Editing Richard Beeching (section)

=== 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.