Still on track

Yesterday morning we took a train ride from Bucknell, which is about three miles from where we are staying, across the Welsh border to Llandidrod Wells. The two stations were among the 2,363 railway stations, representing 55% of the total, which were recommended for closure by Dr Richard Beeching in his report "The Reshaping of British Railways" published on 27 March 1963.

They both form part of the Heart of Wales line which was part of the 5,000 miles of track Dr Beeching thought should be closed. Amazingly they remain open at great cost to the UK taxpayer because of the social benefits that the line is considered to bring (or if you take the cynical Wikipedia view because the line crosses a number of marginal contsituencies).

Its easy, as I often do, to look back nostalgically about trains passing so many small villages but, apart from where the writer of the report did not have the benefit of hindsight and did not know that certain towns were going to grow in the way that they did, he took a realistic approach. According to a magazine on the subject that I am reading, 50% of the stations produced just 2% of the railway's income and a third of the 17,830 miles of track carried just 1% of the passengers.

Short of banning the cars that most people preferred to use, the railways had to focus on what they did best which was to carry people between large cities and also to carry large freight instead of parcels and small loads.

Two years after Dr Beechings' report my father was appointed general manager of the Isle of Man Railway Company and a few months later the railways were closed and the company's future switched to their bus subsidiary, Isle of Man Road Services.

Although trains were to reappear on the Douglas to Peel line two years later for a final two year stint (operated by a group of enthusiasts without a totally unrealistic business plan) there is no doubt that they saved the Manx railways for eventually the Manx taxpayer bailed out operations on the Douglas to Port Erin line at a cost per mile greater than any other railway in the British Isles.

As I write, the Douglas to Peel line is being used for the Isle of Man Bank Peel to Douglas run. Like a car driver who wants the railways to survive without paying for them, I am an athlete who wants to enjoy his holiday but doesn't want to miss the action at home. I wish I was in the race.