Beeching criticised for leaving UK “inflexible” transport planning legacy

Half a century after his report on the future of Britain’s rail network, Richard Beeching is still being criticised for the extent of the cuts to the railways he recommended, at least by one media commentator.

AS THE 50th anniversary of the publication of the Beeching report on the UK’s rail network nears (it was originally published on 27 March, 1963), Robin McKie, science and technology editor at The Observer, was strongly critical of the impact that Beeching’s work had, and is still having, on modern Britain. “The railways that had helped Britain become an industrial power… were to be cut back brutally,” McKie began, describing the contents of Beeching’s...

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