Archive on 4 19/03 at 2000

[Magdalia]

I had a bit of a shock this morning, hearing the voice of Tim Dunn on Radio 4, between the weather and the news. A definite step up from Yesterday!

It was a trailer for Archive on 4 at 2000 tomorrow (Saturday 19), afterwards available on BBC Sounds.

 

[JB_B]

Just listened to this on BBC R4

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Lines of Duty

Tim Dunn and Toby Jones tell the story of the whistleblower who saved Britain's railways.

www.bbc.co.uk

I suspect that the story of Reg Dawson and his (heroic) leaking of drastic rail cut plans to the press in the early '70s will be well known to many members of this sub-forum but I'd never heard it before - well worth a listen.

 

[Cowley]

Just listened to this on BBC R4

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Lines of Duty

Tim Dunn and Toby Jones tell the story of the whistleblower who saved Britain's railways.

www.bbc.co.uk

I suspect that the story of Reg Dawson and his (heroic) leaking of drastic rail cut plans to the press in the early '70s will be well known to many members of this sub-forum but I'd never heard it before - well worth a listen.

I really like Archive on 4 anyway, but thanks for the recommendation. I’m just downloading it to listen to tomorrow.

 

[WesternLancer]

Just listened to this on BBC R4

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Lines of Duty

Tim Dunn and Toby Jones tell the story of the whistleblower who saved Britain's railways.

www.bbc.co.uk

I suspect that the story of Reg Dawson and his (heroic) leaking of drastic rail cut plans to the press in the early '70s will be well known to many members of this sub-forum but I'd never heard it before - well worth a listen.

I'd heard the trailer then forgot about it - so thanks for reminder posted here. It's very good - I was previously unaware of the events detailed in the programme -- which is extremely well done by Tim Dunn, and excellent parts voiced by Toby Jones.

Very much worth a listen.

The story is well told here

Reg Dawson – unsung hero

Fletcher Jennings 0-4-0T Talyllyn Railway No. 2 Dolgoch coasts down to Tywyn over track newly-relaid track in August 1951. By the time Reg was to join the TRPS in 1955 the hedges would have …

englishrail.wordpress.com

Including the role of David Serpell

"Gradually, Reg became aware that there was a hard core of senior civil servants strongly opposed to rail and determined to thwart the efforts of any Minister who dared think otherwise. At their heart was the Permanent Secretary, David Serpell, who had originally recruited Dr Beeching to head British Rail, and who was to go on to write an infamous report on railway finances for Mrs Thatcher; a report which included an option to cut the railway network to a mere 1,630 miles."

 

[Ralph Ayres]

An interesting programme and well worth a listen, but I did feel Tim's presentation style was more Yesterday than Radio 4! The "secret" report (possibly more a study of proposals that were eventually dismissed so never published?) on closing a significant proportion of the post-Beeching rail network did seem to contain proposals that resurfaced in the Serpell Report 10 years or so later. I'm not convinced that the leak was what led to the proposals not being followed through; the objections would have been just as strong when it was made public through official channels, and nothing could have been rushed through.

 

[Mark24]

I’ve just listened to a fascinating podcast on BBC sounds called Lines of Duty, which describes the events of a government plan to close 7000 miles of railway in 1972.
A Minister called Richard Hope leaked the top secret document, at huge personal risk which forced to the Government to shelve the plan.

Has anyone come across this story before? And is there a list published anywhere of which lines were earmarked for closure under this plan?

 

[SargeNpton]

Richard Hope was not a minister, he was a journalist at the Railway Gazette. This comes form one of his obituaries...

Richard joined Tothill Press in 1964 as a Technical Writer for Railway Gazette, becoming Editor in 1970. Two years later, he was catapulted into the headlines, following the leaking to a national newspaper of a draft Railway Policy Review proposing the closure of around half of the UK rail network. This prompted a police raid on the magazine’s offices, visits to the homes of editorial staff and the interception of telephone calls, leading to questions being asked in Parliament about rail policy and the limits of press freedom.

More here: https://www.railpage.com.au/news/s/-richard-hope-obe

 

[Cowley]

If anyone is wondering why some of the posts seem to be repeating themselves it’s because I just realised that there were three different threads on the same subject.

 

[WesternLancer]

I’ve just listened to a fascinating podcast on BBC sounds called Lines of Duty, which describes the events of a government plan to close 7000 miles of railway in 1972.
A Minister called Richard Hope leaked the top secret document, at huge personal risk which forced to the Government to shelve the plan.

Has anyone come across this story before? And is there a list published anywhere of which lines were earmarked for closure under this plan?

IIRC at the end of the broadcast Tim D explains that Richard Hope had the 'last remaining copy' of the document (from the version leaked to him) which he had kept all these years and after his retirement was taking it to give to the Railway Gazette for their archives, but left his bag with it in it on the train and it was lost....so that might mean no list of such lines.

I assume that for some reason a copy of the document did not get lodged in the National Archives, but I do not know since that question was not addressed.