At its zenith, the British railway network was 21,000 route miles long, twice its present size. Yet it now carries more passenger miles than at its fullest extent and urgently needs more capacity to grow further. The massive reduction in Britain's national railway network resulted from a sustained campaign by a number of individuals, who believed that railways had had their day, that economies had to be made and that you could not stop what they saw as 'progress'. Although the process of railway closure started early, the pace accelerated during the 1950s and peaked in the years following the...
At its zenith, the British railway network was 21,000 route miles long, twice its present size. Yet it now carries more passenger miles than at its fu...