Abstract
In the UK, major railway lines were reviewed in the late 1960s. The basis for this was the “Beeching report”. In this report, 15 recommendations were made to improve the balance of the British railway, which was a big deficit at the time, and it was decided to strictly determine the abolition of each line section based on the balance of payments. Based on this report, the abolition of the route called “Beeching cut” was carried out in the UK, but the plan has not been completed.
This article introduce what criteria were considered for the existence or non-existence of railways at that time and why the plan was never completed. At the same time, we will discuss the standards for the existence or non-existence of railways, comparing with the discussions and backgrounds of local lines in Japan defined in the 1980s.
