§ 100. Mr. Dribergasked the Minister of Transport how many formal proposals for the closure of branch railway lines, in accordance with the Beeching plan, he has received from the Railways Board; how many of these proposals he has approved; how many he has disapproved on account of hardship or because the closures would be likely to conflict with regional transport plans; and how many he has disapproved because they might have been seen from the outset to be clearly unacceptable.
§ Mr. Tom FraserThe Board has given statutory notice of 263 proposals for closure of passenger line services; Transport Users Consultative Committees have made reports on hardship in connection with 214 of these. My predecessor gave consent to 127 and refused consent to 11. I have consented to 15 proposals and refused consent to 4. Under the arrangement I have made with them for referring proposals to me in advance of publication the Board have sent me particulars of 16100W proposals. I have raised no objection to the publication of 7 of these; I am still considering the remainder.