Quote:
Originally Posted by Bevan Price
Without wishing to comment on the rights and wrongs of the 1955 strike, Toddington Ted makes some good points. Indeed, the strike may have contributed to some of the lBeeching closures in the 1960's - the main people to benefit were the car makers and the road transport industry. Commuters deprived of trains for 2 weeks looked for alternative transport, and quite a lot bought cars, never to return to rail transport. Likewise, the railways lost a lot of freight business due to the strike. And the Government recognised that sizeable parts of the country could exist without railways.
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Exactly. Although I was very young at the time, I have always believed that the constant strikes after 1955 effectively did the government's dirty work for them. Someone who handled railway parcels told me he noticed how much less business he had after each strike.