As I keep saying, wheres the evidence?
I very much doubt that you will be able to prove specifically one way or the other which line(s) was kept open because of the use of Pacers.
As someone who was around at that time, I can tell you that finances were being pushed so hard that we had to reduce costs by demanning even though we knew this was costing us money in the longer term.
The first posts to go were barrier posts followed by leaving RDR / GPR posts unfilled. This had the effect of then needing to depend upon the goodwill of staff to work the overtime to cover for unfilled shifts.
What needs to be understood is that we were "cost centres" not "profit centres" and therefore each Region could share the savings or cost overruns around the Divisions and Areas.
As it was Politically generally unacceptable for passenger lines to be closed, savings were made in other areas, such as track renewals, and track improvements. In this manner the required cuts were achieved without the need for wholesale closures. Another example was reducing train formations to reflect the declining use of some services, as well as changes to manning practices and duties.
If we look at the Joint Line, Spalding to March was closed to save money for example, the Lincoln Avoiding line was closed to save money, and passenger servicers were reduced. Intermediate signalboxes were also demanned and switched out of circuit, and the Skegness line went to a special 10 hour day roster.
I think if we had really looked hard, it would not have been possible to retain services such as March/Peterborough - Spalding - Sleaford - Lincoln - Doncaster, and I think had it not been available as a diversionary route for both engineering works and emergencies, then it would have been closed throughout.
The use of Pacers, with their better acceleration that the classic DMUs and cheaper operating / maintenance costs, was certainly a very important factor in allowing system wide savings which could be used to bolster services elsewhere.
Remember that by the 1980s the classic DMUs were desperately in need of refurbishment and many were on their last legs. Casualty rates were high and climbing.
I doubt few people on here will know that in the case of the Bedford - St Pancras DMU service, watering cans filled with water were kept at many stations to fill up the radiators in order to keep the service running.
Indeed in the summer, the DMUs could not run the whole length without a water stop somewhere.
Similar problems existed elsewhere and in rural areas it was only the goodwill of train crew who kept services running in some areas by working units which were not really fit to be running about.
There was no danger as such, but it would become known that the Driver on a specific service for example would appreciate clear signals as the brakes were not so good so we all mucked in and made sure he had a good run. In other cases Drivers would struggle around with say an engine or two out.
Looking back on it there is no comparison to the way we run things today !. DMUs with no lights because the batteries had packed up, Drivers handlamps on the front bracket, Drivers lamps in the cab because the instrument lighting had failed. The unwritten understanding that a Driver carried on without a working speedo and we left him to use his judgement on speed.
This really was how things were in those days, and why I say that Pacers helped out enormously in helping us struggle on until the World came out of Recession and things started to improve.
Now we are about to re-enter those hard times again but in today's environment we do not have the latitude to work as we then did, and I think in many ways we do not have the same camaraderie that we did then.
So I would ask the people who disparage the Pacers to have another think about how thongs were then, and although we all know that tyhe Pacers were far from ideal, they did give us the breathing space we so desperately needed. Remember also that the Sprinters were originally a stop gap measure.
