Priest's House Museum
Wimborne, Dorset, UK
A talk in conjunction with an exhibition at the
PHM and Allendale House, Wimborne (Lost Tracks - Remembering East
Dorset's Railways) to mark the half-century (to the day!) since
East Dorset's last scheduled passenger trains.
19.30 Friday 2nd May 2014
‘Do you really call that progress, Mr Marples?’ The politics of railway closures in East Dorset
Colin Divall
Professor of Railway Studies, University of York
Dr Richard Beeching is widely believed to have wantonly
destroyed
railways that were socially and economically useful even if they
did not make a
paper profit. In May 1964 the Old Road through Wimborne and West
Moors and the
connecting railway via Verwood and Alderholt to Salisbury were
among the first
lines in the country to lose their passenger trains in the wake of
Beeching’s
(in)famous report. Three decades later, a senior railway manager
remarked that
if the Old Road had survived the Beeching Axe, it would now be
electrified with
at least an hourly service to and from London. A similar argument
might be made
for the potential of the Salisbury line as a regional link to
Bristol. But
hindsight is a wonderful thing: how reasonable is it to blame the
British
Railways Board and the Ministry of Transport for closing two
railways that do
not appear to have been very well used? This talk looks at the
contemporary
evidence for and against closure in the context of wider social
and political attitudes to
transport. I suggest that
while it was
almost inevitable that the lines would close, there were
countervailing voices
that, had they been heeded, would have meant that East Dorset
today would enjoy
much better rail links than it is ever likely to in the future.
Please note that booking is essential and that the museum is
making a modest charge for this event (which includes
refreshments). Booking forms will be available shortly on the
museum's website: http://www.priest-house.co.uk/