Except that he didn't! After his cuts they were still so unprofitable that Barbara Castle brought in subsidies - which now underpin the whole industry.
The closure of the Uckfield to Lewes line wasn't a Beeching cut. East Sussex County council decided it was in the way of a new road they wanted to build in Lewes. They were selective with the figures and said that not many people travelled between Lewes and Uckfield but didn't include people going from, say, Brighton to Tunbridge Wells (which that line allowed you to do) or Crowborough.
Being 'selective with the figures' was endemic in the Beeching cuts. On the Isle of Wight, for instance, only internal fares were counted - revenue for fares to and from destinations on the mainland (which was probably the major part of the income, in the summer months anyway) was not included.
That was Marples, the Minister of Transport, not Beeching. His firm was a major road-building contractor, but he was forced (reasonably enough, it would have been a conflict of interest) to give up his shares when he became the Minister.
I stand corrected.
So why is train travel in Europe so much cheaper than in the UK?
I think we paradoxically suffer for being first.
Update on that point is like East Grinstead to Three Bridges and forward travel to Brighton, the T/B to Btn revenue wasn't included.
And the council were fully supported by the local MP (with the magnificent name of Sir Tufton Beamish) who, despite being a one-nation Tory, got this call horribly wrong. Instead of closing the line for the Phoenix Causeway they should have sent the road over (or under) the line. But the costs would have e been much higher than just shutting the line. That line would have been the answer to the “we need an alternative line from Brighton to London” cry.
An old work colleague of mine's father was mayor of East Grinstead and told me that Beeching had cut those lines because he didn't want to be seen as showing favouritism.
He ended up fleeing to Monaco as he was facing prosecution for fiddling his taxes. He was Premier League standard when it comes to dodgy cabinet ministers.
Rail travel in this country is both the most expensive and cheapest in Europe. If you turn up at 8:00am to buy a ticket from London Euston to Birmingham you pay the earth. If you go from Marylebone (prepared to be a bit longer on the train), off-peak, bought in advance of the day, with a railcard (and few people don’t qualify for one of them), and use a “splitting” ticket agency you can get ridiculous deals. In Europe they tend to have the same fare for any time bought at any time (but they do have railcards in most places), so commuters do better than here, but leisure travellers do worse.
are they though? read a couple of threads on the railway forums with much scorn about rail on the continent, apart from price and a few high profile services that get lots of praise. we dont have the space for the high speed lines, then maintaining stations at Upper Wymborne and St Mary on the Weald etc, with 2 trains stopping every hour makes it all more expensive and slow.
