Liverpool to Southport railway line query

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What were the reasons given for the proposed closure of this line at the time of Beeching?

 

[36270k]

Reports found in Modern Railways from 1963
Line was making heavy losses and had declining ridership.

 

[Taunton]

Not generally understood that the Beeching report "Reshaping of British Railways" just looked at whether services were financially worthwhile. It made no judgement on whether they were worth having in a wider sense. That came in a subsequent report after all the hoopla, and led ultimately to the 1968 Transport Act which put subsidy for defined loss-making services on a statutory basis. Prior to this the government stipulation was that the railway had to break even.

Liverpool to Southport was a good example of a line with not only excessive peaking, but other issues as well. Like some other isolated DC lines it had a very expensive electricity tariff from the Central Electricity Generating Board. Running over low level sandy ground which had become outer suburbia it had a lot of level crossings manned 18x7. It had to shoulder the bulk of the costs (because it had the bulk of the passengers there) of the big, expensive termini at both Liverpool and Southport. The Ribble bus company ran cheap and extensive parallel services which prevented increasing the fares by much. Fares in those times were still on the statutory pence per mile basis but where this was uncompetitive with buses etc there were various workarounds, such as Cheap Day tickets valid all day for commuting.

Beeching was also a Wake-Up Call to BR management who were just letting things slide along as they were. Little attempt on cost control - apart from the absence of a fireman on the trains, manning was pretty much at Victorian era levels. As elsewhere, there was ludicrous over-provision of first class accommodation on the electric trains, which ran around almost all of the day as empty stock. These things needed sorting out.

 

[billio]

The other L&Y electrification scheme between Bury and Manchester was also proposed for closure by Beeching much to everyone's incredulity.

 

[Springs Branch]

If I remember correctly the first Beeching report in 1963 recommended closure of both Liverpool Exchange- Southport and Liverpool Exchange-Wigan Wallgate lines, but for Liverpool - Ormskirk - Preston to remain open.

Beeching's subsequent report "Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes" in 1965 then recommended closure of Liverpool - Ormskirk - Preston.

Presumably the original "Beeching I" proposal would have eliminated the Liverpool/Ormskirk electrics (if the suburban and seaside day-tripper service to Southport was not viable, surely neither was that to Ormskirk. Plus the EMU depot and works at the time were in Southport at Meols Cop). This would have kept open the line and city-centre terminus at Liverpool Exchange just for occasional limited-stop trains between Liverpool and Preston, Blackpool & Scotland!

I also remember reading somewhere that the Liverpool/Southport electric line was deliberately included on Beeching's list - even though there was never any intention of closure - in order to provide a visible example to the public that politicians of the time had the power to overturn unpopular recommendations. I'm not sure how true this suggestion really is.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Marples was, of course, a Merseyside MP, albeit for a constituency on the Wirral. He had already taken steps to establish a multi-agency local conurbation study that eventually morphed into the PTE and loop+link projects.

The Development of Major Trunk Routes document specifically excluded consideration of local commuter services such as Ormskirk.