YP Letters: Don't blame Beeching for uneconomic trains

Commuters at Harrogate Station - the Beeching cuts continue to polarise opinion.

From: Geoff Wilson, Forest Crescent, Harrogate.

AS usual, your correspondents who wrote relating to the Beeching report were very selective in their haste to score political points (The Yorkshire Post, February 11).

Prior to the appointment of Dr Richard Beeching, railway closures had been taking place simply because passengers had stopped using the trains in numbers which made them economic.

In one case at least a whole system, the Midland & Great Northern in East Anglia, was closed prior to Dr Beeching.

Where are the major road improvements in that part of the world from which the civil engineering industry benefited?

It is true that the Conservative government appointed Dr Beeching.

However, a significant part of his report (in excess of 2,000 route miles) was implemented under the Labour government of Harold Wilson, despite a pre-election promise not to do so.

Remember, a week is a long time in politics. I wonder who said that?

In some cases lines were closed which did not figure in the report by his government.

If we were to talk about who benefited from a major civil engineering project, what about the Humber Bridge in relation to a by-election in Hull?