I REALLY must take Cllr Ron Whittaker to task regarding his letter concerning the railway and the Beeching cuts (Letters, March 30).

To call Dr Beeching a fool is utterly wrong and very unfair. By the 1960s the railways had suffered years of underfunding and mismanagement.

Most branch lines had become totally unviable, overstaffed and underused. An example was Wareham to Swanage, with an average of five passengers a day and freight transferred to the roads. There was only one way to go and Dr Beeching had that unenviable job.

It’s all very well to complain, but that's with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, Beeching was absolutely right and fool he most definitely was not.

NICK COLLIS BIRD, Manwell Drive, Swanage