What lines should/shouldn't have been closed in 1963?

[HS2isgood]

Please, mods, i don't know if this is the appropriate subforum, if it is not, just move it.

In the spirit of the other Beeching thread, let's ask the question: you're tasked with reducing BR's costs in the early sixties. Which routes get saved? Which ones get the axe? Do you consolidate as many stations as Beeching did?

 

[Irascible]

Probably a History/Nostalgia question, really: you can report your own post for someone to look at.

It's not so much Beeching ( although a lot of the closures that shouldn't have happened came under the labour govt who promised to stop! ) but the modernisation plan should really have included things like staff levels - running a lot of the branches as the sort of basic railway we see today might have revealed a rather different picture. BR itself was a lot of the problem, seemed to be a great desire to wield the axe as much as possible.

So to answer the actual question - I think I'd have to have been alive & seen the rather long list of places that I think lost their rail link when they shouldn't have to know for sure. A lot of lines ( like say, Taunton-Barnstaple ) you think "wow, connects the whole of North Devon & Somerset towards London, why would you shut that!" but the engineering on the line was absolutely terrible & it didn't really properly serve what it was intended for. I'm sure there's loads more cases like that.