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/