Sir – Yes the Oxford-Witney (Fairford) branch line lost its passenger train services in June 1962, but it was not a ‘Beeching cut’, as you suggest (Report, June 27).
The Beeching Report, which contained many positive proposals as well as negative ones, was published nine months later, in March 1963, and, obviously, did not recommend withdrawal of passenger services from lines which had already lost them.
When will newspaper journalists realise that the majority of UK line and station closures up to about 1975 (since when the emphasis has been on reopenings) had nothing whatsoever to do with Beeching? And that he simply made recommendations. The decision to close, or retain, a service lay with the Minister of Transport.
Keith Farr, Cholsey
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