britain was special in the very late nationalisation of railways, and thus the higher frequency of parallel mainlines that were seen redundant. But this only explains that Mr. Beeching could lay hands on more mainlines that his German or Italian colleagues.
I'm not sure about the real reason. I suspect it already started in the seventies, when BR tinkered with the APT, at a time other West European state railways had larger-scale and more practically (and successfully) executed modernisation programmes. But I am fairly certain that Thatcher's anti-rail attitude was a big part of it, it stopped any significant modernisation drive, while the Continent started into the IC/EC era. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
He could have, should have, reduced the original Midland line instead of the Central line. He completely failed to understand railways as a business, as a national resource.
You're possibly right that the deliberate indifference of later politicians played its part, but Beeching left a railway system that was too deprived of passengers to work properly keep to the Fen Causeway
I note so did his continental colleagues. This 'transport policy' of cutbacks was a monumental idiocy, yet it is an expectation on new EU members to boldly repeat it... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Britain decided in the fifties to follow the US example of dieselisation, rather than the continental route to electrification. But by the sixties, electric locomotives were clearly superior in speed and power, and economics, too. And it was the basis for further developments elsewhere (which also benefitted diesel-electrics).
Do you know how and who decided that, and whether Mr. Beeching had a role in that, too? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Things were already changing by the beginning of the 60s, but there was certainly a momentum that carried through to the 80s. keep to the Fen Causeway
...indeed, which was in effect what made the future elsewhere -- also because once electrification was decided, modern electronic signalling and train safety systems could be done in the same go. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
