Britain | The great train robbery

Britain is still marked by the mistakes of the Beeching Report

60 years have passed since the railways were reshaped

Dr Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Railways, Photo-call visiting the Bluebell Line in Sussex, England, 1st April 1962. He became a household name in Britain in the early 1960s for his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", commonly referred to as "The Beeching Report", which led to far- reaching changes in the railway network, popularly known as the Beeching Axe. Source Wikipedia. (Photo by Tony Eyles/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images) — Image: Getty Images

Mar 24th 2023|Carno, Wales

To understand Britain’s relationship with its railways you can read learned reports and lengthy histories. But it is better to read “Thomas the Tank Engine”. The stories are set on the fictional island of Sodor—more or less Eden, for engines. There are cotton-wool clouds, lambs in the fields and an intermittently irascible deity (the Fat Controller). But as in Eden, shadows lurk. A steady stream of refugee engines arrive, bringing tales of the world beyond. There, they warn, stations are being closed and branch lines severed. One engine despairs at “the Dreadful State of the World”.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The great train robbery”