Dr Richard Beeching

Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching, generally known as Dr. Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who served as the chairman of British Railways for a brief but extremely significant period of time. He was born on April 21, 1913 and passed away on March 23, 1985. In the early 1960s, his paper The Reshaping of British Railways, which is more often known as The Beeching paper, caused him to become a household name in the United Kingdom. This report led to significant modifications in the railway network, which became colloquially known as the Beeching Axe.

Because of the findings of the investigation, a little more than 4,000 route miles (6,400 kilometres) were cut from the system due to concerns over cost and efficiency. As a consequence, the United Kingdom had 13,721 miles (22,082 km) of railway lines in the year 1966. By the end of the 1960s, a further 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of track had been removed, and other lines were converted to serve solely freight traffic.

On the island, the result was that all of the lines were eliminated, with the exception of the one that went from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin; everything else was shut down and put up for sale. Because of this, in one fell stroke, Beechig was able to ruin what had the potential to become the most popular tourist destination on the island: ‘Island Steam’

The subsequent years resulted in the revitalization of a length of track that was five miles long and the construction of the Havenstreet Steam railway, which connected Wooton, Havenstreet, and Smallbrook Ryde.

• https://iwsteamrailway.co.uk/heritage/how-it-all-began/
• https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/making-the-connection/dr-beechings-axe/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Beeching