ABSTRACT
By 1960 ‘the inexorable march of problems’ was advancing rapidly on the government. Thus the railways’ mounting deficits, and the apparently escalating costs of the Modernisation Plan, were assuming alarming proportions. Thomson and Hunter summarise the position:
The recession in 1958, which badly affected the heavy industries on which rail freight largely depended, caused the operating deficit to reach almost £50 million, and although the trend was temporarily broken the following year, the three years 1960-62 each added almost £20 million to the operating deficit, so that in the last of these years it topped the £100 million mark.
