page_title: Beeching cuts
section_title: Closures by year
hierarchical_section_title: Beeching cuts / Closures by year
context_page_description: The Beeching cuts was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: The Reshaping of British Railways and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes, written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board.
  The first report identified 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of railway line for closure, 55% of stations and 30% of route miles, with an objective of stemming the large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running. The second report identified a small number of major routes for significant investment. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes, including a switch to containerisation for rail freight.
  Protests resulted in the saving of some stations and lines, but the majority were closed as planned; Beeching's name remains associated with the mass closure of railways and the loss of many local services in the period that followed.
context_section_description: The list below shows 7000 miles of closures:
  After this period, "residual" Beeching closures took place: Bridport to Maiden Newton (in 1975), Alston to Haltwhistle (in 1976), Woodside to Selsdon (in 1983).
caption: The remains of Rugby Central Station on the former Great Central Railway
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