The number of places where there are disused viaducts, cycleways, overpass roads with humps in them, level crossings, lone standing station platforms, open spaces where a yard or a line would be and locomotive sheds and workshops in the North West alone is massive. A great thing heritage lines exist.
It was , of course, sheer coincidence that, at the time Ernest Marples was the Minister of Transport, he was the Managing Director of Marples Ridgway - a company which built ROADS .
The first commercial train journey in India was between Bombay and Thane on 16 April 1853. Indian railways has loses of a billion pounds per year. but it is the largest employer in India and without it India comes to a stop if any politician stops a branch line or anything to do with the railways he will not be a politician for very long. Britain gave the railways to India. India says thank you.
Brian Rodley, I read your comments about Ernest Marples. Did a little extra research. Wow, did I have my mind blown! Marples/Ridgway was only a small part of this corrupt man's colourful history. I am old enough to remember him as Transport Minister, and the havoc he and Beecham concocted, but your mind opening comment was new to me. But, hey! He was a bloody tory, just towing the party line.
@@florencegomer7937 And *Marples* was a crook who fled the country to avoid what would almost certainly have been a significant (but probably inadequate) prison sentence.
Marples was the real villain of the piece. Beeching was just doing his bidding. Marples had his own construction company that built roads, amongst other things. Go figure.
Yes. And wasn't there another highly dubious situation, of Alfred McAlpine as Tory Treasurer at a time when road building had a massive and unfair advantage over OUR Railway network. But one regular mistake made by people, is the fact that not all closures were down to Butcher Beeching. Some (like the Wyre line to Fleetwood), were closed due to the Cooper Brothers Report, which over-costed some routes by up to four times.
'Brought up' on Beeching. 'Without those empty railway tracks and stations to play in, my childhood would have been based indoors watching tv. Thanku Dr.Beeching. sir.
@@jackharrison6771 One thing people don't realise - *Beeching* tried to make the cuts as small as he could. He knew that if _he_ didn't do it the government would appoint someone who would make far more drastic cuts. Good examples of some things he could have cut but didn't are the *Marlow* and *Looe* branches, both still going.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 Having been a Signalman and Crossing Keeper on such a Branch,, I don't of course agree Phil. It's like discussing a surgeon who removed an arm; to save three fingers, And again, It was the other butchers Cooper Brothers, who caused many to close. As with my own.
@@jackharrison6771 Jack, I'm not sure that I understand. I decry the cuts just as much as you - I lived on one of those branch lines and ended up relying on the even sparser (and unreliable) buses. What I meant is not that *Beeching* did well but that the alternative would have been _worse_ . *Marples* wanted to close the entire network and later *Thatcher* wanted to close most of it. Where I live now there was a station and the line went between two of the two main settlements in this part of *Surrey, Guildford* and *Cranleigh.* We're lucky in that we have an excellent bus service but most other such places don't. For far too many people the only practical alternative is, sadly, to buy and run a car.
Reopening to Portishead looks like a no-brainer - just like a large number of other routes that should also be resurrected. It's vexing that there are so many obstacles to achieving that.
The tram network, which was once pretty much continuous over the country, is largely forgotten. It wasn't just confined to the cities, but extended into rural areas. It was of course a patchwork of small companies with no strategic rationale, but it was another option for travel. In 1936 it was possible to travel from Liverpool to London entirely by tram (with the occasional bit of legwork where there were gaps) and at a fraction of the cost of even a 3rd class rail ticket for the same journey. The only downside was that the journey by tram would take three or four days as opposed to the few hours a train journey would take.
I seem to remember Marples had a business interest in road haulage transport at the time. Which meant that reduced railway transport benefited his business interests.
Continuing government shortsightedness makes one want to weep. Great presentation Simon. If only those in power could be forced to watch this and act positively on it.
It is no surprise that many bustling seaside resorts have declined since their railway was closed. The wider social and economic cost likely far exceeds the so-called "savings" made by closing these lines.
Florence Gomer the main reason for the decline of the British seaside resorts is thst the British started taking their summer holidays in Spain instead of the British seaside. This change of holiday destination reduced the numbers using the railways to the British resort towns which reduced the railway's income. This plus the shift of goods from the railways to the roads made most of the branch lines uneconomic.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 partly but, If they were more accessible ppl would still use them. That’s something we have covid to thank bc are discovering what UK has to offer.
Speaking with a retired physicist who was a chum of Mr Beeching, he is of the opinion that had the the government reinvested the money saved from branch line closures into the British Rail infrastructure, as Beeching himself advocated, longterm good would have come from the exercise. Sadly , this didn't happen to much extent. and the sell off of land etc continued right into John Major's government. in the nineties
@@bobtudbury8505 you still spouting this nonsense I see. No matter how many times you say it Labour was not totally responsible for closing railway lines .
@@alantraish3368Railway closures occurred during the Conservative and Labour governments of the 1960s. Who did you think gave the go ahead to close the majority of the ex GCR in 1966 ? I will give you a clue it wasn’t Marples.
The east coast mainline was electrified, and later the west coast mainline was electrified allowing for Intercity 125 HST trains. The urban intercity mainlines were improved, but not the rural branch lines still not having been electrified. Even today HS2 is being built to Birmingham from London... Didn't you get the policy paper, LABOUR screws rural UK... Notice London got HS1 and the Elizabeth line, Somerset gets NOTHING...
It breaks my heart when I read about the train lines and stations that were taken out of service back then but I also feel that they also made (not intensionally) the public love the railway environment even more. There is such a huge fan base for steam locomotives, disused stations and previous train lines some of which are being restored..... I guess we will never know if the love of the railways would have still been this strong if they had of left everything in place and removed nothing 🤔
@@FowlorTheRooster1990 The problem with rail fans (foamers) is they want everything preserved or kept open as long as someone else is paying. Most lines closed were either duplicates or hardly used branches. If there is a case due to increased population then reopen a few lines it's not rocket science. But most of them should still remain closed. 95% of what Beeching did was right and they are vilifying him for the few places where it is needed again just to make a dramatic TV show.
@@PreservationEnthusiast yeah because the average commuter that wants their rail link back can afford to start a charity organization and rebuild it from the ground up. Forget it mate, no working class punter has the time or money to do it from their own pocket. Their only option is to get government backing or national lottery etc.
@@robertp-i4065 No reason they should have Gov (Taxpayer) backing. There are enough other things to spend taxpayers money on like saving lives not on vanity loss making projects to titilate the fancy of a few foamers. But all power to them if they can get with some other fans as has happened in many instances with heritage railway lines. That's what they should do instead of moaning without any idea of the finances.
I absolutely love train travel. There’s just something about it that makes me feel like I’m going on some grand adventure every time, even if I’m only on it for 30 minutes or so. ☺️ I do hope the politicians pull their thumbs out of their arses at some point and get the rails back up.
If you check out the wiki article, the line for portishead is repopening in 2021. 20 years after the freight service was restarted to the port, and 57 years after it closed.
We have similar problems in USA. The motorways (interstates) are supported by the gov't and the air transport is also subsidized but rail gets nothing- we got Amtrak. I was been in Minehead some years ago. We were at Templemeads in Bristol.
it's even worse in the uk because intertown and intercity railways existed and got sabotaged. You guys never had that level of railways. it's a shame, both.
Oh Dr. Beeching! What have you done?! There use to be a railroad now there is none. I’m going have to get bike ‘cause I cannot afford car. Oh Dr. Beeching what a naughty man you are!
@@analogueman123456787 In the nineteenth century in the UK _railroad_ was used although _railway_ became the norm. Similarly in the US _railway_ was used but _railroad_ was the norm. But it has *_nothing_* to do with fish prices.
I think it ought to be remembered that a significant number of lines were closed well before and after Beaching; due to the fact that many (lines) were built with no hope of being profitable. The Braintree to Bishop's Stortford line is a good example. It was built to block another operator from running a line from Bury St Edmunds into London and closed to passengers in 1952 due to lack of demand. I walked the route from Felsted village to get to the old station; up a steep slope and a 20 min walk at least. No wonder when the busses came in the 1920-30s that picked you up in the village people chose that option instead. The motor car was just the nail in the coffin; ironically for busses also. Thankfully, the main chunk of the line (Look up the 'Flitch Way') remains as a brilliant walking, cycling, horse riding and dog walking nature reserve. From Braintree you can travel to the outskirts of B/S Where the M11 stops it dead. Any remnants of the route into B/S have disappeared into gardens and commercial premises. However, the old stations at Takeley, Felsted and Rayne still exist. Rayne station has a very successful cafe with an old bit of track and a train carriage to look at whilst you sit on the old platform with coffee and cake. At track level they've been known to have the odd music festival with craft beers. It's a real asset to the community and a safe place to take your kids to ride a bike and enjoy the countryside. If only more track beds were repurposed in this way: end to end is 15-16 miles making the 30 odd mile round trip a decent ride.
We had the same issue in the USA. The car and oil industry together with the government killed rail lines, tramways, etc. So, we also have terrible traffic problems. The Washington D.C. beltway is a classic example.
Jim From across the Pond-USA, I have been of the Impression that the UK had a Railroad on both the east and west coast. i guess this what Beeching did to the railway. The only way to make Traffic move is to put two rail lines on each coast to put the Car back into Garage. Your traffic jams look like Route 101 in California. Viewing this video makes me to have great passion for the people of the UK. Put the Rail tracks up on Concrete Pedestals that would solve the problem, Japan does it that way and they have the best rail system in the world.
When the Japanese put the High Speed Lines in,they didn't scrap the narrow gauge lines! They upgraded,and electrified even the most lowly branch! Even the Shinkaschin have narrow gauge connections,and through services! The speeds of the narrow gauge network are 75 to 80 mph,and the standard gauge is 100 mph plus! And everything CONNECTS, the same thing in Switzerland 🇨🇭, it can be done! You just have to shame the political powers that be! Easier said,than done! Thank you for an excellent video,it's long overdue! THANK YOU,from the other side of the pond!
The problem here in the USA is just the scale of the suburbs makes it a nightmare to run rail for example I work in one suburb and my office is in another suburb and they are not in a direct path and this is the majority of people out here. The solution of course is the great park and ride system where you drive your car to bus station or light rail station maybe 10-15 minutes form home and then leave your car there for free all day long. This works fine but once you get to the other side there is often the need for an uber or perhaps a bus and when you add the costs/time it is usually cheaper, and perhaps even faster to just drive yourself without the hassle. Overall it is still a great network if you happen to live or work near a station, or go to university as there are I think 2 stations there and various other situations where this all works. Overall the network has a 30 year plan, they already have funding set up so it is just a matter of time but for most people this will benefit from removing cars from the road and perhaps once the network is done and traffic is much worse by 2040-2050, many more people will default to rail.
There are still many routes in the UK where the track beds are still there and both rail and stations could be re-instated. The problem we have is a useless Transport Minister with little or no fore-sight. Giving over £60 billion to ONE railway (HS2) to get you to Birmingham 10 minutes faster,and allocating only £1.5 billion to regional railways is pathetic.But as per usual,i've no doubt big business dictates policy and their profit is at the centre of decision making.
David Barlow my point, which seems to be beyond your comprehension, is that the cost of building a route that a portion of a the £1.5 billion is being spent to maintain could easily reach £60 billion, depending on the location it is being built through.for example the 3rd Woodhead Tunnel, opened in 1954, cost about £5 million (which I believe is the cost at the time). The first tunnel cost £200,000 (which equates to about £20,000,000 at today's prices). It quickly builds up the costs of building a line. The vision that HS2 was part of was a network of fast railways linking London with the North of England and Scotland. It was no more flawed that Beeching's plans for the railways in general. What did Beeching get right? Inter-City passenger trains that are fast and frequent, container trains and MGR coal trains. Plus he got rid of non-economic branchlines, ones that even today wouldn't be able to support themselves financially.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 Perhaps,being the thicko you believe me to be,i'm missing the obvious and HS2 isn't a complete and utter waste of money,and knocking 20 minutes off your oh-so-important journey is quite normal? The fact we already have a pretty adequate train service from London to Birmingham is totally irrelevant when you can award billion pound contracts to your mates. As to your assertion of costs to regional railways and they "wouldn't be able to support themselves even today"is pure speculation.The re-installment of the Varsity Line alone will take a lot of traffic off the roads,and more east/west routes would make rail travel a lot easier. There are,i'm pretty sure.many people who sit in traffic for hours everyday,where before they could have used a train. Your negativity is ,unfortunately,shared by a government who would rather waste £150 million on pointless elections,than spend it on their citizen's needs.
@@davidbarlow350 Whatever the merits of HS2, the reason for it is to increase capacity on the rail network as a whole. Both north-south mainlines are running at capacity.
So did I hear that correctly, it takes 2 hours to drive the 12 miles?. And I thought I had it bad in Chicago because it takes me an hour to drive 26 miles to work. Compared to this my commute is not that bad after all.
As previously stated on this thread Ernest Marples was the bringer of railway closure. Marples was an accountant who together with engineer Reginald Ridgway in 1948 founded Marples Ridgway - a road building company. Marples' wife (his former secretary) ended up as major shareholder and Chariman of Marples Ridgway as Ernest Marples didn't want to make conflict of interest so obvious....hmmmm....so his wife is now major shareholder and Chair of Marples Ridgway....so no obvious conflict of interest there then!!! Marples was a crook who closed the railways to promote road-building and who eventually fled to Monaco to avoid a big tax bill. The railway closures destroyed rural communities but hey ho...Marples made a few quid so what's the destruction of a few rural communities matter???!!!
Maldon in Essex is another example it had two stations and two links one via Witham and via The South Woodham line. Proves dont let Politician think /plan long term as they are unable to do so..
We had a station in West Lavington nr Devizes Wiltshire, it was on the route from Paddington to the West Country. Trains still run through it and there were discussions about reopening it. The nearest station is Westbury but you have to drive there and pay the big parking fees. There was also a branch line in Devizes which went to Swindon. It isn't cheaper by road these days and what about pollution all the lorries are diesels.
Sounds an awful lot like what the US did to its various rail and tram lines in the 1940s-1960s. It's been long enough ago, most people don't know what advantage commuter and passenger rail have over the individual car.
How sad. Was just skimming the comments looking for a good news update. It seemed such a cheap, obvious and easy problem to solve. The whole world is unfortunately going to pot.
First off, I am not a Brit, I am speaking as an American. But here in the US people abandoned the rails in droves in favor of cars, airplanes and buses in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Here in the US tens of thousands of miles of track were abandoned. On the remaining tracks tens of thousands of miles of passenger service was abandoned as well leaving many medium sized railroads such as Lehigh Valley and Frisco freight only. I can't imagine the UK being any different.
Remember taking concrete to the disused line that ran into Glastonbury to change it into a road ,I wondered at the time would it be change back into a railway line in the future.
Think it's bad in the UK, you should try Canada. I live in Edmonton, Alberta. A passenger rail line existed between Edmonton and Calgary until it was cut in 1985. Now two cites with populations of 1 million each, 300 kms apart has no passenger rail service.
UK used to have a very successful world wide company called Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Doctor Beeching was a director of ICI who was given time off from his ICI duties to destroy Britain's railways. ICI directors later destroyed ICI.
Ernest Marples was Minister for Transport at the time of the Beeching Report. He was also on the board of Taylor Woodrow who were busily building motorways. Work it out for yourself why the railways were savagely culled.
Not so. As a Junior Cabinet minister he resigned in 1951 as a Director in Marples Ridegway. For which documentary evidence exists. As a Cabinet Minister, under Parliamentary Law, even now, he would not be allowed to sit on the board of any company until he was no longer a Cabinet Minister but just a plain MP. The same applies to MPs who are Cabinet Ministers and above today. By the time he was Minister of Transport in 1960, he had no connection with the day to day running of his old firm having left it 9 years ago. The problem was the inadequacies of the 1962 Transport Act, and that the Railways had to operate at a profit. If it did not then the line had to close. Marples always had to demonstrate that he was operating within the letter of the law of the 1962 Act.
@@michaelhearn3052 So what about the evidence by railwaymen who worked some of those closed lines that the figures used to justify closure were taken at sparse times. What about that corruption on the part of Marples/Beeching?
Beeching and Marples could not of known that many millions of extra people would live here years later, the roads were a pleasure to use back then along with getting seat on the railways,still successive governments knew best and we vote them back in.
They get voted in by default: there's no difference between the politicians of both British major political Parties in terms of morality and integrity.
Raf The Jaf the East Coast Main Line, the Midland Main Line, the West Coast Main Line, the Great Western Main Lines to Wales, Brisyol and the South West) and the line to the Channel Tunnel, which one are you referring to? These lines all are capable of handling trains of 125mph.
Whilst rail travel remains more expensive than road travel we will not see any change. Our railways should be re-nationalised, as many other European countries have recognised, that commercial interests are not compatible with public transport.
It's long been a trick used by BBC producers; grabbing a bit of music by a band whose name, or just the track title, is related to the subject matter. - You should see the show 'Homes Under the Hammer'; they'll play-in a different song based on almost anything that the presenter happens to say!
Its the main line - short line dilemma. I see it here also. I would love to own my own short line. Short lines supplying the mainline are important, passenger still overrides though. I love trains BTW.
Like Todd Andrews in Ireland mass 1960s closures and the tracks were lifted plus the land was sold off. Even into the 1970s and 1980s lines were closed and now the beds are been turned into Greenways. Was in Temple Meads many times , have reletives in Bristol.
There may well be a case for a rail service between Portishead and Bristol now, but that was not the case in the 1970s. For a few years around 1970 I commuted between Portishead and Bristol, my mode of transport a forty-year old Austin Seven with a top speed of 45mph. I could travel from home to work, door-to-door, in forty minutes, at a time to suit me. To use the railway would have required a twenty minute walk at one end, and a fifteen minute bus journey at the other, plus waiting time at the station - a minimum of 70 minutes and a very good chance of getting soaked most days. I never even considered catching a train!
Dr Beeching was Technical Director of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and was parachuted in as Chairman of the British Transport Commission in 1962 precisely because he had no background in running railways or transport in general. His salary was an unheard of £24k (£521k in 2020). The "road haulage" factor in all this was the then Minister of State for Transport, Ernest Marples who had an implied vested interest in doing away with a competitor (rail) as he headed a road-building company which would profit hugely from a State-funded road-building programme if/when the railway system was ripped apart.
@@stephenphillip5656 Not true. Marples was a Junior Cabinet Minister in 1951 and resigned his directorship of Marples Ridgeway. For which documentary evidence exists. He was required to do this by Parliamentary Law, as Ministers and above, are required to do so today. He became Minister of Transport in 1960 having no involvement with the day to day running of his old firm for 9 years. He certainly did not close railways down for road building. That's another myth. The reason why rail closures happened was down to the inadequacies of the 1962 Transport Act. Railways had to operate at a profit according to the Act, if not then they were candidates for closure. Marples was constrained by the wording of the Act but always had to demonstrate that he acted within it. I would add that Dr Terry Gourvish of London University was asked by BR in the mid 1980s to write a history of the industry. His book, From Integration to privitisation in which he covers the BTC and Marples/Beeching years, he found that Marples was not influenced by the road lobby at all. Indeed Marples had problems with, as the PM of the time McMillian foresaw problems with key marginals, where lines were scheduled for closure, which was seen as a potential vote looser.
It's really a shame because Britain is small enough and small width roads to make train travel still viable. It's like General Motors destroying trolleys / street cars systems to sell their buses. Now too expensive to put them back in.
Hi my name is Phil I did 50yrs on the footplate I started at edgeley shed on the 4th of April 1961 in 1962 I was made a fireman at Trafford Park shed I did 8 yrs on steam I finished my time out at longsight as a driver I finished in 2011 Regards Phil.
3:00 “Adequate alternative facilities”. Political double speak. The alternative they used to claim a line or station wasn’t needed was “oh, everyone will drive by car”.
Beaching was a scape goat . UK didn't even fullfill his report properly . Also many countries did the same thing ; Denmark , Germany , Canada that i know of in detail plus others ( what does that have to do with Dr Beaching ? ) . It was huge and the flavour of the day .
It took 50+ years to realise the government mistake but blanket killing the railways was a social and environmental own goal of the highest order! Mantra of government always to save money short term, never mind the implications.
I don't think this broadcast was entirely fair towards Beeching, because it seems to ignore the fact that those branchlines became closed for a reason and the reason was that they couldn't cover their own operating cost due to a decline in numbers of passenger as well as the tonnage of goods moved on rail.
It wasn't that simple. *Beeching* knew that if he didn't prune the network as his political masters wanted he'd be replaced by someone not at all sympathetic to the railways.
They could start by reopening the S&D and Cheltenham to Southampton, opening all intermediate stations. And the Ruabon to Barmouth line. The whole of Mid-Wales does not have a train!
The problem with these documentaries is the implication that railway closures didn’t happen until the publication of the Beeching report. Wrong- they were happening from nationalisation and throughout the 1950s and early 1960s until said report was published. The Beeching report did not start railway closures, it simply speeded them up.
Very true. A book by Daniels & Dench Called Passengers No More records all railway closures up to the early 1970s. Apart from the Ashford to Ore Diesel line which was scheduled to close but it did not happen.
The Beeching report still suggested closing over a third of the rail network that existed at the time, after the closures which had already happened. THAT is why a lot of people will see Beeching as the evil in this. They were already closing lines but his solution was just to close even more (albeit his suggestion was to temporarily close a lot of lines and reopen after losses were recouped) This is where the true villain comes in. Marples. As he had a road construction company AND was on the transport commission he just ripped the rails up to create more roads
In the US, we ended passenger rail at an even more rapid pace, and the oil/automotive companies bought up the streetcar lines and replaced them with diesel buses. To add to the injury, the rail rights-of-way were given up, and recent attempts to restore passenger services have been very expensive because of land acquisition. There is no doubt that transport by rail is much more energy-efficient than by highway, and newer trains now are mostly electrically powered. As the move away from fossil fuels increases we're going to need those trains, and we're going to pay for the hasty closures in the past.
portisheadrailwaygroup.org On 8 April 2019 it was announced that the funding gap of £31.9M has been closed. All of the funding necessary is now in place. There are further updates on the website.
we have the same thing in USA . Many gov't supported interstates & airports, the result was Amtrak which is not great. We also have many lobbyists in DC. Our railways were privately owned so no support from the gov't. We do not have buffers so where did that come from.
Excellent video,Thank you.I could go and on about that stupid short sighted decision. Money? But at the moment this is what we are left with.I just wonder how many people leave their computer desk at home to commute in their air polluting cars, to do the same thing they could do at home, at their office desk?In the near future if all road vehicles are electrically powered we will still have the same bloody gridlocks.
The Beeching Report did more than decimate Britain's railways. To 'decimate' means to reduce by one-in-tem (10%) and Beeching reduced our railways by much more than that.
I wouldn't drive into Bristol. I'd find somewhere to park and cycle the last 5-10 miles. If possible that is. I used to cycle to work 6.5 miles taking 20-25 mins depending on traffic and catching lights.
LABOUR carried on the closures, despite PROMISING not to in their 1964 election manifesto. Just as they closed more coal mines than Thatcher. Labour were the biggest liars long before Tony Bliar and Alisair Campbell. Harold Wilson was in a league of his own for bare-faced lies - "the pound in your pocket" speech being one of his more notable instances.
As enjoyable as this was, it's a very one-sided documentary. These days people seem to think that our railways were as clean and lovely as heritage railways now are, as fast and efficient as modern trains, and that axing a lot of lines was done simply out of spite. The truth is that the railways were filthy, slow, inefficient, poorly managed, and once ordinary people had some disposable income in the 60s they bought a car and never used the railway again.
.... Because the network was too big, and too expensive to maintain. The railways were built in a golden age of steam, when everyone used them to get around. Over time, rail networks worldwide were being closed. In Victoria Australia, the network was built during the gold rush, it was paid for by the gold, and the entire state was built in this era. After the gold price went down, and gold became harder to obtain, well, the network is a laughing state today compared to at it's peak. If they didn't build the network so damn large and inefficient, then these lines wouldn't have had to close. Look at those large extravagant train stations everywhere. They had to close, they were too big and expensive. The people did this to themselves, they replaced the rail with roads, and then failed to upgrade the roads over time. The roads are literally 1 lane in each direction. That's dumb. In Victoria, we have massive freeways and massive highways that replaced the rail. In the UK, the government is absolutely stupid in not upgrading these roads.
@@berenscott8999 in the UK there are multi-lane highways and motorways all over the place. The road network had massive investment as rail declined and still does. Only in rural areas does one still encounter cross country roads with a single lane in each direction.
@@discomikeyboy2012 The town of Swan Hill in Victoria has half the population of Portishead, is full of dole bludgers and public housing, and it gets a train to it.
USA - 1930's - Firestone, Standard Oil and GM - Purchased most of the Trolley Producing Manufacturers in the Country. Trolleys or ' Light Rail ' transported most people in the Urban/Metro Areas ( Cities ) . In 1949 Federal Courts convicted the " Three Big " of forming a Consortium to " Destroy Public Transportation " in USA; they were fined $ 5,000.00 US each. Two years later, the USA approved the Funding of Federal Highway Act to build Super Highways in USA - About $ 49,000.00 US Today. Nothing New ! Thanks & Bye.
@@waterloo32594 - Thank you, I agree; Eisenhower & Military were impressed with German Autobahn. Highway Acts of 1950's improved & expanded - with Federal Spending - Interstate Highway System. Combo of efforts to diminish Public Transportation - Rail - and Consumer interest in the Auto & better Interstate Highways mobilized Americans. Civilian impact was secondary, but the Auto exploded as a personal means of freedom in movement across America. Rail Transportation suffered - including Public Transportation throughout USA. In fact it was Eisenhower ( Always Quoted ) who cautioned America concerning the Military Industrial Complex.
I know this guy, I was in London and stayed at a 5* hotel,he was in the bar, I had one before sleep and he sat next to me, I left after a short conversation,headed for the lift and he came in and just stuck his tongue at my mouth, I told him the truth that I had to sleep and left,it is him, lol,there were BBC staff there.
In this era of "brexit" the stopping all stations to nowhere is a popular choice. Although even that is a bit to avant garde for many. They seem to feel that it is necessary to stop part way along and reverse direction periodically so that you never quite get to central nowhere. You remain in the outer suburbs of it.
At 8'40'' she drives across the Menai suspension bridge - Telford's famous masterpiece, built in 1826 and the first significant railway bridge ever built. No wonder the cars are bumper to bumper - it was never designed for this sort of thing. If you are going to use the old rail alignment for bikes (and you should) then build a 4 lane road bridge elsewhere and use the old bridge for bikes - a great tourist attraction.
Telford's Menai Bridge was never a railway bridge, nor was Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge which was the one in the video. Robert Stephenson built the Brittania Tubular railway bridge over the Menai Strait.
Since this programme was produced the connection of the west Somerset railway between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard has been restored but I have not heard of any trains going from Taunton all the way to Minehead as yet so a change at Bishops Lydeard is needed to get to Minehead!
The UK is tiny and could fit inside the Canadian province of Ontario 4x over yet is has a population 4.5 times greater. It should be crisscrossed with efficient high-speed rail, why it's not is sheer madness and incompetence.
Thanx for posting and thanx to the BBC. Politicians .....the minister of transport in most countries has never driven a tractor/truck/train..............the minister of agriculture has never milked a cow by hand......the minister of arts and culture might get by with a D pass in music O level............Hey let's swap portfolios!..... seriously folks........people who love trains......and yes ....steam trains.......like me .....that have probably grown up in the 60's next to a marshalling yard.....or main/branch. line ......days when freight WAS moving......shunting through the night......it breaks my Northern Irish heart............and yes ...we used to have electric milk floats bringing milk to you door in glass bottles!!! . (Benny Hill? where are you?) I am very lucky to see a steam train here in Kaapstad at the Elgin Railway market when I get gigs there on Saturdays............I love it...and so do MANY other people! (the train ..not..the music!) Love ..peace and puff puff puff!
They took away our railways and gave us cycle tracks. What a great solution to the movement of freight and people, NOT. A lot of people couldn’t see further than the swelling of their own personal wealth.
The rail network linked every city to almost every town in the UK. With the population growth between the 1960s and now all of these routes would likely be heavily used.
@steve gale You're just ignorant if you continue to believe that nonsense - you're the know-nothing twerp if you can't be bothered to look up the facts, because there was nothing non-standard about the railway through Reading in the 1960's. Still, if you want to believe the nonsense you peddle then carry on - there's none so blind as those that won't see!
Our inter city bus system has been decimated by the combination of the greed of big business and government indifference. It seems the world is more concerned with the almighty dollar than humanity and more concerned with serving the rich(who don't pay their fair share of taxes) than serving people who need the transit system. Just get a car, right???? Nope. Perhaps return transit to what it was a mere fifty years ago. Canada is victim to this type of rubbish as well. I should know. I've had to live through that decision.. All of the government money is going to the city and trying to force everyone into those disgusting cold impersonal places
4:12 "In theory it should take me less than an hour to reach the center of Bristol". WTF... you're traveling 12 miles! It should take a normal person about 15 minutes, but due to driver inattention, poor infrastructure and short-sightedness this is what you have. I'm glad that I can ride the 5km to work in 5 minutes and Lisa if you need someone to ride with then call me :D
You think thats bad? Here in edinburgh it takes me an hour to go 4 miles at 5 oclock, thats if there is no road works, or bloody celebrities visiting, and when the festivals on for for a few weeks every summer, just dont bother! Its not worth it
I dont understand why they couldnt reopen old railways in cities as trams (or even tram-trains), whilst they arent as fast as a normal train, they would still be quite adequate.
The headline says that the railways were decimated yet two minutes into the video the presenter says that 1/3 of the railways were axed!! Perhaps someone somewhere has the accurate figures!
Get 3 months History Hit access for $3 using code 'timeline' bit.ly/TimelineSubscribe
I'm really enjoying most of this history about Railways in Great Britain. Peep Peep.
The number of places where there are disused viaducts, cycleways, overpass roads with humps in them, level crossings, lone standing station platforms, open spaces where a yard or a line would be and locomotive sheds and workshops in the North West alone is massive. A great thing heritage lines exist.
It was , of course, sheer coincidence that, at the time Ernest Marples was the Minister of Transport, he was the Managing Director of Marples Ridgway - a company which built ROADS .
brian rodney ... Was he a Tory? No surprise there.
GM pulled a similar trick here in the US
The first commercial train journey in India was between Bombay and Thane on 16 April 1853. Indian railways has loses of a billion pounds per year. but it is the largest employer in India and without it India comes to a stop if any politician stops a branch line or anything to do with the railways he will not be a politician for very long. Britain gave the railways to India. India says thank you.
Brian Rodley, I read your comments about Ernest Marples. Did a little extra research. Wow, did I have my mind blown! Marples/Ridgway was only a small part of this corrupt man's colourful history. I am old enough to remember him as Transport Minister, and the havoc he and Beecham concocted, but your mind opening comment was new to me. But, hey! He was a bloody tory, just towing the party line.
@@florencegomer7937 And *Marples* was a crook who fled the country to avoid what would almost certainly have been a significant (but probably inadequate) prison sentence.
Marples was the real villain of the piece. Beeching was just doing his bidding. Marples had his own construction company that built roads, amongst other things. Go figure.
Yes. And wasn't there another highly dubious situation, of Alfred McAlpine as Tory Treasurer at a time when road building had a massive and unfair advantage over OUR Railway network. But one regular mistake made by people, is the fact that not all closures were down to Butcher Beeching. Some (like the Wyre line to Fleetwood), were closed due to the Cooper Brothers Report, which over-costed some routes by up to four times.
'Brought up' on Beeching.
'Without those empty railway tracks and stations to play in,
my childhood would have been based indoors watching tv.
Thanku Dr.Beeching. sir.
@@jackharrison6771 One thing people don't realise - *Beeching* tried to make the cuts as small as he could. He knew that if _he_ didn't do it the government would appoint someone who would make far more drastic cuts. Good examples of some things he could have cut but didn't are the *Marlow* and *Looe* branches, both still going.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 Having been a Signalman and Crossing Keeper on such a Branch,, I don't of course agree Phil. It's like discussing a surgeon who removed an arm; to save three fingers, And again, It was the other butchers Cooper Brothers, who caused many to close. As with my own.
@@jackharrison6771 Jack, I'm not sure that I understand.
I decry the cuts just as much as you - I lived on one of those branch lines and ended up relying on the even sparser (and unreliable) buses.
What I meant is not that *Beeching* did well but that the alternative would have been _worse_ . *Marples* wanted to close the entire network and later *Thatcher* wanted to close most of it.
Where I live now there was a station and the line went between two of the two main settlements in this part of *Surrey, Guildford* and *Cranleigh.* We're lucky in that we have an excellent bus service but most other such places don't. For far too many people the only practical alternative is, sadly, to buy and run a car.
Nice to see Simon Calder presenting a programme instead of always commentating on the travel problems on the news.
Reopening to Portishead looks like a no-brainer - just like a large number of other routes that should also be resurrected. It's vexing that there are so many obstacles to achieving that.
Anything Simon Calder's involved in is always quality.
The tram network, which was once pretty much continuous over the country, is largely forgotten. It wasn't just confined to the cities, but extended into rural areas. It was of course a patchwork of small companies with no strategic rationale, but it was another option for travel. In 1936 it was possible to travel from Liverpool to London entirely by tram (with the occasional bit of legwork where there were gaps) and at a fraction of the cost of even a 3rd class rail ticket for the same journey. The only downside was that the journey by tram would take three or four days as opposed to the few hours a train journey would take.
wait, you guys have 3 classes of tickets?
I'm impressed how the man can ride that amazing bike everywhere, and I learned something new!
I seem to remember Marples had a business interest in road haulage transport at the time. Which meant that reduced railway transport benefited his business interests.
Continuing government shortsightedness makes one want to weep. Great presentation Simon. If only those in power could be forced to watch this and act positively on it.
oc2phish07 Excellent but repetitive. Too long, edit down to 20 minutes.
It is no surprise that many bustling seaside resorts have declined since their railway was closed. The wider social and economic cost likely far exceeds the so-called "savings" made by closing these lines.
Florence Gomer the main reason for the decline of the British seaside resorts is thst the British started taking their summer holidays in Spain instead of the British seaside. This change of holiday destination reduced the numbers using the railways to the British resort towns which reduced the railway's income. This plus the shift of goods from the railways to the roads made most of the branch lines uneconomic.
The weather isn’t what it used to be?
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 partly but, If they were more accessible ppl would still use them. That’s something we have covid to thank bc are discovering what UK has to offer.
Speaking with a retired physicist who was a chum of Mr Beeching, he is of the opinion that had the the government reinvested the money saved from branch line closures into the British Rail infrastructure, as Beeching himself advocated, longterm good would have come from the exercise. Sadly , this didn't happen to much extent. and the sell off of land etc continued right into John Major's government. in the nineties
it was labour that closed the lines not beeching
@@bobtudbury8505 you still spouting this nonsense I see. No matter how many times you say it Labour was not totally responsible for closing railway lines .
@@alantraish3368Railway closures occurred during the Conservative and Labour governments of the 1960s. Who did you think gave the go ahead to close the majority of the ex GCR in 1966 ? I will give you a clue it wasn’t Marples.
There were a number of railways that came into existence thanks to the number of companies that existed.
The east coast mainline was electrified, and later the west coast mainline was electrified allowing for Intercity 125 HST trains. The urban intercity mainlines were improved, but not the rural branch lines still not having been electrified. Even today HS2 is being built to Birmingham from London... Didn't you get the policy paper, LABOUR screws rural UK... Notice London got HS1 and the Elizabeth line, Somerset gets NOTHING...
It breaks my heart when I read about the train lines and stations that were taken out of service back then but I also feel that they also made (not intensionally) the public love the railway environment even more. There is such a huge fan base for steam locomotives, disused stations and previous train lines some of which are being restored..... I guess we will never know if the love of the railways would have still been this strong if they had of left everything in place and removed nothing 🤔
The Track beds should have never been sold in the UK
@Tom Sanders ..sadly.
@@FowlorTheRooster1990 The problem with rail fans (foamers) is they want everything preserved or kept open as long as someone else is paying. Most lines closed were either duplicates or hardly used branches. If there is a case due to increased population then reopen a few lines it's not rocket science. But most of them should still remain closed. 95% of what Beeching did was right and they are vilifying him for the few places where it is needed again just to make a dramatic TV show.
@@PreservationEnthusiast yeah because the average commuter that wants their rail link back can afford to start a charity organization and rebuild it from the ground up. Forget it mate, no working class punter has the time or money to do it from their own pocket. Their only option is to get government backing or national lottery etc.
@@robertp-i4065 No reason they should have Gov (Taxpayer) backing. There are enough other things to spend taxpayers money on like saving lives not on vanity loss making projects to titilate the fancy of a few foamers.
But all power to them if they can get with some other fans as has happened in many instances with heritage railway lines. That's what they should do instead of moaning without any idea of the finances.
@@PreservationEnthusiast no-one is asking for government funded heritage lines though mate
I absolutely love train travel. There’s just something about it that makes me feel like I’m going on some grand adventure every time, even if I’m only on it for 30 minutes or so. ☺️ I do hope the politicians pull their thumbs out of their arses at some point and get the rails back up.
The most romantic way to travel
If you check out the wiki article, the line for portishead is repopening in 2021. 20 years after the freight service was restarted to the port, and 57 years after it closed.
Well did it?
2028 now absolutely laughable
We have similar problems in USA. The motorways (interstates) are supported by the gov't and the air transport is also subsidized but rail gets nothing- we got Amtrak. I was been in Minehead some years ago. We were at Templemeads in Bristol.
it's even worse in the uk because intertown and intercity railways existed and got sabotaged. You guys never had that level of railways. it's a shame, both.
Oh Dr. Beeching! What have you done?! There use to be a railroad now there is none. I’m going have to get bike ‘cause I cannot afford car. Oh Dr. Beeching what a naughty man you are!
Quality
In the UK, it's *railway*, not *railroad*...
@@analogueman123456787 'Our Iron Roads' was written by Frederick Smeeton Williams in 1852 and is about railways in Britain - I know as I've read it.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 - What's that got to do with the price of fish?
@@analogueman123456787 In the nineteenth century in the UK _railroad_ was used although _railway_ became the norm. Similarly in the US _railway_ was used but _railroad_ was the norm.
But it has *_nothing_* to do with fish prices.
Follow the money. Kickbacks from car manufacturers, fuel companies and greedy politicians.
I think it ought to be remembered that a significant number of lines were closed well before and after Beaching; due to the fact that many (lines) were built with no hope of being profitable.
The Braintree to Bishop's Stortford line is a good example. It was built to block another operator from running a line from Bury St Edmunds into London and closed to passengers in 1952 due to lack of demand. I walked the route from Felsted village to get to the old station; up a steep slope and a 20 min walk at least. No wonder when the busses came in the 1920-30s that picked you up in the village people chose that option instead. The motor car was just the nail in the coffin; ironically for busses also.
Thankfully, the main chunk of the line (Look up the 'Flitch Way') remains as a brilliant walking, cycling, horse riding and dog walking nature reserve. From Braintree you can travel to the outskirts of B/S Where the M11 stops it dead. Any remnants of the route into B/S have disappeared into gardens and commercial premises. However, the old stations at Takeley, Felsted and Rayne still exist.
Rayne station has a very successful cafe with an old bit of track and a train carriage to look at whilst you sit on the old platform with coffee and cake. At track level they've been known to have the odd music festival with craft beers.
It's a real asset to the community and a safe place to take your kids to ride a bike and enjoy the countryside. If only more track beds were repurposed in this way: end to end is 15-16 miles making the 30 odd mile round trip a decent ride.
We had the same issue in the USA. The car and oil industry together with the government killed rail lines, tramways, etc. So, we also have terrible traffic problems. The Washington D.C. beltway is a classic example.
pity he is clueless on what he is talking about
Jim From across the Pond-USA, I have been of the Impression that the UK had a Railroad on both the east and west coast. i guess this what Beeching did to the railway. The only way to make Traffic move is to put two rail lines on each coast to put the Car back into Garage. Your traffic jams look like Route 101 in California. Viewing this video makes me to have great passion for the people of the UK.
Put the Rail tracks up on Concrete Pedestals that would solve the problem, Japan does it that way and they have the best rail system in the world.
We still have the 2 mainlines to Scotland.
When the Japanese put the High Speed Lines in,they didn't scrap the narrow gauge lines! They upgraded,and electrified even the most lowly branch! Even the Shinkaschin have narrow gauge connections,and through services! The speeds of the narrow gauge network are 75 to 80 mph,and the standard gauge is 100 mph plus! And everything CONNECTS, the same thing in Switzerland 🇨🇭, it can be done! You just have to shame the political powers that be! Easier said,than done! Thank you for an excellent video,it's long overdue! THANK YOU,from the other side of the pond!
The problem here in the USA is just the scale of the suburbs makes it a nightmare to run rail for example I work in one suburb and my office is in another suburb and they are not in a direct path and this is the majority of people out here. The solution of course is the great park and ride system where you drive your car to bus station or light rail station maybe 10-15 minutes form home and then leave your car there for free all day long. This works fine but once you get to the other side there is often the need for an uber or perhaps a bus and when you add the costs/time it is usually cheaper, and perhaps even faster to just drive yourself without the hassle. Overall it is still a great network if you happen to live or work near a station, or go to university as there are I think 2 stations there and various other situations where this all works. Overall the network has a 30 year plan, they already have funding set up so it is just a matter of time but for most people this will benefit from removing cars from the road and perhaps once the network is done and traffic is much worse by 2040-2050, many more people will default to rail.
There are still many routes in the UK where the track beds are still there and both rail and stations could be re-instated.
The problem we have is a useless Transport Minister with little or no fore-sight.
Giving over £60 billion to ONE railway (HS2) to get you to Birmingham 10 minutes faster,and allocating only £1.5 billion to regional railways is pathetic.But as per usual,i've no doubt big business dictates policy and their profit is at the centre of decision making.
David Barlow you confusing the cost of construction with the cost of maintaining the system.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 Why split hairs,the overall cost and stupidity of it still remains the same?
David Barlow my point, which seems to be beyond your comprehension, is that the cost of building a route that a portion of a the £1.5 billion is being spent to maintain could easily reach £60 billion, depending on the location it is being built through.for example the 3rd Woodhead Tunnel, opened in 1954, cost about £5 million (which I believe is the cost at the time). The first tunnel cost £200,000 (which equates to about £20,000,000 at today's prices). It quickly builds up the costs of building a line.
The vision that HS2 was part of was a network of fast railways linking London with the North of England and Scotland. It was no more flawed that Beeching's plans for the railways in general. What did Beeching get right? Inter-City passenger trains that are fast and frequent, container trains and MGR coal trains. Plus he got rid of non-economic branchlines, ones that even today wouldn't be able to support themselves financially.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 Perhaps,being the thicko you believe me to be,i'm missing the obvious and HS2 isn't a complete and utter waste of money,and knocking 20 minutes off your oh-so-important journey is quite normal? The fact we already have a pretty adequate train service from London to Birmingham is totally irrelevant when you can award billion pound contracts to your mates.
As to your assertion of costs to regional railways and they "wouldn't be able to support themselves even today"is pure speculation.The re-installment of the Varsity Line alone will take a lot of traffic off the roads,and more east/west routes would make rail travel a lot easier.
There are,i'm pretty sure.many people who sit in traffic for hours everyday,where before they could have used a train.
Your negativity is ,unfortunately,shared by a government who would rather waste £150 million on pointless elections,than spend it on their citizen's needs.
@@davidbarlow350 Whatever the merits of HS2, the reason for it is to increase capacity on the rail network as a whole. Both north-south mainlines are running at capacity.
So did I hear that correctly, it takes 2 hours to drive the 12 miles?. And I thought I had it bad in Chicago because it takes me an hour to drive 26 miles to work. Compared to this my commute is not that bad after all.
Aviation Nut Two hours to drive 12 miles? Yeah,i used to have a car like that!
A system should be established where heritage trains can somehow coexist with mainline trains both in the UK and in Australia.
As previously stated on this thread Ernest Marples was the bringer of railway closure. Marples was an accountant who together with engineer Reginald Ridgway in 1948 founded Marples Ridgway - a road building company. Marples' wife (his former secretary) ended up as major shareholder and Chariman of Marples Ridgway as Ernest Marples didn't want to make conflict of interest so obvious....hmmmm....so his wife is now major shareholder and Chair of Marples Ridgway....so no obvious conflict of interest there then!!!
Marples was a crook who closed the railways to promote road-building and who eventually fled to Monaco to avoid a big tax bill.
The railway closures destroyed rural communities but hey ho...Marples made a few quid so what's the destruction of a few rural communities matter???!!!
'errr', notice the extended eye rolll
'errr', notice the extended eye rolll
Maldon in Essex is another example it had two stations and two links one via Witham and via The South Woodham line.
Proves dont let Politician think /plan long term as they are unable to do so..
We had a station in West Lavington nr Devizes Wiltshire, it was on the route from Paddington to the West Country. Trains still run through it and there were discussions about reopening it. The nearest station is Westbury but you have to drive there and pay the big parking fees. There was also a branch line in Devizes which went to Swindon.
It isn't cheaper by road these days and what about pollution all the lorries are diesels.
Denise G- Hill the GWR route is the most expensive in the uk
@@chriggle1
True
Sounds an awful lot like what the US did to its various rail and tram lines in the 1940s-1960s. It's been long enough ago, most people don't know what advantage commuter and passenger rail have over the individual car.
2008. Still no station in Portishead in 2019.
Maybe the local council should do what so m any heritage railways have done and relay the line themselves
How sad. Was just skimming the comments looking for a good news update. It seemed such a cheap, obvious and easy problem to solve. The whole world is unfortunately going to pot.
@Iain Botham Port-Zed. 's Bristle m'dear
First off, I am not a Brit, I am speaking as an American. But here in the US people abandoned the rails in droves in favor of cars, airplanes and buses in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Here in the US tens of thousands of miles of track were abandoned. On the remaining tracks tens of thousands of miles of passenger service was abandoned as well leaving many medium sized railroads such as Lehigh Valley and Frisco freight only. I can't imagine the UK being any different.
Geography lesson needed here, the last time that I looked Somerset was in the WEST of England.
Remember taking concrete to the disused line that ran into Glastonbury to change it into a road ,I wondered at the time would it be change back into a railway line in the future.
Think it's bad in the UK, you should try Canada. I live in Edmonton, Alberta. A passenger rail line existed between Edmonton and Calgary until it was cut in 1985. Now two cites with populations of 1 million each, 300 kms apart has no passenger rail service.
UK used to have a very successful world wide company called Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Doctor Beeching was a director of ICI who was given time off from his ICI duties to destroy Britain's railways. ICI directors later destroyed ICI.
Well said Bob!!
the labour party closed the lines, beeching had no power
Ernest Marples was Minister for Transport at the time of the Beeching Report. He was also on the board of Taylor Woodrow who were busily building motorways. Work it out for yourself why the railways were savagely culled.
Not so. As a Junior Cabinet minister he resigned in 1951 as a Director in Marples Ridegway. For which documentary evidence exists. As a Cabinet Minister, under Parliamentary Law, even now, he would not be allowed to sit on the board of any company until he was no longer a Cabinet Minister but just a plain MP. The same applies to MPs who are Cabinet Ministers and above today.
By the time he was Minister of Transport in 1960, he had no connection with the day to day running of his old firm having left it 9 years ago.
The problem was the inadequacies of the 1962 Transport Act, and that the Railways had to operate at a profit. If it did not then the line had to close. Marples always had to demonstrate that he was operating within the letter of the law of the 1962 Act.
@@michaelhearn3052 So what about the evidence by railwaymen who worked some of those closed lines that the figures used to justify closure were taken at sparse times. What about that corruption on the part of Marples/Beeching?
Only wish there was more of the knowledgable transport expert, David Henshaw. He could do his own show.
Beeching and Marples could not of known that many millions of extra people would live here years later, the roads were a pleasure to use back then along with getting seat on the railways,still successive governments knew best and we vote them back in.
They get voted in by default: there's no difference between the politicians of both British major political Parties in terms of morality and integrity.
The railway to Portishead is expected to Reopen in 2024
This, in the country where trains and railways came into being.
And today it only has one high speed train line.
Raf The Jaf the East Coast Main Line, the Midland Main Line, the West Coast Main Line, the Great Western Main Lines to Wales, Brisyol and the South West) and the line to the Channel Tunnel, which one are you referring to? These lines all are capable of handling trains of 125mph.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 I imagine Raf means the pseudo-TGV line to the Chunnel.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 The Eurostar trains on HS1 run at 300 Km/hr (186 mph). The local South Eastern trains run at 225 Km/hr (140 mph).
Whilst rail travel remains more expensive than road travel we will not see any change. Our railways should be re-nationalised, as many other European countries have recognised, that commercial interests are not compatible with public transport.
Br could have survived easily into the 21st century if sir Charles Topham Hatt was in charge
He's not real!
@@mariobest93 r/woooosh
@@mariobest93 what!!!
Poor ad placement, interrupting the narrator right in mid-sentence.
Download the free AdBlock and no more ads on UA-cam. Even music uploads are void of irritating ads that try and force us to pay. getadblock.com/
Is that Newcastle on Tine?
Or check to see if you can skip to the video first, wait 5 seconds and then replay the video. No downloading needed.
And they put the most stupid insensitive noisy adverts during important or tense moments.
tony charlton Why do you say that?
Shout out to the Beck backing track!!
The touch of Portishead for the music is nice!
It's long been a trick used by BBC producers; grabbing a bit of music by a band whose name, or just the track title, is related to the subject matter. - You should see the show 'Homes Under the Hammer'; they'll play-in a different song based on almost anything that the presenter happens to say!
Beeching and Brexit; two examples of britain commmitting an act of self harm without prompting from anyone from outside.
@steve gale Judging from your previous posts that were sadly lacking in correct facts I think it's a case of Dear Kettle, love Pot!
A great documentary. Beeching massages the figures too.
Its the main line - short line dilemma. I see it here also. I would love to own my own short line. Short lines supplying the mainline are important, passenger still overrides though. I love trains BTW.
Like Todd Andrews in Ireland mass 1960s closures and the tracks were lifted plus the land was sold off. Even into the 1970s and 1980s lines were closed and now the beds are been turned into Greenways. Was in Temple Meads many times , have reletives in Bristol.
I'm from Cali, and i find this bs! BRING BACK PASSENGER TRAINS!
Dab King94 You've got the San Juan Capistrano line which we watch on UA-cam.
There may well be a case for a rail service between Portishead and Bristol now, but that was not the case in the 1970s. For a few years around 1970 I commuted between Portishead and Bristol, my mode of transport a forty-year old Austin Seven with a top speed of 45mph. I could travel from home to work, door-to-door, in forty minutes, at a time to suit me. To use the railway would have required a twenty minute walk at one end, and a fifteen minute bus journey at the other, plus waiting time at the station - a minimum of 70 minutes and a very good chance of getting soaked most days. I never even considered catching a train!
Dr Beeching was the head of the road haulage association ,funny that
martin jeffery No, he wasn't.
Dr Beeching was Technical Director of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and was parachuted in as Chairman of the British Transport Commission in 1962 precisely because he had no background in running railways or transport in general. His salary was an unheard of £24k (£521k in 2020).
The "road haulage" factor in all this was the then Minister of State for Transport, Ernest Marples who had an implied vested interest in doing away with a competitor (rail) as he headed a road-building company which would profit hugely from a State-funded road-building programme if/when the railway system was ripped apart.
@@stephenphillip5656 Not true. Marples was a Junior Cabinet Minister in 1951 and resigned his directorship of Marples Ridgeway. For which documentary evidence exists. He was required to do this by Parliamentary Law, as Ministers and above, are required to do so today. He became Minister of Transport in 1960 having no involvement with the day to day running of his old firm for 9 years. He certainly did not close railways down for road building. That's another myth. The reason why rail closures happened was down to the inadequacies of the 1962 Transport Act. Railways had to operate at a profit according to the Act, if not then they were candidates for closure. Marples was constrained by the wording of the Act but always had to demonstrate that he acted within it. I would add that Dr Terry Gourvish of London University was asked by BR in the mid 1980s to write a history of the industry. His book, From Integration to privitisation in which he covers the BTC and Marples/Beeching years, he found that Marples was not influenced by the road lobby at all. Indeed Marples had problems with, as the PM of the time McMillian foresaw problems with key marginals, where lines were scheduled for closure, which was seen as a potential vote looser.
It's really a shame because Britain is small enough and small width roads to make train travel still viable. It's like General Motors destroying trolleys / street cars systems to sell their buses. Now too expensive to put them back in.
Hi my name is Phil I did 50yrs on the footplate I started at edgeley shed on the 4th of April 1961 in 1962 I was made a fireman at Trafford Park shed I did 8 yrs on steam I finished my time out at longsight as a driver I finished in 2011 Regards Phil.
3:00 “Adequate alternative facilities”. Political double speak. The alternative they used to claim a line or station wasn’t needed was “oh, everyone will drive by car”.
Beaching was a scape goat . UK didn't even fullfill his report properly . Also many countries did the same thing ; Denmark , Germany , Canada that i know of in detail plus others ( what does that have to do with Dr Beaching ? ) . It was huge and the flavour of the day .
It took 50+ years to realise the government mistake but blanket killing the railways was a social and environmental own goal of the highest order!
Mantra of government always to save money short term, never mind the implications.
It would have been a joy to watch but constantly being interrupted by google adverts it became frustrating.
Beeching was most likely told NOT to look at the bigger picture when deciding what lines to close
beeching closed nothing, he had no power.the labour party closed the lines, now they have never been able to plan into the next day let alone 50 years
I don't think this broadcast was entirely fair towards Beeching, because it seems to ignore the fact that those branchlines became closed for a reason and the reason was that they couldn't cover their own operating cost due to a decline in numbers of passenger as well as the tonnage of goods moved on rail.
It wasn't that simple. *Beeching* knew that if he didn't prune the network as his political masters wanted he'd be replaced by someone not at all sympathetic to the railways.
Shocking parking at 9:05
They could start by reopening the S&D and Cheltenham to Southampton, opening all intermediate stations. And the Ruabon to Barmouth line. The whole of Mid-Wales does not have a train!
Put them all back ,It would be cheaper then all the road repairs they have to do on a daily basis and cut down on the traffic jams.
The problem with these documentaries is the implication that railway closures didn’t happen until the publication of the Beeching report. Wrong- they were happening from nationalisation and throughout the 1950s and early 1960s until said report was published. The Beeching report did not start railway closures, it simply speeded them up.
Very true. A book by Daniels & Dench Called Passengers No More records all railway closures up to the early 1970s. Apart from the Ashford to Ore Diesel line which was scheduled to close but it did not happen.
The Beeching report still suggested closing over a third of the rail network that existed at the time, after the closures which had already happened. THAT is why a lot of people will see Beeching as the evil in this. They were already closing lines but his solution was just to close even more (albeit his suggestion was to temporarily close a lot of lines and reopen after losses were recouped)
This is where the true villain comes in.
Marples. As he had a road construction company AND was on the transport commission he just ripped the rails up to create more roads
In the US, we ended passenger rail at an even more rapid pace, and the oil/automotive companies bought up the streetcar lines and replaced them with diesel buses. To add to the injury, the rail rights-of-way were given up, and recent attempts to restore passenger services have been very expensive because of land acquisition.
There is no doubt that transport by rail is much more energy-efficient than by highway, and newer trains now are mostly electrically powered. As the move away from fossil fuels increases we're going to need those trains, and we're going to pay for the hasty closures in the past.
Remember watching this a few years ago. Things are happening in some plsces but not fast enough ...
awesome video could there be a update please ?
portisheadrailwaygroup.org
On 8 April 2019 it was announced that the funding gap of £31.9M has been closed. All of the funding necessary is now in place.
There are further updates on the website.
we have the same thing in USA . Many gov't supported interstates & airports, the result was Amtrak which is not great. We also have many lobbyists in DC. Our railways were privately owned so no support from the gov't. We do not have buffers so where did that come from.
The Excel X5 bus runs a 40 minute service between Portishead and Bristol!
Not when your stuck in traffic though, it took Lisa 2 hours to get to work in Bristol.
at 1 in the morning
Excellent video,Thank you.I could go and on about that stupid short sighted decision. Money? But at the moment this is what we are left with.I just wonder how many people leave their computer desk at home to commute in their air polluting cars, to do the same thing they could do at home, at their office desk?In the near future if all road vehicles are electrically powered we will still have the same bloody gridlocks.
What's the Portishead commute time like now, with so many people working from home?
Wow 👌. Very good case for reopening passenger services all over this area 👏 of the country
The Beeching Report did more than decimate Britain's railways. To 'decimate' means to reduce by one-in-tem (10%) and Beeching reduced our railways by much more than that.
I wouldn't drive into Bristol. I'd find somewhere to park and cycle the last 5-10 miles. If possible that is. I used to cycle to work 6.5 miles taking 20-25 mins depending on traffic and catching lights.
Beeching s cuts ,the worse of which is the old Great Central even more so when HS2 is using some of the old track bed at Calvert
Classic TORY cockup.
Only because THEY were in power at the time!
What/Who provoked the scheme?
@@alexhayden2303 Ernest Marples.
Lots of the closures continue d under barbra. Cartland. When labour got in
LABOUR carried on the closures, despite PROMISING not to in their 1964 election manifesto. Just as they closed more coal mines than Thatcher.
Labour were the biggest liars long before Tony Bliar and Alisair Campbell. Harold Wilson was in a league of his own for bare-faced lies - "the pound in your pocket" speech being one of his more notable instances.
Waverley route closed by Barbara Castle one of the worst partisan politicians ever
Cutting down road traffic accidents and pollution seems reasonable to me
First you need a rail line back in place, this is the whole point of this documentary , highlighting the Labour government mistake.
MPs never change, always in it for what they can get for themselves. Its still the same today! No political will = Nothing in it for me!
As enjoyable as this was, it's a very one-sided documentary. These days people seem to think that our railways were as clean and lovely as heritage railways now are, as fast and efficient as modern trains, and that axing a lot of lines was done simply out of spite.
The truth is that the railways were filthy, slow, inefficient, poorly managed, and once ordinary people had some disposable income in the 60s they bought a car and never used the railway again.
.... Because the network was too big, and too expensive to maintain. The railways were built in a golden age of steam, when everyone used them to get around. Over time, rail networks worldwide were being closed.
In Victoria Australia, the network was built during the gold rush, it was paid for by the gold, and the entire state was built in this era. After the gold price went down, and gold became harder to obtain, well, the network is a laughing state today compared to at it's peak.
If they didn't build the network so damn large and inefficient, then these lines wouldn't have had to close. Look at those large extravagant train stations everywhere. They had to close, they were too big and expensive.
The people did this to themselves, they replaced the rail with roads, and then failed to upgrade the roads over time. The roads are literally 1 lane in each direction. That's dumb. In Victoria, we have massive freeways and massive highways that replaced the rail. In the UK, the government is absolutely stupid in not upgrading these roads.
@@berenscott8999 in the UK there are multi-lane highways and motorways all over the place. The road network had massive investment as rail declined and still does. Only in rural areas does one still encounter cross country roads with a single lane in each direction.
@@discomikeyboy2012 The town of Swan Hill in Victoria has half the population of Portishead, is full of dole bludgers and public housing, and it gets a train to it.
Maybe but imagine if railways were modernised in the 1950s-1980s with a similar budget to the car infrastructure.
USA - 1930's - Firestone, Standard Oil and GM - Purchased most of the Trolley Producing Manufacturers in the Country. Trolleys or ' Light Rail ' transported most people in the Urban/Metro Areas ( Cities ) . In 1949 Federal Courts convicted the " Three Big " of forming a Consortium to " Destroy Public Transportation " in USA; they were fined $ 5,000.00 US each. Two years later, the USA approved the Funding of Federal Highway Act to build Super Highways in USA - About $ 49,000.00 US Today. Nothing New ! Thanks & Bye.
@@waterloo32594 - Thank you, I agree; Eisenhower & Military were impressed with German Autobahn. Highway Acts of 1950's improved & expanded - with Federal Spending - Interstate Highway System. Combo of efforts to diminish Public Transportation - Rail - and Consumer interest in the Auto & better Interstate Highways mobilized Americans. Civilian impact was secondary, but the Auto exploded as a personal means of freedom in movement across America. Rail Transportation suffered - including Public Transportation throughout USA. In fact it was Eisenhower ( Always Quoted ) who cautioned America concerning the Military Industrial Complex.
Railway lines, not "train tracks" 😠 We don't live in America and are not five year olds.
I know this guy, I was in London and stayed at a 5* hotel,he was in the bar, I had one before sleep and he sat next to me, I left after a short conversation,headed for the lift and he came in and just stuck his tongue at my mouth, I told him the truth that I had to sleep and left,it is him, lol,there were BBC staff there.
That's the longest sentence I've ever read.
How is that "knowing" him?
@@deeremeyer1749 I knew him,enough to identify the chap.
@@pdamon78 There are commas
I tried to use Google to translate whatever language that was into English, but it didn't work. Can anyone here translate gibberish into English?
she needs a trainline to the curb when she finally gets to bristol to be fair
Looks like the bike didn’t fit.
In this era of "brexit" the stopping all stations to nowhere is a popular choice. Although even that is a bit to avant garde for many. They seem to feel that it is necessary to stop part way along and reverse direction periodically so that you never quite get to central nowhere. You remain in the outer suburbs of it.
Thank god to the west summer set railway at least it's better by rail than road. Good old steam this proves steam is king better than the car
At 8'40'' she drives across the Menai suspension bridge - Telford's famous masterpiece, built in 1826 and the first significant railway bridge ever built. No wonder the cars are bumper to bumper - it was never designed for this sort of thing.
If you are going to use the old rail alignment for bikes (and you should) then build a 4 lane road bridge elsewhere and use the old bridge for bikes - a great tourist attraction.
Sorry Ken, you mis-spotted. It's the Clifton Suspension Bridge which was built by Brunel.
Sorry, I missed a comma after "Bridge".
Telford's Menai Bridge was never a railway bridge, nor was Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge which was the one in the video. Robert Stephenson built the Brittania Tubular railway bridge over the Menai Strait.
Since this programme was produced the connection of the west Somerset railway between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard has been restored but I have not heard of any trains going from Taunton all the way to Minehead as yet so a change at Bishops Lydeard is needed to get to Minehead!
The UK is tiny and could fit inside the Canadian province of Ontario 4x over yet is has a population 4.5 times greater. It should be crisscrossed with efficient high-speed rail, why it's not is sheer madness and incompetence.
we invented railways, we have destroyed our invention
Thanx for posting and thanx to the BBC.
Politicians .....the minister of transport in most countries has never driven a tractor/truck/train..............the minister of agriculture has never milked a cow by hand......the minister of arts and culture might get by with a D pass in music O level............Hey let's swap portfolios!..... seriously folks........people who love trains......and yes ....steam trains.......like me .....that have probably grown up in the 60's next to a marshalling yard.....or main/branch. line ......days when freight WAS moving......shunting through the night......it breaks my Northern Irish heart............and yes ...we used to have electric milk floats bringing milk to you door in glass bottles!!! . (Benny Hill? where are you?) I am very lucky to see a steam train here in Kaapstad at the Elgin Railway market when I get gigs there on Saturdays............I love it...and so do MANY other people! (the train ..not..the music!) Love ..peace and puff puff puff!
Please: RAILWAY tracks. I'm actually British, and even for me to hear the Americanism "Train Station" is like squealing chalk on a blackboard.
Depot?
@@barrycarlisle4511 Yes, "Depot" is ok.
They took away our railways and gave us cycle tracks. What a great solution to the movement of freight and people, NOT. A lot of people couldn’t see further than the swelling of their own personal wealth.
The rail network linked every city to almost every town in the UK. With the population growth between the 1960s and now all of these routes would likely be heavily used.
@steve gale If you can't post without being insulting I suggest you keep away from your keyboard until you learn some civility.
@steve gale You're just ignorant if you continue to believe that nonsense - you're the know-nothing twerp if you can't be bothered to look up the facts, because there was nothing non-standard about the railway through Reading in the 1960's. Still, if you want to believe the nonsense you peddle then carry on - there's none so blind as those that won't see!
Our inter city bus system has been decimated by the combination of the greed of big business and government indifference. It seems the world is more concerned with the almighty dollar than humanity and more concerned with serving the rich(who don't pay their fair share of taxes) than serving people who need the transit system. Just get a car, right???? Nope. Perhaps return transit to what it was a mere fifty years ago. Canada is victim to this type of rubbish as well. I should know. I've had to live through that decision.. All of the government money is going to the city and trying to force everyone into those disgusting cold impersonal places
4:12 "In theory it should take me less than an hour to reach the center of Bristol". WTF... you're traveling 12 miles! It should take a normal person about 15 minutes, but due to driver inattention, poor infrastructure and short-sightedness this is what you have. I'm glad that I can ride the 5km to work in 5 minutes and Lisa if you need someone to ride with then call me :D
Gregory A. Parker Sr. ... On a train, even with several stops, it would be less than half an hour.
In the credits, Lisa has moved to Bristol!
You think thats bad? Here in edinburgh it takes me an hour to go 4 miles at 5 oclock, thats if there is no road works, or bloody celebrities visiting, and when the festivals on for for a few weeks every summer, just dont bother! Its not worth it
Well, between missing trains and congesting cars there always fit busses...
I dont understand why they couldnt reopen old railways in cities as trams (or even tram-trains), whilst they arent as fast as a normal train, they would still be quite adequate.
Why was this uploaded anew? It had been up before o_O
Glitch with UA-cam meant the sound cut out of the old upload, fingers crossed the same doesn't happen again :)
The headline says that the railways were decimated yet two minutes into the video the presenter says that 1/3 of the railways were axed!! Perhaps someone somewhere has the accurate figures!