Holding the Line. How Britain's railways were saved
Details:
- Author(s) Faulkner, Richard, & Chris Austin
- Publication type Monograph
- Year published 2012
- Pages 144pp; illus
- Publisher Oxford Publishing Co
- Place Published Oxford
Topics:
Countries:
Library:
- Name British Library
- City London
- County Greater London
- Country England
- Postcode NW1 2DB
- Visit British Library's website
Groups:
Notes:
Deals with the 'repeated attempts' to 'destroy' the railways through rationalisation of the network from the 1950s. Written by enthusiasts and former railway managers who chart the closures and 'examine the way in which the closures were handled, the determination of officials to ensure that they took place (albeit in many cases these were thwarted) and the attempts made in more recent years to repair the damage that they caused'. Chapters include: early closures, 1927-47; British Transport Commission closures, 1948-62; Beeching closures; establishing a social railway; no rail cuts campaign; rise and fall of Sidney Weighell; decline of rail freight; policy changes and seeds of growth; privatisation. A sequel book is Faulkner & Austin, 'Disconnected! Broken links in Britain's rail policy', 2015