quite a few, not all of course, were profitable back then, it was in large part accounting trickery that closed quite a few - e.g. ignoring the smaller lines were feeding passengers and freight to the larger ones, booking the numbers to the larger lines then wondering why usage dropped when the branches closedmarkS&D wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 8:27 pm Excellent photos.
I agree with you, its a ghost of its former glorious self. and like so many areas around the network today, the trees and bushes have been allowed to grow up so they obscure so much of the view.
like so many other lines around the UK that were closed by Beeching, they would have probably been profitable in this day and age, especially with all the chartered trains, and steam specials running on the lines today
surveys done at odd times of the year and so on, basically demonstrating "how to lie with statistics", but the decision had already been made so there you go, some rationalisation was needed of course and it didn't help that the second part of Dr Beeching's work was quietly shelved for the most part
