AND THIS IS TO GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND
that said, most advanced countries have been through a 'reshaping the railways' process at one time or another - what's notable about Beeching and Serpell is that the processes were made public, in that they were a 'here is what we are doing, this is the intended outcome, we are doing this because-' process.
for example, the SNCF was formed in the late 1930s by bringing together and nationalising half a dozen formerly-independent 'big railway companies' ... who then promptly withdrew passenger service on about 10000 route-km of lines in a "co-ordination" exercise, replacing passenger rail services with bus services.
then there was Stormont who, in the 1950s, declared that the railways were 'as obsolete as the stagecoach', and reduced Northern Ireland's passenger rail network from about 750miles to about 300miles.
i believe DB have been slowly closing rural lines over the past few decades as well, but i don't have much data on this, just hearsay (any germa/n/s care to comment?)
