Beeching Plan for Decision Soon
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
NEXT month the Beeching report will face the Cabinet squarely with the problem: what to do with that half of the railway system which is doing only onetwentieth of the work.
Already the pressure is on the Cabinet to do nothing immediately-7-to wait until after a new mandate has been given to the Conservatives, or until the problem becomes one for the Labour Party instead. But there will certainly be other demands upon them to net boldly and decisively to end the situation in which millions are being drained away weekly.
The signs are becoming clearer that transport in many of its aspects could well become one of the really hot issues of the next--general election. Social service or economic success—ail three main parties will doubtless have to take to the platform with a definite answer. .
After digest:ng Dr. Beeching's bitter pill the Government is committed to presenting its own answer. 11 could well be that this answer will he issued in the form of a challenge, to be answered by the electorate in the general election which must come this year or next, The present Government has up to now approached all its important problems cautiously. Who can suggest that, with this problem, it is going to reach a quick decision and push it through ruthlessly?
Dr. Beeching might, for one. He is understood to be ready to argue that economic facts on the scale he is going to produce cannot lie, and that if he is to take his job seriously he must be given the tools to tackle it during the next five years.
Already Dr. Beeching is understood by some to be w'anting to close down half the railway stations, perhaps four-fifths of the freight depots and collection centres, and hundreds of miles of track. But the current speculation in some quarters seems premature, because the report is not yet complete.
However, one fact seems certain: Mr. IVIarples will do all he can to back the railways' bid for the big, long-distance freights.
I understand the Minister is convinced that not only will road haulage take over the '• penny packet" traffic, but that it will be happy to do so. Whether or not the industry will stand aside and bless the Doctor's drive to capture a large slice of the " big stuff" is another matter.