Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this study was to establish who used the local railway lines in areas experiencing the closure of a local line between 1969 and 1976, and the effect of closure on these people.The 10 areas surveyed were among the 47 services withdrawn from the less urbanised parts of Britain during this period. Most or these were proposed for closure in the Beeching Report of 1963. Since Beeching, successive Ministers of Transport had approved the withdrawal of 265 passenger services on over 1,700 route miles representing about 10 per cent of the 1963 railway network.

Main Topics:

Main survey: Former users of local railway lines in areas which had experienced closures were surveyed to establish the travel and associated consequences of closure: effects on activity and travel patterns; attitudes towards rail closure; attitudes towards bus travel and rail travel; comparison of local rail services with the bus services which replaced them; changes in car ownership.Basic social/demographic information was also collected.Subsidiary survey: People who had not used the local railway lines before closure were surveyed to collect: basic social/demographic data; information on travel methods; and details of car ownership.

Simple random sample

Blythe-Marchant sampling technique used, with addresses/names obtained from the electoral register.

Face-to-face interview