Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 21831 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
TODAY AT SIX: BRITISH RAIL CLOSURE HALTWHISTLE - ALSTON LINE | 1970 | 1970-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Sound Duration: 5 mins 24 secs Credits: Tyne Tees TV On-screen participant: Brian Shallcross Genre: TV News Subject: Travel Railways |
Summary Brian Shallcross report on the British Rail proposed closure of the Haltwhistle to Alston passenger branch line for the Tyne Tees Television news programme Today at Six broadcast on 24 September 1970. |
Description
Brian Shallcross report on the British Rail proposed closure of the Haltwhistle to Alston passenger branch line for the Tyne Tees Television news programme Today at Six broadcast on 24 September 1970.
The presenter Brian Shallcross walks towards the train waiting at a platform in Haltwhistle station. Close-up of Alston as the destination on the train. Shallcross boards the train.
Shallcross piece to camera as he sits on the travelling train. He considers the passengers' reaction to the...
Brian Shallcross report on the British Rail proposed closure of the Haltwhistle to Alston passenger branch line for the Tyne Tees Television news programme Today at Six broadcast on 24 September 1970.
The presenter Brian Shallcross walks towards the train waiting at a platform in Haltwhistle station. Close-up of Alston as the destination on the train. Shallcross boards the train.
Shallcross piece to camera as he sits on the travelling train. He considers the passengers' reaction to the closure of the railway line in an area where roads are often impassable in winter. He imagines people would be up in arms and ready to protest to the Minister of Transport, who had warned that the grant of £43,000 per year could not be continued after 1971. The subsidy was needed for British Rail to keep the line going at a loss. He notes that people don’t seem to be up in arms. There are only eleven passengers on this morning. Only one of them uses the line regularly. He doesn’t feel particularly perturbed about losing his method of transport. The other passengers are just visiting for the day.
Vox pop with an elderly man, smartly dressed, who lives at Featherstone Park (one of the first stations to be closed). He says it’s a very handy station, but he only travels to Alston two or three times. Most people have cars and he often gets a lift. Shallcross observes that this is obviously why the line loses money. The passenger agrees. He says that there are only two or three people travelling by train with him on a Saturday.
The train arrives at Alston. The few passengers get off the train.
Shallcross piece to camera inside train carriage as it returns to Haltwhistle after a twenty minute wait. Only five people board the train for the return journey.
Vox pop with two elderly women. Shallcross asks what the closure of the railway line means to them. One of the women says that she only uses the line about once a year so it would not affect her much. She thinks it’s important in winter when she believes supplies of wood and coal were transported by train. Shallcross comments that it seems to be just a handful of people who use the train and that’s not economic. The woman replies that it should be subsidised, but she thinks it already is. Shallcross states ‘To the tune of £43,000 a year’. She laughs. She realises it sounds stupid. She doesn’t know the answer. Shallcross informs them that an alternative bus service is planned if they close the line. The woman replies that work will need to done on the road before that can happen, so there will be big expense.
General view from train of the Lambley Viaduct, which carried a waggonway over the River South Tyne.
Vox pop with female passenger in glasses and pearls. Shallcross asks if there will be enough opposition against the closure of the Haltwhistle to Alston line. She says there was protest in the past and a few people tried to make the line private. He asks whether the campaign was a success.
General view from the train of a beautiful, wooded river valley.
Vox pop with woman continues. She says that people travel from all over the world to take this scenic train journey. They carry cine cameras. She lives on the station and sees people filming all the time because it is the prettiest railway journey. It has been likened to Switzerland.
Shallcross gets off the train at Haltwhistle. Closing piece to camera about the prettiness of the journey. He says the problem is that the line could never be a viable economic proposition for British Rail. The argument about the need for trains in winter would not be enough to sway BR. ‘It seems tragic, and I suppose George Stephenson would turn in his grave, but it does look like another railway line is rapidly going to go into extinction.’
Context
‘It seems tragic, and I suppose George Stephenson would turn in his grave, but it does look like another railway line is rapidly going to go into extinction.’ Tyne Tees TV reporter Brian Shawcross travels the quaint South Tyne Valley rail line from Haltwhistle to Alston, threatened with closure, and interviews the few passengers in a near empty train. One woman claims this picturesque route is a magnet for tourists with cine cameras and there will be protests if it is axed.
Six years later,...
‘It seems tragic, and I suppose George Stephenson would turn in his grave, but it does look like another railway line is rapidly going to go into extinction.’ Tyne Tees TV reporter Brian Shawcross travels the quaint South Tyne Valley rail line from Haltwhistle to Alston, threatened with closure, and interviews the few passengers in a near empty train. One woman claims this picturesque route is a magnet for tourists with cine cameras and there will be protests if it is axed.
Six years later, in 1976, 5,000 people turned out to ride the last train to run on the scenic 13-mile route of the Haltwhistle to Alston line, which first opened back in 1852 when the track was completed across the spectacular Lambley viaduct. On a wet Saturday morning in May, Alston Station rocked to the sound of 70s disco music, a mock coffin and wreathes were left on platforms along the route, and two pipers played a lament as the final train departed (on time) at 9.09pm. It was the last surviving passenger branch line in rural North East England. Much later, the market town of Alston became the inspiration for the quirky fictional northern town of Royston Vasey in the popular BBC comedy League of Gentleman. |