126-635: The Beeching cuts , also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe , were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named for Dr. Richard Beeching , then-chair of the British Railways Board and the author of two reports – The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) and The Development of
252-618: A "basic railway". The Marshlink line between Ashford International and Hastings , threatened with closure in the Beeching Report, is now seen as important due to the opening of the Channel Tunnel and High Speed 1 . Traffic on the single-track Golden Valley Line between Kemble and Swindon and the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester has increased significantly, and double track has now been reinstated on
378-430: A 1962 radio interview he told teenage questioners that he could not write about 'abstract things', preferring places, and faces. Philip Larkin wrote of his work, "how much more interesting & worth writing about Betjeman's subjects are than most other modern poets, I mean, whether so-and-so achieves some metaphysical inner unity is not really so interesting to us as the overbuilding of rural Middlesex ". Prompted by
504-441: A BBC film made in 1968, but not broadcast at that time, Betjeman described the sound of Leeds to be of "Victorian buildings crashing to the ground". He went on to lambast John Poulson 's British Railways House (now City House ), saying how it blocked all the light out to City Square and was only a testament to money with no architectural merit. He also praised the architecture of Leeds Town Hall . In 1969, Betjeman contributed
630-496: A Labour government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson after 13 years of Conservative government. During the election campaign Labour had promised to halt rail closures if elected, but it quickly backtracked, and later oversaw some of the most controversial closures. Tom Fraser was appointed Minister of Transport, but was replaced by Barbara Castle in December 1965. Castle published a map in 1967, Network for Development , showing
756-423: A bitter detestation. This situation was perhaps complicated by his enduring love of Oxford, from which he accepted an honorary doctorate of letters in 1974. Betjeman left Oxford without a degree. Whilst there, however, he had made the acquaintance of people who would later influence his work, including Louis MacNeice and W. H. Auden . He worked briefly as a private secretary, school teacher and film critic for
882-761: A candidate to be the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom , following the death of John Masefield . He was rejected after the Prime Minister's Appointments Secretary John Hewitt consulted with Dame Helen Gardner , the Merton Professor of English at the University of Oxford (who stated that Betjeman was "a lightweight, amusing but rather trivial" with "critical views about the establishment ") and Geoffrey Handley-Taylor, chair of The Poetry Society (who stated that Betjeman "called himself
1008-534: A conversion of importance to his later writing and conception of the arts. Betjeman left Marlborough in July 1925. Betjeman entered the University of Oxford with difficulty, having failed the mathematics portion of the university's matriculation exam, Responsions . He was, however, admitted as a commoner (i.e., a non-scholarship student) at Magdalen College and entered the newly created School of English Language and Literature. At Oxford, Betjeman made little use of
1134-687: A day and five passengers on average, earning only 25% of costs. Finally there was the service from Hull to York via Beverley (using part of the Yorkshire Coast Line , which was not closed, and the York to Beverley Line , which was). The line covered 80% of its operating costs, but he calculated that it could be closed because there was an alternative, albeit less direct, route. Out of 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of railway, Beeching recommended that 6,000 miles (9,700 km)—mostly rural and industrial lines—should be closed entirely, and that some of
1260-519: A day, on lines controlled by multiple Victorian era signalboxes (again fully staffed, often throughout the day). Operating costs could have been reduced by reducing staff and removing redundant services on these lines while keeping the stations open. This has since been successfully achieved by British Rail and its successors on lesser-used lines that survived the cuts, such as the East Suffolk Line from Ipswich to Lowestoft, which survives as
1386-409: A different political party or faction is in power. A re-nationalization process may also be called "reverse privatization". Nationalization has been used to refer to either direct state-ownership and management of an enterprise or to a government acquiring a large controlling share of a publicly listed corporation . According to research by Paasha Mahdavi, leaders who consider nationalization face
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#17327727519621512-482: A dilemma: "nationalize and reap immediate gains while risking future prosperity, or maintain private operations, thereby passing on revenue windfalls but securing long-term fiscal streams." He argues that leaders "nationalize extractive resources to extend the duration of their power" by using "this increased capital to secure political support." Nationalization can have positive and negative effects. In 2019 research based on studies from Greenwich University found that
1638-626: A dozen books. Five of these were verse collections, including one in the USA. Sales of his Collected Poems in 1958 reached 100,000. The popularity of the book prompted Ken Russell to make a film about him, John Betjeman: A Poet in London (1959). Filmed in 35 mm and running 11 minutes and 35 seconds, it was first shown on the BBC 's Monitor programme. From 1945 till 1951 he lived at The Old Rectory, Farnborough , Wantage, Berkshire. In 1951 he moved to
1764-544: A fairer analysis of his sexuality may be that he was "the hatcher of a lifetime of schoolboy crushes – both gay and straight", most of which progressed no further. Nevertheless, he has been considered "temperamentally gay", and even became a penpal of Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas , the friend of Oscar Wilde . For the last decade of his life, Betjeman suffered increasingly from Parkinson's disease . He died at his home in Trebetherick , Cornwall, on 19 May 1984, aged 77, and
1890-535: A family firm at 34–42 Pentonville Road which manufactured the kind of ornamental household furniture and gadgets distinctive to Victorians . During the First World War the family name was changed to the less German-looking Betjeman. His father's forebears had actually come from the present day Netherlands more than a century earlier, setting up their home and business in Islington , London, and during
2016-477: A few lines where they had been removed. Some lines closed under the Beeching cuts have reopened as private heritage railways. Some examples are East Lancs Railway , Great Central Railway (heritage railway) , Mid Hants Railway , North Yorkshire Moors Railway , North Norfolk Railway and West Somerset Railway . Flanders and Swann , writers and performers of satirical songs, wrote a lament for lines closed by
2142-554: A friend who was publicity manager with Shell-Mex & BP , to guide Britain's growing number of motorists around the counties of Britain and their historical sites. They were published by the Architectural Press and financed by Shell . By the start of World War II 13 had been published, of which Cornwall (1934) and Devon (1936) were written by Betjeman. A third, Shropshire , was written with and designed by his good friend John Piper in 1951. In 1939, Betjeman
2268-647: A further 700 miles (1,100 km) a choice of four. In Scotland, only the Central Belt routes and the lines via Fife and Perth to Aberdeen were selected for development, and none were selected in Wales, apart from the Great Western Main Line as far as Swansea. Beeching's secondment from ICI ended early in June 1965 after Harold Wilson 's attempt to get him to produce a transport plan failed. It
2394-426: A government to take property in certain situations. Due to political risks that are involved when countries engage in international business, it is important to understand the expropriation risks and laws within each of the countries in which business is conducted in order to understand the risks as an investor in that country. Studies have found that nationalization follows a cyclical trend. Nationalization rose in
2520-435: A lack of patronage, leaving large parts of the country with no public transport. The assumption at the time was that car owners would drive to the nearest railhead (which was usually the junction where the closed branch line would otherwise have taken them) and continue their journey onwards by train. In practice, having left home in their cars, people used them for the whole journey. Similarly for freight: without branch lines,
2646-470: A later stage, they are said to have undergone renationalization . Industries often subject to nationalization include telecommunications , electric power , fossil fuels , railways , airlines , iron ore , media , postal services , banks , and water (sometimes called the commanding heights of the economy ), and in many jurisdictions such entities have no history of private ownership. Nationalization may occur with or without financial compensation to
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#17327727519622772-531: A mile north to more opulent Highgate . From West Hill they lived in the reflected glory of the Burdett-Coutts estate : Here from my eyrie, as the sun went down, I heard the old North London puff and shunt, Glad that I did not live in Gospel Oak. Betjeman's early schooling was at the local Byron House and Highgate School , where he was taught by poet T. S. Eliot . After this, he boarded at
2898-579: A number of issues, but the future size of the railway system was not one of them. For all the suspicion it aroused, the committee had little to say on this and the government was already convinced of the need to reduce the size of the rail network. In spite of questions being asked in Parliament , Sir Ivan's report was not published at the time. In December 1960 questions were asked in the Lords about this "secret" and "under-the-counter" study group, criticising
3024-406: A passionate defender of Victorian architecture , helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television. Betjeman was born in London to a prosperous silverware maker of Dutch descent. His parents, Mabel ( née Dawson ) and Ernest Betjemann, had
3150-454: A poetic hack and there was some truth to this"). Prime Minister Harold Wilson ultimately selected Cecil Day-Lewis after Hewitt recommended him over Betjeman, whom Hewitt described to Wilson as a "backward-looking choice" and "the songster of tennis lawns and cathedral cloisters". Betjeman would become Poet Laureate in 1972 following the death of Day-Lewis, the first Knight Bachelor to be appointed (the only other, Sir William Davenant ,
3276-431: A route profitable: "Similarly, consideration of the cost figures will show that thinning out the trains, or thinning out the stations, would not make a service self-supporting even if it had no adverse effect on revenue". There is little in the Beeching report recommending general economies (in administration costs, working practices and so on). For example, a number of the stations that were closed were fully staffed 18 hours
3402-492: A statement to the House later that day confirming that the sale of shares was in hand and would be completed "very soon", noting that as part of the agreement he could be required to buy the shares from the purchaser at the original price after he ceased to hold office, if so desired by the purchaser. While it was reported that he sold the shares to his wife, she denied in a newspaper interview, that any transaction had taken place. It
3528-545: A strategy to build socialism, more commonly nationalization was also undertaken and used to protect and develop industries perceived as being vital to a nation's competitiveness (such as aerospace and shipbuilding), or to protect jobs in certain industries. Nationalization has had varying levels of support throughout history. After the Second World War , nationalization was supported by social democratic and democratic socialist parties throughout Western Europe, such as
3654-614: A subsidy to be paid by the Treasury for a three-year period. This was later repealed in the Railways Act 1974. Whether these subsidies affected the size of the network is questionable: the criteria for reprieving loss-making lines had not altered, merely the way their costs appeared in the railways accounts—previously their contribution to the railways' overall loss was hidden in the total deficit. The " bustitution " policy that replaced rail services with buses also failed. In many cases
3780-563: A switch to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight, and the replacement of some services with integrated bus services linked to the remaining railheads. 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
3906-590: A third" – but he had informed the tutorial board that he thought Betjeman would not achieve an honours degree of any class. Permission to sit the Pass School was granted. Betjeman decided to offer a paper in Welsh. Osbert Lancaster tells the story that a tutor came by train twice a week (first class) from Aberystwyth to teach Betjeman. However, Jesus College had a number of Welsh tutors who more probably would have taught him. Betjeman finally had to leave at
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4032-521: A time when it was unfashionable, and he was a founding member of The Victorian Society . He wrote on this subject in First and Last Loves (1952) and more extensively in London's Historic Railway Stations in 1972, defending the beauty of 12 stations. He led the campaign to save Holy Trinity, Sloane Street , in London when it was threatened with demolition in the early 1970s. He was also a founding member of
4158-469: A virtual halt by the early 1970s. One of the last major closures was the 98-mile (158 km) Waverley Route between Carlisle , Hawick and Edinburgh in 1969; the reopening of a 35-mile section of this line was approved in 2006 and passenger services resumed in September 2015. Holiday and coastal resorts were severely affected by the closures. The report recommended closing almost all services along
4284-639: A well-regarded television documentary for the BBC called Metro-Land , directed by Edward Mirzoeff . In 1974, Betjeman and Mirzoeff followed up Metro-Land with A Passion for Churches , a celebration of Betjeman's beloved Church of England , filmed entirely in the Diocese of Norwich . In 1975, he proposed that the Fine Rooms of Somerset House should house the Turner Bequest , so helping to scupper
4410-609: Is a matter of debate whether Beeching left by mutual arrangement with the government or if he was sacked. Frank Cousins , the Labour Minister of Technology , told the House of Commons in November 1965 that Beeching had been dismissed by Tom Fraser , then Minister of Transport. Beeching denied this, pointing out that he had returned early to ICI as he would not have had enough time to undertake an in-depth transport study before
4536-418: Is between an excessive and increasingly un-economic system, with a corresponding tendency for the railways as a whole to fall into disrepute and decay, or the selective development and intensive utilisation of a more limited trunk route system". Of the 7,500 miles (12,100 km) of trunk route, 3,700 miles (6,000 km) involves a choice between two routes, 700 miles (1,100 km) a choice of three, and over
4662-427: Is buried nearby at St Enodoc's Church . Betjeman was an Anglican and his religious beliefs come through in some of his poems. In a letter written on Christmas Day 1947, he said: "Also my view of the world is that man is born to fulfil the purposes of his Creator i.e. to Praise his Creator, to stand in awe of Him and to dread Him. In this way I differ from most modern poets, who are agnostics and have an idea that Man
4788-410: Is recorded in his blank verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells , published in 1960 and made into a television film in 1976. It is a common misapprehension, cultivated by Betjeman himself, that he did not complete his degree because he failed to pass the compulsory holy scripture examination, known colloquially as "Divvers" , short for "Divinity". In Hilary term 1928, Betjeman failed Divinity for
4914-476: Is similarly redolent of time and place, continually seeking out intimations of the eternal in the manifestly ordinary. There are constant evocations of the physical chaff and clutter that accumulates in everyday life, the miscellanea of an England now gone but not beyond the reach of living memory. He talks of Ovaltine and Sturmey-Archer bicycle gears. "Oh! Fuller's angel cake, Robertson's marmalade," he writes, " Liberty lampshades, come shine on us all." In
5040-539: Is that cluster of towers and pinnacles seen from Pentonville Hill and outlined against a foggy sunset and the great arc of Barlow 's train shed gaping to devour incoming engines and the sudden burst of exuberant Gothic of the hotel seen from gloomy Judd Street". On the reopening of St Pancras station in 2007, the Statue of John Betjeman was commissioned from curators Futurecity. A proposal by artist Martin Jennings
5166-519: Is the centre of the Universe or is a helpless bubble blown about by uncontrolled forces." He combined piety with a nagging uncertainty about the truth of Christianity. Unlike Thomas Hardy , who disbelieved in the truth of the Christmas story while hoping it might be so, Betjeman affirms his belief even while fearing it might be false. In the poem "Christmas", one of his most openly religious pieces,
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5292-401: Is the seizure of private property by a public agency for a purpose deemed to be in the public interest. It may also be used as a penalty for criminal proceedings. Expropriation differs from eminent domain in that the property owner is not compensated for the seized property. Unlike eminent domain, expropriation may also refer to the taking of private property by a private entity authorized by
5418-635: The Evening Standard , where he also wrote for their high-society gossip column, the " Londoner's Diary ". He was employed by the Architectural Review between 1930 and 1935, as a full-time assistant editor, following their publishing of some of his freelance work. Timothy Mowl (2000) says, "His years at the Architectural Review were to be his true university". At this time, while his prose style matured, he joined
5544-579: The British Railways Board , which took over on 1 January 1963, with Dr Beeching as its first chairman. The Act put in place measures that simplified the process of closing railways by removing the need for the pros and cons of each case to be heard in detail. It was described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854 ". The general election in October 1964 returned
5670-489: The British Transport Commission (BTC) was formed in 1949 with a brief to close the least-used branch lines. This resulted in the loss (or conversion to freight-only operation) of some 3,318 miles (5,340 km) of railway between 1948 and 1962. The most significant closure was that of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1959. In opposition to these cuts, the period also witnessed
5796-619: The Charnwood Forest Railway , closed to passengers in 1931, and the Harborne Line in Birmingham , closed to passengers in 1934. Some lines had never been profitable and were not subject to loss of traffic in that period. The railways were busy during the Second World War , but at the end of the war they were in a poor state of repair and in 1948 nationalised as British Railways . The Branch Lines Committee of
5922-645: The Dragon School preparatory school in North Oxford and Marlborough College , a public school in Wiltshire. In his penultimate year, he joined the secret Society of Amici in which he was a contemporary of both Louis MacNeice and Graham Shepard . He founded The Heretick , a satirical magazine that lampooned Marlborough's obsession with sport. While at school, his exposure to the works of Arthur Machen won him over to High Church Anglicanism ,
6048-658: The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War had, ironically, added the extra "-n" to avoid the anti-Dutch sentiment existing at the time. Betjeman was baptised at St Anne's Church, Highgate Rise, a 19th-century church at the foot of Highgate West Hill . The family lived at Parliament Hill Mansions in the Lissenden Gardens private estate in Gospel Oak in north London. In 1909, the Betjemanns moved half
6174-700: The Friends of Friendless Churches in 1957. He fought a spirited but unsuccessful campaign to save the Propylaeum, known commonly as the Euston Arch , London. He is considered instrumental in helping to save St Pancras railway station , London, and was commemorated when it became an international terminus for Eurostar in November 2007. He called the plan to demolish St Pancras a "criminal folly". About it he wrote, "What [the Londoner] sees in his mind's eye
6300-713: The MARS Group , an organisation of young modernist architects and architectural critics in Britain. In 1937, Betjeman was a churchwarden at Uffington , the Berkshire village (in Oxfordshire since boundary changes of 1974) where he lived from 1934 to 1945. That year, he paid for the cleaning of the church's royal arms and later presided over the conversion of the church's oil lamps to electricity. The Shell Guides were developed by Betjeman and Jack Beddington ,
6426-600: The National Cycle Network or used for road schemes. Others have since been built over, have reverted to farmland, or remain derelict with no plans for any reuse or redevelopment. Some, such as the bulk of the Midland Metro network around Birmingham and Wolverhampton , have since been incorporated into light rail lines. After growing rapidly in the 19th century during the Railway Mania ,
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#17327727519626552-694: The West Coast Main Line to Carlisle and Glasgow ; traffic to the north-east of England would be concentrated through the East Coast Main Line as far as Newcastle ; and traffic to Wales and the West Country would go on the Great Western Main Line to Swansea and Plymouth . Underpinning Beeching's proposals was his belief that there was too much duplication in the railway network: "The real choice
6678-419: The "Emergency" (the war) including "The Irish Unionist's Farewell to Greta Hellstrom in 1922" (written during the war) which contained the refrain "Dungarvan in the rain". The object of his affections, "Greta", remained a mystery until revealed to have been a member of a well-known Anglo-Irish family of Western county Waterford . His official brief included establishing friendly contacts with leading figures in
6804-473: The 1950s but the economic situation steadily deteriorated, with labour costs rising faster than income and fares and freight charges repeatedly frozen by the government to try to control inflation . By 1955, the railways' share of the transport market had dropped from 16% to 5%. The 1955 Modernisation Plan promised expenditure of over £1,240 million; steam locomotives would be replaced with diesel and electric locomotives , traffic levels would increase, and
6930-649: The 1960s and 1970s, followed by an increase in privatization in the 80s and 90s, followed again by an increase in nationalization in the 2000s and 2010s. The term appears as "expropriation of expropriators ( ruling classes )" in Marxist theory , and also as the slogan "Loot the looters!" ("грабь награбленное"), which was very popular during the Russian October Revolution . The term is also used to describe nationalization campaigns by communist states , such as dekulakization and collectivization in
7056-580: The Beeching cuts entitled " Slow Train " (1963). Michael Williams' book On the slow train takes its name from the Flanders and Swann song. It celebrates 12 of the most beautiful and historic journeys in Britain, some of which were saved from the Beeching cuts. It perpetuated the myth that the Beeching cuts were concerned solely with sleepy rural branch lines, but they actually also concerned well-used "industrial" and commuter lines. The BBC TV comedy series Oh, Doctor Beeching! , broadcast from 1995 to 1997,
7182-574: The Board of Trade, argued that the country's railways did not have a future without rationalisation and amalgamation. By 1914, the railways had some significant problems, such as a lack of standard rolling stock and too many duplicated routes. After the war, the railways faced increasing competition from a growing road transport network , which had increased to 8 million tons of freight annually by 1921. Around 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of passenger railways closed between 1923 and 1939. These closures included
7308-544: The British Labour Party . In the United States, potentially nationalizing healthcare is often a topic of political disagreement and makes frequent appearances in debates between political candidates. A 2020 poll shows that a majority (63%) of Americans support a nationalized healthcare system. A re-nationalization occurs when state-owned assets are privatized and later nationalized again, often when
7434-597: The British Transport Commission in March 1961. He would receive the same yearly salary that he was earning at ICI, the controversial sum of £24,000 (£675,000 in 2023 terms), £10,000 more than Sir Brian Robertson , the previous chairman of the BTC, £14,000 more than Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and two-and-a-half times higher than the salary of any head of a nationalised industry at the time. At that time
7560-579: The British railway system reached its height in the years immediately before the First World War , with a network of 23,440 miles (37,720 km). The network had opened up major travel opportunities for the entire country that had never been available before. However, lines were sometimes uneconomic, and several Members of Parliament had direct involvement with railways, creating a conflict of interest. In 1909, Winston Churchill , then President of
7686-587: The Dublin literary scene: he befriended Patrick Kavanagh , then at the very start of his career. Kavanagh celebrated the birth of Betjeman's daughter with a poem "Candida"; another well-known poem contains the line Let John Betjeman call for me in a car . From March to November 1944 Betjeman was assigned to another wartime job, working on publicity for the Admiralty in Bath . By 1948, Betjeman had published more than
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#17327727519627812-546: The Golden Valley Line, partly to facilitate a diversionary route during electrification and other works on the Severn tunnel line. The Conservatives increased their Commons majority in the general election of 8 October 1959 , their first with Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister. Ernest Marples , previously Postmaster General , was made Transport Minister two weeks later in a cabinet reshuffle; Macmillan noted that
7938-491: The Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965) – that outlined the necessity of improving the efficiency of the railways and the plan for achieving this through restructuring. The first report identified 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of railway line for closure, amounting to 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and the loss of 67,700 British Rail jobs, with an objective of stemming
8064-630: The Mead in Wantage, until 1971. His daughter Candida was married in the church there in May 1963. Betjeman continued writing guidebooks and works on architecture during the 1960s and 1970s and began to broadcast. Betjeman was closely associated with the culture and spirit of Metro-land , as outer reaches of the Metropolitan Railway were known before the war. In 1967, Betjeman was considered as
8190-435: The Northern working-class boy who had won a scholarship to a grammar school was one of only two "self-made men" in his cabinet. Marples had a background with a successful road construction company. When opening the M1 motorway , he said: "This motorway starts a new era in road travel. It is in keeping with the bold scientific age in which we live. It is a powerful weapon to add to our transport system." His association with
8316-417: The Oxford–Cambridge Varsity Line closed despite its strategic location serving Milton Keynes , Britain's largest "new town". Kinross-shire, and Fife especially, suffered closures not included in the Report, including the main line from Edinburgh to Perth. King's Lynn was to have remained at the centre of routes towards Norwich , Hunstanton and Wisbech , all of which closed. With a few exceptions, after
8442-408: The Supernatural . He was susceptible to the supernatural; Diana Mitford recalled Betjeman staying at her country home, Biddesden House in Wiltshire, in the 1920s. She said: "he had a terrifying dream, that he was handed a card with wide black edges, and on it his name was engraved, and a date. He knew this was the date of his death". On 29 July 1933, Betjeman married the Hon. Penelope Chetwode ,
8568-437: The US Rail Bank scheme, which holds former railway land for possible future use, was not seen to be practical. Many redundant structures from closed lines remain, such as bridges over other lines and drainage culverts. They often require maintenance as part of the rail infrastructure while providing no benefit. Critics of Beeching argue that the lack of recommendations on the handling of closed railway property demonstrates that
8694-463: The USSR . However, nationalization is not a specifically socialist strategy, and Marxism's founders were skeptical of its value. As Engels put it: Therein precisely lies the rub; for, so long as the propertied classes remain at the helm, nationalisation never abolishes exploitation but merely changes its form — in the French, American or Swiss republics no less than in monarchist Central, and despotic Eastern, Europe. Nikolai Bukharin also criticised
8820-422: The academic opportunities. His tutor, a young C. S. Lewis , regarded him as an "idle prig" and Betjeman in turn considered Lewis unfriendly, demanding, and uninspiring as a teacher. Betjeman particularly disliked the coursework's emphasis on linguistics, and dedicated most of his time to cultivating his social life, his interest in English ecclesiastical architecture , and private literary pursuits. At Oxford, he
8946-456: The axe man, but it was surgery, not mad chopping". On 7 June 2019, former Minister for Transport Andrew Adonis delivered a speech on "Reversing Beeching". Since the Beeching cuts, road traffic levels have grown significantly. As well, since privatisation in the mid-1990s, there have been record levels of passengers on the railways owing to a preference to living in smaller towns and rural areas, and in turn commuting longer distances (although
9072-524: The beginning of a protest movement led by the Railway Development Association, whose most famous member was the poet John Betjeman . They went on to be a significant force resisting the Beeching proposals. Economic recovery and the end of petrol rationing led to rapid growth in car ownership and use. Vehicle mileage grew at a sustained annual rate of 10% between 1948 and 1964. In contrast, railway traffic remained steady during
9198-472: The cause of this is disputed ). A few of the railway closures have been reversed. However, despite the considerable increase in railway journeys since the mid-1990s, rail transport's share of the total passenger transport market remains below that of the early 1960s, with road overwhelmingly the dominant mode: rail's market share was 13% in 1961, 6% in 1991 and 2001, and 10% in 2014. Some closed stations have reopened , and passenger services have been restored on
9324-615: The coasts of north Devon, Cornwall and East Anglia aside from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. All services on the Isle of Wight were recommended for closure, as were all branch lines in the Lake District . One of the most significant closures was the Great Central Main Line from London Marylebone to Leicester and Sheffield. Not all the recommended closures were implemented. Reprieved lines include: The Beeching Report
9450-500: The company during his term of office, but it did lead to a sense of unease, not least within the railway sector. In April 1960, Sir Ivan Stedeford established an advisory group known as the Stedeford Committee at the request of Harold Macmillan to report on the state of the British Transport Commission and to make recommendations. Sir Ewart Smith , a retired former Chief Engineer at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI),
9576-426: The continued withholding of the report and its recommendations. It was later suggested that Stedeford had recommended that the government should set up another body "to consider the size and pattern of the railway system required to meet current and foreseeable needs, in the light of developments and trends in other forms of transport ... and other relevant considerations". Marples then appointed Beeching as Chairman of
9702-504: The daughter of Field Marshal Lord Chetwode . The couple lived in Berkshire and had a son, Paul, in 1937, and a daughter, Candida , in 1942. She became a Roman Catholic in 1948. The couple drifted apart and in 1951 he met Lady Elizabeth Cavendish , with whom he developed an immediate and lifelong friendship. Betjeman's sexuality can best be described as bisexual . His longest and best documented relationships were with women, and
9828-589: The early 1970s proposals to close other lines were met with vociferous public opposition and were shelved. Beeching's reports made no recommendations about the handling of land after closures. British Rail operated a policy of disposing of land that was surplus to requirements. Many bridges, cuttings and embankments have been removed and the land sold for development. Closed station buildings on remaining lines have often been demolished or sold for housing or other purposes. Increasing pressure on land use meant that protection of closed trackbeds, as in other countries, such as
9954-506: The early 1970s, he began a recording career of four albums on Charisma Records - Banana Blush , Late Flowering Love (both 1974), Sir John Betjeman's Britain (1977) and Varsity Rag (1981) where his poetry reading is set to music composed by Jim Parker with overdubbing by leading musicians of the time. Madeleine Dring set five of Betjeman's poems to music in 1976, just before her death. His recording catalogue extends to nine albums, four singles and two compilations. In 1973, he made
10080-578: The economic costs of having two break-bulk points combined to make long-distance road transport a more viable alternative. Many of the closed lines had run at only a small deficit. Some lines such as the Sunderland -to-West Hartlepool line cost only £291 per mile to operate. Closures of such small-scale loss-making lines made little difference to the overall deficit. Possible changes to light railway -type operations were attacked by Beeching, who rejected all proposals for cost savings that would not make
10206-476: The end of the Michaelmas term , 1928. Betjeman did pass his Divinity examination on his third try but was expelled after failing the Pass School. He had achieved a satisfactory result in only one of the three required papers (on Shakespeare and other English authors). Betjeman's academic failure at Oxford rankled him for the rest of his life and he was never reconciled with C. S. Lewis, towards whom he nursed
10332-465: The end of the 1960s it became increasingly clear that rail closures were not bringing the rail system out of deficit and were unlikely ever to do so. Transport minister Barbara Castle decided that some rail services, which could not pay their way but had a valuable social role, should be subsidised. Legislation allowing this was introduced in the Transport Act 1968 . Section 39 made provision for
10458-595: The foreword to Derek Linstrum's Historic Architecture of Leeds . Betjeman was for over 20 years a trustee of the Bath Preservation Trust and was vice-president from 1965 to 1971, at a time when Bath —a city rich in Georgian architecture —was coming under increasing pressure from modern developers and a road had been proposed to cut across it. He also created a short television documentary, Architecture of Bath , in which he voiced his concerns about
10584-723: The formal end of his secondment. The first report was accepted by the Conservative government of the day, which argued that many services could be provided more effectively by buses. Most recommendations were subsequently taken forward by the Labour government elected in 1964, but many of the proposed closures sparked protests from communities that would lose their trains, a number of which (especially rural communities) had no other public transport. Line closures had been running at about 150–300 miles per year between 1950 and 1961. They peaked at 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1964 and came to
10710-688: The former owners . Nationalization is distinguished from property redistribution in that the government retains control of nationalized property . Some nationalizations take place when a government seizes property acquired illegally. For example, in 1945 the French government seized the car-maker Renault because its owners had collaborated with the 1940–1944 Nazi occupiers of France . In September 2021, Berliners voted to expropriate over 240,000 housing units , many of which were being held unoccupied as investment property. Economists distinguish between nationalization and socialization , which refers to
10836-434: The government was seeking outside talent to sort out the huge problems of the railway network, and he was confident that he could make the railways pay for themselves, but his salary, at 35 times that of many railway workers, has been described as a "political disaster". The Transport Act 1962 dissolved the British Transport Commission (BTC), which had overseen the railways, canals and road freight transport and established
10962-563: The high-profile construction company Marples Ridgway became a matter of concern to both the public and politicians. As is customary, he resigned as a director of the company in 1951 on becoming a junior minister, but he only disposed of his shares in the company in 1960 after the company won a contract to build the Hammersmith Flyover , when questions were asked both in the media and also in the Commons on 28 January 1960; he made
11088-648: The house permanently, with his potential liability for £10,000 of renovations upon the expiry of the lease. After damage from vandals, restoration began in 1966. Betjeman's lease included furniture from the house by Burges and Betjeman gave three pieces, the Zodiac settle , the Narcissus washstand and the Philosophy cabinet, to Evelyn Waugh . He edited, and wrote large sections of, The Collins Guide to English Parish Churches (1958); his substantial editorial preface
11214-509: 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. Such was the scale of these cuts that the programme came to be colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, though the 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes; including
11340-438: The last three stanzas that proclaim the wonder of Christ's birth do so in the form of a question "And is it true...?" His views on Christianity were expressed in his poem "The Conversion of St. Paul", a response to a radio broadcast by humanist Margaret Knight : But most of us turn slow to see The figure hanging on a tree And stumble on and blindly grope Upheld by intermittent hope, God grant before we die we all May see
11466-522: The least-used 50% of stations contributed only 2% of passenger revenue, and that one third of route miles carried just 1% of passengers. By way of example, he noted that the line from Thetford to Swaffham carried five trains each weekday in each direction, carrying an average of nine passengers with only 10% of the costs of operating the line covered by fares; another example was the Gleneagles-Crieff-Comrie line which had ten trains
11592-415: The light as did St. Paul. Betjeman's poems are often humorous, and in broadcasting he exploited his bumbling and fogeyish image. His wryly comic verse is accessible and has attracted a great following for its satirical and observant grace. Auden said in his introduction to Slick But Not Streamlined , "so at home with the provincial gaslit towns, the seaside lodgings, the bicycle, the harmonium ." His poetry
11718-478: The modernisation plan must be adapted to this new shape" and with the premise that the railways should be run as a profitable business. Beeching first studied traffic flows on all lines to identify "the good, the bad, and the indifferent". His analysis showed that the least-used 1,762 stations had annual passenger receipts of less than £2,500 each (£73,000 as of 2024), that over half of the 4,300 stations open to passengers in 1960 had receipts of less than £10,000, that
11844-770: The motivations of the nationalizing party. Nationalization was employed towards the Panama Canal by the Panamanian Government, which came under the Panama Canal Authority in 1999, to internationally positive effect. Likewise, the Suez Canal was nationalized multiple times throughout history. In Germany, the Federal Press [ Bundesdruckerei ] was nationalized in 2008 with positive revenue and net income since. Expropriation
11970-434: The nationalization of key services such as water, bus, railways and broadband in the United Kingdom could save £13bn every year. Nationalization may produce other effects, such as reducing competition in the marketplace, which in turn reduces incentives to innovation and maintains high prices. In the short run, nationalization can provide a larger revenue stream for government but may cause that industry to falter depending on
12096-453: The number of railway wagons had fallen 29% from 1,200,000 to 848,000. The first Beeching report, titled The Reshaping of British Railways , was published on 27 March 1963. The report starts by quoting the brief provided by the Prime Minister , Harold Macmillan , from 1960: "First, the industry must be of a size and pattern suited to modern conditions and prospects. In particular, the railway system must be modelled to meet current needs, and
12222-613: The plan of the Minister for the Arts for a Theatre Museum to be housed there. In 1977, the BBC broadcast The Queen's Realm: A Prospect of England , an aerial anthology of English landscape, music and poetry, selected by Betjeman and produced by Edward Mirzoeff, in celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee . Betjeman was fond of the ghost stories of M. R. James and supplied an introduction to Peter Haining 's book M. R. James – Book of
12348-415: The preface of his collection of architectural essays First and Last Loves he wrote We accept the collapse of the fabrics of our old churches, the thieving of lead and objects from them, the commandeering and butchery of our scenery by the services, the despoiling of landscaped parks and the abandonment to a fate worse than the workhouse of our country houses, because we are convinced we must save money. In
12474-437: The process of restructuring the economic framework, organizational structure, and institutions of an economy on a socialist basis. By contrast, nationalization does not necessarily imply social ownership and the restructuring of the economic system . Historically, states have carried out nationalizations for various different purposes under a wide variety of different political systems and economic systems . Nationalization
12600-719: The rail network to a mere 1,630 miles (2,620 km), leaving only 22 miles (35 km) of railway in Wales (a section of the South Wales Main Line from the Severn Tunnel to Cardiff Central ) and none in Somerset, Devon or Cornwall. The Midland Main Line was planned to close, leaving Leicester and Derby without a rail link, while the East Coast Main Line, part of the key London/Edinburgh link,
12726-515: The railway system "stabilised" at around 11,000 route miles (17,700 km). Section 39 of the Transport Act 1968 made provision for grants to be paid in relation to loss-making lines and services, but many of the services and railway lines that would have qualified had already been closed. A number of branch lines and local services were saved by this legislation. After 1970, when the Conservatives were returned to power , serious thought
12852-479: The railways had not been restored to profitability and Beeching's approach appeared to many to have failed. It has been suggested that by closing almost a third of the network Beeching achieved a saving of just £30 million, whilst overall losses were running in excess of £100 million per year. However, the precise savings from closures are impossible to calculate. The Ministry of Transport subsequently estimated that rail operating costs had been cut by over £100 million in
12978-420: The railways' ability to transport goods "door to door" was dramatically reduced. As in the passenger model, it was assumed that lorries would pick up goods and transport them to the nearest railhead, where they would be taken across the country by train, unloaded onto another lorry and taken to their destination. The development of the motorway network, the advent of containerisation , improvements in lorries and
13104-495: The rapid development of the Buckinghamshire town before World War II , Betjeman wrote the ten-stanza poem " Slough " to express his dismay at the industrialisation of Britain. He later came to regret having written it. The poem was first included in his 1937 collection Continual Dew . Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now, ... Betjeman had a fondness for Victorian architecture at
13230-498: The remaining lines should be kept open only for freight. A total of 2,363 stations were to close, including 435 already under threat, both on lines that were to close and on lines that were to remain open. He recommended that freight services should mainly be for bulk commodities such as minerals and coal, and that the freight system make use of new containerised handling systems rather than less efficient and slower wagon-load traffic. The latter recommendation would prove prescient with
13356-438: The replacement bus services were slower and less convenient than the trains they were meant to replace, and so were unpopular. Replacement bus services were often run between the (now disused) station sites (some of which were some distance from the population centres they served), thus losing any potential advantage over the closed rail service. Most replacement bus services lasted less than two years before they were removed due to
13482-439: The report was short-sighted. On the other hand, retaining a railway on these routes, which would obviously have increased maintenance costs, might not have earned enough to justify that greater cost. As demand for rail has grown since the 1990s, the failure to preserve the routes of closed lines, such as the one between Bedford and Cambridge, which was closed despite Beeching recommending its retention, has been criticised. By 1968,
13608-598: The rise of intermodal freight transport in the following decades. On 16 February 1965, Beeching introduced the second stage of his reorganisation of the railways. In his report, The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes , he set out his conclusion that of the 7,500 miles (12,100 km) of trunk railway only 3,000 miles (4,800 km) "should be selected for future development" and invested in. This policy would result in long-distance traffic being routed along nine lines. Traffic to Coventry , Birmingham , Manchester , Liverpool and Scotland would be routed through
13734-665: The second time. He had to leave the university for the Trinity term to prepare for a retake of the exam; he was then allowed to return in October. Betjeman then wrote to the Secretary of the Tutorial Board at Magdalen , G. C. Lee, asking to be entered for the Pass School, a set of examinations taken on rare occasions by undergraduates who are deemed unlikely to achieve an honours degree . In Summoned by Bells Betjeman claims that his tutor, C. S. Lewis, said "You'd have only got
13860-459: The system was predicted to be back in profit by 1962. Instead losses mounted, from £68 million in 1960 to £87 million in 1961, and £104 million in 1962 (£2.8 billion in 2023 terms). The BTC could no longer pay the interest on its loans. By 1961, losses were running at £300,000 a day, despite the fact that since nationalisation in 1948, 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of line had been closed, railway staff numbers had fallen 26% from 648,000 to 474,000, and
13986-478: The term nationalisation , preferring the term statisation instead. |Fred Moseley]] in Dollars & Sense , January/February 2009 John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman , CBE ( / ˈ b ɛ tʃ ə m ən / ; 28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and
14112-400: The wake of the Beeching Report but that much of this had been swallowed up by increased wages. Some of the branches closed acted as feeders to the main lines, and that feeder traffic was lost when the branches closed; the financial significance of this is debatable, for over 90% of the railways' 1960 traffic was carried on lines which remained open ten years later. Whatever the figures, towards
14238-782: The way the city's architectural heritage was being mistreated. From 1946 to 1948, he had served as Secretary to the Oxford Preservation Trust . Betjeman was also instrumental in saving the Duke of Cornwall Hotel in Plymouth . The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings annually presents a John Betjeman award to recognise the repair and conservation of places of worship in England and Wales. The John Betjeman Poetry Competition for Young People began in 2006 and
14364-738: Was a friend of Maurice Bowra , later to be Warden of Wadham (1938 to 1970). Betjeman had a poem published in Isis , the university magazine, and served as editor of the Cherwell student newspaper during 1927. His first book of poems was privately printed with the help of fellow student Edward James . He brought his teddy bear Archibald Ormsby-Gore up to Magdalen with him, the memory of which inspired his Oxford contemporary Evelyn Waugh to include Sebastian Flyte 's teddy Aloysius in Brideshead Revisited . Much of this period of his life
14490-446: Was asked by Ernest Marples to become a member of an advisory group; Smith declined but recommended Richard Beeching in his place, a suggestion that Marples accepted. Beeching, who held a PhD in physics, had been appointed to the main board of ICI at the age of 43. The board consisted of senior figures in British businesses, and none of the board had previous knowledge or experience of the railway industry. Stedeford and Beeching clashed on
14616-550: Was described by The Times Literary Supplement as "pure gold". The classic status of this book is acknowledged by Simon Jenkins in his England's Thousand Best Churches : "Three ghosts inhabit all English churches ... They are those of John Betjeman, Alec Clifton-Taylor and Nikolaus Pevsner ." Betjeman responded to architecture as the visible manifestation of society's spiritual life as well as its political and economic structure. He attacked speculators and bureaucrats for what he saw as their rapacity and lack of imagination. In
14742-473: Was given to a further programme of closures, but this proved politically impossible. In 1982, under the government of Margaret Thatcher , Sir David Serpell , a civil servant who had worked with Beeching, compiled the Serpell Report which said that a profitable railway could be achieved only by closing much of what remained. The report's infamous "Option A" proposed greatly increasing fares and reducing
14868-421: Was intended to be cut north of Newcastle. The report was published on 20 January 1983 and received an immediate backlash from the media. It was quietly shelved in the run up to the 1983 election . Ian Hislop comments that history has been somewhat unkind to "Britain's most hated civil servant", by forgetting that Beeching proposed a much better bus service that ministers never delivered, and that in some ways he
14994-475: Was intended to be the first stage in the rail network's contraction. As a result, some lines it had not recommended for closure were subsequently shut down, such as the Woodhead line between Manchester and Sheffield in 1981, after the decline of the freight traffic (mostly coal) on which it had relied. Many surviving lines were rationalised, including reduction to single track and consolidation of signals. Most of
15120-412: Was knighted after his appointment). This role, combined with his profile from television appearances, ensured that his poetry reached a wider audience. Similarly to Tennyson , he managed to voice the thoughts and aspirations of many ordinary people while retaining the respect of many of his fellow poets. This is partly because of the apparently simple traditional metrical structures and rhymes he uses. In
15246-436: Was one of the major mechanisms advocated by reformist socialists and social democrats for gradually transitioning to socialism. In this context, the goals of nationalization were to dispossess large capitalists, redirect the profits of industry to the public purse, and establish some form of workers' self-management as a precursor to the establishment of a socialist economic system. Although sometimes undertaken as part of
15372-678: Was rejected for military service in World War II but found war work with the films division of the Ministry of Information . In 1941, he became British press attaché in neutral Dublin , Ireland, working with Sir John Maffey . He is reported to have been selected for murder by the IRA . The order was rescinded after a meeting with an unnamed Old IRA man who was impressed by his works. Betjeman wrote poems based on his experiences in Ireland during
15498-498: Was reported that he had transferred his shares into an Overseas Trust. In July 1964, Marples Ridgway and Partners Limited were awarded a £4.1 million contract for the "Hendon Urban Motorway" extension of the M1, in the same year that the company was taken over by the Bath and Portland Group. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing on anyone's part in this or any of the other contracts awarded to
15624-499: Was selected from a shortlist. The finished work was erected in the station at platform level, including a series of slate roundels depicting selections of Betjeman's writings. Betjeman was given the remaining two-year lease on Victorian Gothic architect William Burges 's Tower House in Holland Park after leaseholder Mrs E. R. B. Graham died in 1962. Betjeman felt he could not afford the financial implications of taking over
15750-590: Was set at a small fictional branch-line railway station threatened with closure under the Beeching cuts. Nationalised Nationalization ( nationalisation in British English ) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state . Nationalization contrasts with privatization and with demutualization . When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at
15876-442: Was used to do their "dirty work for them". Hislop describes him as "a technocrat [who] wasn't open to argument to romantic notions of rural England or the warp and weft of the train in our national identity. He didn't buy any of that. He went for a straightforward profit and loss approach and some claim we are still reeling from that today". Beeching was unrepentant about his role in the closures: "I suppose I'll always be looked upon as
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