Given that 14 tons is only just over a wagon load....I am not surprised that it goes by road! 
Maybe, but that was one wagon load from the Mid Hants section of the line PER DAY, and many more from the Meon Valley line section that ran through a major watercress production area.
This is what Marples / Beeching ignored, the accumulative affect of rail travel by passengers and goods. They all travel up the minor, country lines to come together in large bulk for the main lines, which produced the overall profit (well before the government got hold of them during the two World Wars!!) for the railways. Instead they did a profit and loss study based on traffic flows often at the wrong times of the day, on each line in its own right. This gave them small feeder lines producing no profit / a loss; right "close them", and main lines making a profit; keep them. Net result was they CUT the traffic flows and suddenly the main lines were making large losses!! surprise, surprise, doh!!
The current government want us to use public transport, but the railway lines we should be able to use to feed on to the main lines have basically gone!!
Bloody great!!
That's my favourite rant on the topic of British railways over........for now!
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Topic: Mystery choo choo (Read 2506 times)