"Graeme Wall" wrote in message
...
On 17/04/2014 11:10, Basil Jet wrote:
On 2014\04\17 04:12, Aurora wrote:

Beeching deserves the benefit of the doubt. He was a brilliant
businessman with good analytical skills brought in to do a very tough
job. He gave it his best shot. And indeed some lines had to close.

Does anyone know why the decisions made in the Great Yarmouth area were
made? It seems to me that a loop from Ipswich to Lowestoft to Yarmouth
to Norwich should have been kept, and the rest should probably have been
got rid of, but what they've done instead is a dogs dinner, requiring
three trains and two hours to get from Saxmundham to Yarmouth, and why
Yarmouth needs two lines from Norwich I can not figure out.

Probably local politics.

From memory, there was a legal covenant on the Berney Arms line that would
have made it expensive/difficult to close. As the line as far as Reedham
was staying open anyway, it was a fairly minimal extra expense to send a
couple a day that way.

Incidentally - on approach to Yarmouth, I understand it's actually 2
bi-directional single lines not double track!

James