coppercapped
Established Member
'Mostly imported from the USA'? Eh?Historians will almost certainly see the reductions in overall rail capacity in the UK since the 1950s as a combination of political ideology, mostly imported from the USA which had done much the same thing in the 1940s in order to create the 'Great American Car Economy' as it became known, plus refusal of the Treasury to fund renewal of what was essentially a clapped-out system as a result of two world wars and severe shortage of capital during precisely the period when road usage in the UK began to rocket, rendering rail travel the second or even third choice of transport for millions once the road network developed post- 1960.At that time governments were reluctant to factor in social benefits when analysing railway costs and revenues, and the idea that ,e.g. cost should also include environmental and social isolation due to removal of rail lines, let alone that it should take a much longer-term view of railways as a strategic asset necessary in times of war, however unlikely. This explains why the vast majority of Public Closure Enquiries/Consultations ended up as basically a charade and were rubber-stamping exercises, with at all times the Minister in overall control of the process.
It is a rather bitter irony that Harold Macmillan, who was PM from 1957, inherited the 1955 Modernisation Plan and who hired in Beeching from ICI as a non-political appointee , had himself been a Director of the GWR prior to 1948 and was sympathetic to railways and made no attempt to de-nationalise whilst in office( although many Tories were still agitating for it having successfully lobbied for certain BTC peripheral businesses to be re-privatised after 1952). He viewed the exercise as purely a Profit and Loss calculation and simply left it to Marples, an Accountant by profession, to do the dirty work.Incidentally Marples had many friends in the USA and made several visits to examine their railway operations prior to and after being appointed as a Minister.It has been suggested in several accounts of BR history that he was corrupt and motivated by a desire to build motorways given his family business stood to and did make a fortune from it. It is not widely known that in 1973 he was formally charged with Fraud while in public office and had to pay a fine of around £10000 , but the precise details of this are not very clear and likely protected from scrutiny under the 50-year rule for Public disclosure of such matters.So on that basis one could say Yes he was corrupt, but he was much admired by Macmillan who would never have a bad word said against him.He removed himself from public life after the Macmillan Govt fell in 1964 by emigrating to the south of France where he remained for the rest of his days .Make of that what you will!
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Explain the growth of the Autostrada, Autobahnen, Autoschnellstrassen and similar from the 1920s onwards in Europe. Renault, Citroën, Opel, FIAT, Daimler-Benz, NSU and others were also selling cars in increasing numbers.