Beeching's plan, duly executed, was to close down a huge portion of the network, to immediate detrimental effect on people all over the UK. Two small, entirely typical examples from one place: in the rural market town of Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, where we used to live, it had been possible, pre-Beeching, for anyone with an allotment, market garden or plant nursery, to put a crate of tomatoes onto an evening train and have them sold in Central London's Covent Garden market next morning. It had been possible, too, for a young woman to catch the train to the city for a Saturday night dance, and come back by train at the end of it. After Beeching, no such ready country-wide distribution except for those who happened to live on main lines, and a far greater social isolation. And, naturally, Beeching failed to make the railways pay. A barmy idea that was massively destructive.
In the US, the picture was different, but the same half century has seen a parallel reduction in services. Here's the map:
