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Lord Beeching
30th March 1985, Page 17
30th March 1985
Page 17
Page 17, 30th March 1985
— Lord Beeching
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Keywords :
Richard Beeching, British Rail, Beeching, Rail Transport In Great Britain, Beeching Axe, Human Interest, Politics
LORD BEECHING, the man who in the early Sixties started a political controversy which is still reverberating over his plan to cut the British Rail network, has died. He was 71.
It was in 1963 when Dr Richard Beeching, as chairman of BR, announced his plan to reduce the rail network by 5,000 miles and close 2,300 stations. This he said was necessary for the rational operation of passenger and freight services.
In 1967, two years after he retired from BR, the then Labour Government adjusted his plan to stabilise the rail network at 11,000 miles. He returned to ICI, where he had been technical director, as its deputy chairman — bitter that he had been unable to apply his "scientific, free enterprise technique for running a State service".