Original sentence: A decision was reached on 24th October 1963, the inquiry having taken just 3 months, with the lines to commense closure proceedings on 6th January 1964.A notable headline at the time ran "First Lamb to the Beeching slaughter", blithely further stating "No Regular Passengers Object at Inquiry" , which in fact was only the case for the Church Fenton line.Given that all stations were manned, together with 16 signal boxes and 3 manually operated level crossings (requiring 35 staff in total), and the number of steep gradients requiring the use of banking engines, it is of little surprise that it was considered uneconomical and was in fact worse than the cautionary examples given in Beeching's report; having an operating cost pf £57,000pa compared to receipts of £9,000, though some argue that the Wetherby to Leeds route could have been made profitable with some adjustments.The route had originally been of strategic signficance, linking the north-south artery on the east side of the country with the spa town of Harrogate; however latterly the East Coast Main Line was built and so most passengers to and from Harrogate no longer used this route
Edited sentence: A decision was reached on 24 October 1963, the inquiry having taken just 3 months, with the lines to commence closure proceedings on 6 January 1964.A notable headline at the time ran "First Lamb to the Beeching slaughter", blithely further stating "No Regular Passengers Object at Inquiry", which in fact was only the case for the Church Fenton line.Given that all stations were manned, together with 16 signal boxes and 3 manually operated level crossings (requiring 35 staff in total), and the number of steep gradients requiring the use of banking engines, it is of little surprise that it was considered uneconomical and was in fact worse than the cautionary examples given in Beeching's report; having an operating cost of £57,000 pa compared to receipts of £9,000, though some argue that the Wetherby to Leeds route could have been made profitable with some adjustments.The route had originally been of strategic significance, linking the north-south artery on the east side of the country with the spa town of Harrogate; however latterly the East Coast Main Line was built and so most passengers to and from Harrogate no longer used this route