Whenever railways are discussed – by enthusiasts, journalists, or even the general public – the chances are that someone will soon mention Richard Beeching and his Report The Reshaping of British Railways. Today this is usually remembered in negative terms, but in reality the document, published on 27th March 1963, was the culmination of repeated attempts to reform the railways, with the aim of settling their finances and returning them to economic stability. For almost 40 years successive governments had grappled with the thorny question of ‘how to make the railways pay’. It was clear that, if such an outcome proved impossible, then ever-increasing public support would be required, in competition with other national needs. In that broader context the Report was almost universally welcomed in newspapers and railway periodicals. Even the General Secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Fireman said that it was “…an entirely honest attempt to rationalise the railway system”. Although subsequent policy was entirely decided by Ministers it was the Report's author who became one of very few railwaymen to be known by name by the general public, almost always for the wrong reasons.
There have been many characterisations of Beeching the man, some abusive, but those of us who met him find these wanting. He was a very tall, well-built man, 50 years old at the time of the Report, humorous, softly spoken, but not one for small talk, with an appetite for data and an extraordinary capacity rapidly to absorb, analyse and recover concepts and facts. The style of the Report, which he mostly wrote personally in pencil, perfectly catches his tone, to the extent that rereading it brings his voice instantly to mind. It is interesting to wonder if he understood the lion's den into which the Transport Minister, Ernest Marples, lured him in 1961. The writer's view is that he was well aware and that he regarded it as the ultimate challenge, one which had a lasting effect on a generation of railway managers.
In this article we will first consider some milestones of the pre-Beeching railway and the effect these had in producing the calamitous state of railway finances which existed by 1961. Since 1923 governments had sought to create an industry which aimed both to offer public service and to produce financial viability. It is worth noting here what was perhaps the unifying theme of Beeching's actions: his most enduring innovation was, arguably, to set out what was needed to re-establish the strength of railways as a business. There will be those
