On Fri, 21 Apr 2017 10:35:54 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:



This was the argument used by Beeching to remove branch lines. Change the
train times so that they are useless - don't make connections, etc, and
then claim nobody uses them.

Not sure that is entirely true. The local line when I was a kid - Deeside,
from Aberdeen to Ballater, never once broke even in its entire life.

A line near where I grew up was scheduled have been built in the early
1900's but got delayed by WW1 , it finally opened in 1925 when the
scarce traffic on offer was already being handled by war surplus
lorries so it really should have been stillborne but it was completed
as a scheme to provide work in a poor area.
When it closed in 1965 the tickets for some of the stops were still
from the original batch printed at opening , travelers on the last
few services snapped them up as Souvenirs as a Southern Railway
branded ticket was not normally issued by the sixties.

Details here for those who have a deeper interest in such things.
http://colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/...way/index.html

G Harman