Richard Beeching

Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 - 23 March 1985), commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer. He became infamous in Britain in the early 1960s for his role in masterminding the Beeching Axe railway closures. Copied from www. ... Copied from www. ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... March 23 is the 82nd day of the year (83rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system, from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Many railway lines were closed as a result of the Beeching Axe The Beeching Axe is an informal name for the British Governments attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running the British railway system. ...

Biography

Beeching was born in Maidstone, Kent, the second of four brothers. He was educated at Maidstone Grammar School and gained a First Class honours degree in Physics at Imperial College London, followed by a research Ph.D. Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, halfway (30 miles) between the City of London and the English Channel. ... coat of Arms of Kent For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Maidstone Grammar School is a secondary school located in Maidstone, United Kingdom. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density Physics (Greek: (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the branch of science concerned with the discovery and characterization of universal laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. ... Imperial College London (also known as Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London. ...

In 1938 he married Ella Tiley, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. At the age of 33, he became Deputy Chief Engineer of the Armament Design Department of the Ministry of Supply. Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supplying of equipment to the British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. ...

In 1948 he joined the giant chemical firm Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), and in 1957 he was appointed technical director of the board. 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is a British chemical group and one of the largest chemical producers in the world. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar). ...

He was invited in 1960 by the Government to become a member of an Advisory Group on the state of British transport, the Stedeford Committee. The Chairman of the Committee was Sir Ivan Stedeford and the two men clashed on a number of issues connected with Beeching's proposal to drastically prune Britain's rail infrastructure. In spite of questions being asked in Parliament, Sir Ivan's report was not published until much later. A set of proposals for the future of the railways that came to be known as the "Beeching Plan" was adopted by the Government, resulting in the closure of a third of the rail network and the scrapping of a third of a million freight wagons, much as Stedeford had foreseen and fought against. See Gourvish (link below) Ivan Arthur Rice Stedeford (28 January 1897 - 9 February 1975) was a British industrialist and philanthropist. ... Sir Ivan Arthur Rice Stedeford, GBE (28 January 1897–9 February 1975) was a British industrialist and philanthropist. ... The Houses of Parliament, as seen over Westminster Bridge The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ...

In 1961 he was appointed chairman of the British Transport Commission and later of its successor, the British Railways Board. At that time the Government was seeking outside talent and fresh blood to sort out the huge problems of the railway system, i.e., an expert in an outside field, with little or no experience in railway management. There was widespread concern at the time that, despite huge amounts of taxpayers' funds allocated to the railways under the 1955 Modernisation Plan, railway deficits were mounting. Whatever may be said now, the evidence is that both passenger and freight traffic was abandoning the railways, particularly in country districts where road transport had provided a steadily more attractive alternative since before World War Two. 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlees post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the separate Ulster Transport Authority). ... The British Railways Board (BRB) was the governing body of British Railways (later British Rail) from 1962 until privatisation in the 1990s. ...

During his tenure, Beeching became a hugely controversial figure when he recommended a massive programme of railway closures to cut the cost of running the railway system, known informally as the Beeching Axe. These were, in most respects, a continuation of programmes of closures which had been occurring since the 1920s (or earlier in some isolated cases). Ironically, the studies required for the report led to a moratorium on line closures in the early 1960s which made the subsequent closures look more harsh than a linear programme might have done. Many railway lines were closed as a result of the Beeching Axe The Beeching Axe is an informal name for the British Governments attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running the British railway system. ...

He was also instrumental in modernising many aspects of the railway system, particularly a greater emphasis on block trains which did not require expensive and time-consuming shunting en route. It is highly likely that without this aspect of the Beeching Plan, Britain's railways would have lost freight to a much higher extent than occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Today's railways in both Britain and abroad focus predominantly on the methods Beeching recommended.

Beeching resigned in 1965 after recommendations in one of his reports were rejected by the government. He re-joined ICI, where he rose to become Deputy Chairman (1966-68). In 1965 he was made a life peer as Baron Beeching, of East Grinstead in the County of Sussex. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... In the United Kingdom, Life Peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as hereditary peers). ... Sussex is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. ...

This is what the BR network would have looked like if Beeching's plans had been implemented (all lines except those bolded would have been closed

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 388 × 599 pixels Full resolution (547 × 845 pixel, file size: 356 KB, MIME type: image/png) Author: Richard Beeching From The Development of the Major Trunk Routes or Beeching Axe 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 388 × 599 pixels Full resolution (547 × 845 pixel, file size: 356 KB, MIME type: image/png) Author: Richard Beeching From The Development of the Major Trunk Routes or Beeching Axe 2. ...

Legacy

Beeching's findings have been reviewed in two books by his contemporaries, both of which are required reading for a reasonable assessment of his achievements. R.H.N (Dick) Hardy: Beeching - Champion of the Railway (1989) ISBN 0-7110-1855-3 and Gerard Fiennes: I Tried to Run a Railway (1967) ISBN 0-7110-0447-1. Neither book is in print at the time of writing (2006). Both are broadly sympathetic to Beeching's basic analysis and the proposed solution. On the other hand, Hardy points out Beeching's political naivete (see below) in transitioning from private to public industry. Similarly Fiennes notes that because a given passenger service was producing a loss did not mean that it must always do so in future. It can reasonably be argued that too many routes were run in a traditional fashion unchanged from Edwardian England, whereas radical changes in operating procedures would have greatly reduced the losses generated. Beeching allegedly made no attempt to quantify what such savings could have yielded, nor which lines could have survived had practices been changed. Gerry Fiennes (full name: Gerard Francis Gisborne Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes OBE, MA) (7 June 1906 – 25 May 1985) was a famous British railway manager who rose through the ranks of the London and North Eastern Railway and later British Rail following graduation from Oxford University. ...

The political aspects of the Beeching Report remain controversial. The report was commissioned by a Conservative government with strong ties to the road construction lobby. However, the report's findings were enthusiastically endorsed and implemented by the subsequent Labour administrations which were heavily dependent for funds from unions associated with road industry associations. The general reduction of Britain's railway mileage was probably inevitable, but the speed with which the two Labour governments of 1964 and 1966 pursued the report's recommendations was not. Beeching seemingly failed to realise that history would portray him as the 'axeman', even though the Secretary of State for Transport was (and still is) the only person who can actually authorise abandonment of railway passenger services in the U.K.

The effect of the Beeching Axe on a small station was the subject of Oh, Doctor Beeching!, a television sitcom by David Croft and Richard Spendlove from 1995 to 1997. A popular Flanagan and Allen song became the theme song which ran: Oh, Doctor Beeching! was a British television sitcom written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove, which, after a broadcast pilot on 14 August 1995, ran for two series from 8 July 1996, with the last episode being broadcast on 28 September 1997. ... David Croft (born September 7, 1922 in Sandbanks, United Kingdom) is a writer, producer and actor. ... Richard Spendlove MBE (born June 16th 1939) is a British radio producer/presenter and writer. ...

"Oh! Dr. Beeching, what have you done?

There once were lots of trains to catch, but soon there will be none!

I'll have to buy a bike, 'cause I can't afford a car.

Oh! Dr. Beeching! What a naughty man you are!"

Note: This is based on the once-well-known and railway-related ditty

"Oh! Mr porter, what can I do!

I wanted to go to Birmingham and they took me on to Crewe.

Take me back to London as quickly as you can

Oh Mr porter what a silly (girl) I am!"

Flanders and Swann commemorated the loss of the branch lines and small country stations in 1964 in their song "Slow Train". Michael Flanders Donald Swann The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann (1923–1994) who collaborated in writing comic songs. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Slow Train is a song by Flanders and Swann, written in 1964. ...

Trivia

There is a pub called Lord Beechings at the end of the Cambrian Railway at Aberystwyth, which until its refurbishment by SA Brain & Company Ltd was decorated with various railway memorabilia, in particular regarding the Aberystwyth - London and Aberystwyth - Carmarthen service, which he axed. It was previously called The Railway. Founded in 1882, Brains is a brewery in South Wales that produces a number of ales according to time honoured methods in the heart of Cardiff. ... Aberystwyth (IPA: , South Welsh: ) (in English: Mouth of the Ystwyth) is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Aberystwyth (IPA: , South Welsh: ) (in English: Mouth of the Ystwyth) is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. ... Carmarthen (Welsh Caerfyrddin - caer fort + Myrddin Moridunum, Merlin (origin disputed)) is the county town of Carmarthenshire, Wales. ...

The Beeching Report, a song against the Beeching Axe, was recorded by the post-rock group iLiKETRAiNS. Many railway lines were closed as a result of the Beeching Axe The Beeching Axe is an informal name for the British Governments attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running the British railway system. ... The term post-rock was coined by Simon Reynolds in issue 123 of The Wire (May 1994) to describe a sort of music using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and powerchords. ... iLiKETRAiNS is a band from England. ...

The Beatles considered Lord Beeching when they were trying to find someone who could sort out the business affairs of their company Apple Corps. The Beatles were an English rock band from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. ... Apple Records logo, featuring a Granny Smith apple. ...

The road Beechings Way at Alford, Lincolnshire, is so named to commemorate the loss of the formerly adjacent station and line (formerly from Grimsby to London, via Louth and Peterborough) under the Beeching Axe. I remember a joke at the time was when Dr. Beeching was comparing British Railways with his former company, ICI. Dr. Beeching was saying that after his proposals were carried out that BR were a much more efficient enterprise than ICI, whereupon the ICI man retorted "Yes, but we have more passengers". Many railway lines were closed as a result of the Beeching Axe The Beeching Axe is an informal name for the British Governments attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running the British railway system. ...

External links

• Gourvish