Richard Beeching facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Lord Beeching
Born	Richard Beeching (1913-04-21)21 April 1913 Sheerness, Kent, England
Died	23 March 1985(1985-03-23) (aged 71) East Grinstead, West Sussex, England
Nationality	British
Education	Maidstone Grammar School Imperial College London
Occupation	Physicist engineer
Known for	Beeching Report on railway closures
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Title	Baron Beeching
Spouse(s)	Ella Margaret Tiley (m. 1938–1985)

Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the early 1960s for his report The Reshaping of British Railways, commonly referred to as "The Beeching Report", which led to far-reaching changes in the railway network, popularly known as "the Beeching Axe".

As a result of the report, just over 4,000 route miles (6,400 kilometres) were removed from the system on cost and efficiency grounds, leaving Britain with 13,721 miles (22,082 km) of railway lines in 1966. A further 2,000 miles (3,200 km) were lost by the end of the 1960s.