Beeching II?

A posting in the SWRG mailing list led me to this article in last week's Sunday Mirror

ALASTAIR Darling has ordered a "summer summit" to pave the way for the biggest reductions in rail services since the infamous Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

The Transport Secretary is poised to close dozens of branch lines to fund a new rail "super-highway" connecting major cities.

The plan is to be discussed this week, prior to a crisis conference in July when Mr Darling will ask experts to prepare a radical overhaul of the system.

I'm sure I'm not the only person that believes that the financial crisis facing Britain's railways isn't because of loss-making rural branches, but the total inability to control the costs of large-scale projects on busy main lines, a consequence of John Major's hopelessly botched 'privofragmentisation', and New Labour's perpertual failure to recognise just how broken the structure is.

The Sunday Mirror lists the lines 'under threat'

SCOTLAND

Inverness to Kyle

Inverness to Wick

Helensburgh to Fort William

Helensburgh to Mallaig

Aberdeen to Inverness

WALES

Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth

Shrewsbury to Pwllheli

Heart of Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury

Whitland to Pembroke

NORTH OF ENGLAND

Carlise to Carnforth via Whitehaven

Middlesbrough to Whitby

Settle to Carlisle

EAST ANGLIA

Norwich to Cromer

Norwich to Great Yarmouth

Norwich to Lowestoft

Ipswich to Lowestoft

SOUTH OF ENGLAND

Ryde to Shanklin (Isle of Wight)

DEVON AND CORNWALL

Exeter to Branstaple

Exeter to Exmouth

Newton Abbot to Torquay

Liskeard to Looe

Par to Newquay

Truro to Falmouth

St Erth to St Ives

Note that I don't believe for one minute that the list comes from any official document; my guess it's the product of Mirror hacks looking at a map. I notice there's no mention of any branches in the Home Counties.

While I don't believe every last branch line deserves to exist in perpetuity, and some, like Par-Newquay or the Central Wales line really do need to justify their existance, it should not be for some London-based bureaucrat to decide their fate. That should be up to the people of Cornwall or Wales.