page_title: Beeching cuts
hierarchical_section_title: Beeching cuts
caption_attribution_description: English: Bridge near Pound Farm Carrying Stanley Lane over the cycleway, which follows the disused Chippenham-to-Calne branch line. Just beyond the bridge was once Stanley Bridge Halt, and here the cycleway follows the lane for a short distance before rejoining the track bed most of the way to Calne. The Calne branch line was opened in October 1863 and had always been busy despite its short length. Large numbers of passengers plus freight services for Calne businesses (including Harris pork pies), local farms, and the military establishments at Yatesbury and Compton Basset, did not save it from the Beeching axe. Freight working ended in November 1964 and passenger trains ended in September 1965.
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 Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) 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 (1963) and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board.
  The first report identified 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) 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. A few of these routes have since reopened; some short sections have been preserved as heritage railways, while others have been incorporated into the National Cycle Network or used for road schemes; others now are lost to construction, have reverted to farmland, or remain derelict.
caption: Part of the former Chippenham and Calne line, now a cycleway
exif: {}