Editing Richard Beeching (section)

== Government appointment ==

=== British Railways Chairman ===
On 15 March 1961 [[Ernest Marples]] announced in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that Beeching would be the first chairman of the [[British Railways Board]] in due course, and that in the meantime he would be a part-time member of the British Transport Commission with immediate effect, becoming the chairman of the commission from 1 June 1961. The board was to be the successor to the [[British Transport Commission]], which would be abolished by the [[Transport Act 1962]]. Beeching would receive the same yearly salary that he was earning at ICI, the controversial sum of £24,000 (over £490,000 in 2016 currency), which was £14,000 more than his predecessor [[Brian Robertson, 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge|Sir Brian Robertson]] and two-and-a-half times higher than the salary of any head of a nationalised industry at the time. Beeching was given a leave of absence for five years by ICI in order to carry out this task.<ref>The Times, "I.C.I. director to be first rail board chairman", 16 March 1961, p. 14.</ref>

At that time the government was seeking professional advice from outside the railway industry to improve the financial position of British Railways. There was widespread concern at the time that, despite substantial investment in the [[History of rail transport in Great Britain 1948–1994#The Modernisation Plan|1955 Modernisation Plan]], the railways continued to record increasing losses – from £15.6M in 1956 to £42M in 1960. Passenger and goods traffic was also declining in the face of increased competition from the roads; by 1960, one in nine households owned or had access to a car. It would be Beeching's task to find a way of returning the industry to profitability as soon as possible.

=== First Beeching Report ===
{{main|Beeching cuts}}
On 27 March 1963, under orders from Marples, Beeching published [[Beeching cuts#The Reshaping of British Railways (Beeching I)|his report on the future of the railways]], entitled ''The Reshaping of British Railways''. He called for the closure of one-third of the country's 7,000 railway stations. Passenger services would be withdrawn from around 5,000 route miles accounting for an annual train mileage of 68 million and yielding, according to Beeching, a net saving of £18m per year. There were no proposals to improve or repurpose the usage and efficiency of the existing network or how to maintain or dispose of redundant infrastructure. The reshaping would also involve the shedding of around 70,000 British Railways jobs over three years. Beeching forecast that his changes would result in an improvement in British Railways' accounts of between £115M and £147M.<ref>The Times, "Beeching Report Proposes Closing Nearly a Third of Britain's 7,000 Railway Stations", 28 March 1963, p. 8.</ref> The cut-backs would include the scrapping of a third of a million goods wagons, much as Stedeford had foreseen and fought against.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gourvish |first1=T. R. |title=British Railways 1948–73: A Business History |date=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521188838}}</ref>

Unsurprisingly, Beeching's plans were hugely controversial not only with trade unions, but with the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] opposition and railway-using public. Beeching was undeterred and argued that too many lines were running at a loss, and that his charge to shape a profitable railway made cuts a logical starting point.<ref name="obit"/> As one author puts it, Beeching "was expected to produce quick solutions to problems that were deep-seated and not susceptible to purely intellectual analysis."<ref>{{cite book | last = Simmons | first = Jack |author2=Biddle, Gordon  | title = The Oxford Companion to British Railway History | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1997 | location = Oxford | page = 29 | isbn = 978-0-19-211697-0 }}</ref> For his part, Beeching was unrepentant about his role in the closures: "I suppose I'll always be looked upon as the axe man, but it was surgery, not mad chopping."<ref>{{cite book | last = Davies | first = Hunter | author-link = Hunter Davies | title = A walk along the tracks | publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson | year = 1982 | page = 11 | isbn = 978-0-297-78042-7 }}</ref>

Beeching was nevertheless instrumental in modernising many aspects of the railway network, particularly a greater emphasis on [[block train]]s which did not require expensive and time-consuming shunting ''en route''.

Labour came to power at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|general election in October 1964]]. On 23 December 1964, Transport Minister [[Tom Fraser]] informed the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that Beeching was to return to ICI in June 1965.<ref>{{cite journal |editor-first=B.W.C. |editor-last=Cooke |date=February 1965 |title=Notes and News: Dr. Beeching leaving B.R. |journal=[[The Railway Magazine|Railway Magazine]] |volume=111 |issue=766 |page=113 }}</ref>

=== Second Beeching Report and creation of British Rail ===
In early 1965 Beeching unveiled the new brand for the railways – British Rail – and its 'double arrow' symbol, which is still in use as the symbol of National Rail now. The legal name of the British Railways Board did not change. On 16 February Beeching introduced the second stage of his reorganisation of the railways.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes |url=http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=14 |website=Railways Archive |publisher=[[British Railways Board]] |access-date=10 July 2019 |pages=104 |language=en |format=Bound Booklet |date=February 1965}}</ref> his [[Beeching cuts#The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (Beeching II)|second report]] set out his conclusion that of the {{convert|7500|mi|km}} of trunk railway throughout Britain, only {{convert|3000|mi|km}} "should be selected for future development" and invested in. This policy would result in traffic through Britain being routed through nine selected lines. Traffic to [[Coventry]], [[Birmingham]], [[Manchester]], [[Liverpool]] and [[Scotland]] would be routed through the [[West Coast Main Line]] running to [[Carlisle railway station|Carlisle]] and [[Glasgow]]; traffic to the north-east would be concentrated through the [[East Coast Main Line]] which was classified as ‘not for development’ north of Newcastle; and traffic to [[Wales]] and the [[West Country]] would go on the [[Great Western Main Line]], then to [[Swansea]] and [[Plymouth]]. Underpinning Beeching's proposals was his belief that there was still too much duplication in the railway network, although this report did not propose any closures. Of the {{convert|7500|mi|km}} of trunk route, {{convert|3700|mi|km}} involves a choice between two routes, {{convert|700|mi|km}} a choice of three, and over a further {{convert|700|mi|km}} a choice of four.<ref>The Times, "The Second Stage of Dr. Beeching's Reorganisation Proposals", 17 February 1965, p. 8.</ref>

These proposals were rejected by the government, which put an early end to his secondment from ICI; Beeching returned there in June 1965. It is a point of contention whether he left by mutual arrangement with the government or was sacked. [[Frank Cousins (British politician)|Frank Cousins]], the Labour [[Minister of Technology]], told the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] in November 1965 that Beeching had been dismissed by Tom Fraser.<ref>The Times, "Mr. Cousins says 'We Sacked Beeching'", 17 November 1965, p. 12.</ref> Beeching denied this, pointing out that he had returned early to ICI as he would not have had enough time to undertake an in-depth transport study before the formal end of his secondment from ICI.<ref>The Times, "Lord Beeching: 'I Was Not Sacked'", 18 November 1965, p. 12.</ref>