THE rail network faces the biggest cuts in services since the Beeching era in the 1960s under government plans to reduce the annual subsidy by £1.5 billion.

The first cuts have begun as ministers seek to test the strength of public opposition to the loss of local services. Etruria station, in Stoke-on-Trent, was shut down yesterday after the last departure, ending 150 years of service.

Derek Twigg, the Transport Minister, said that he had ordered the closure because only 22 passengers a day had used the station. There are 300 stations across the network with fewer than 22 passengers a day and 150 with fewer than 7.

Ministers also plan to save money by cutting long-distance services next year, including halving the frequency of the service between London and Cardiff and discontinuing the sleeper train to Cornwall.

But the most damaging cuts are being planned for the five years from 2009, when a new budget will be set for the railways. The Department for Transport has begun secret negotations over which services, stations and little-used branch lines will be eliminated.

Graham Dalton, the director of rail projects at the department, told a recent conference of rail engineers that the Treasury wanted to reduce the subsidy by between £1 billion and £1.5 billion. He said that the department was working on a statement about the size of the railway which would send a clear message that “there’s a budget set for rail and we’ve all got to work within it”.

The railways will receive a record £6.5 billion from the taxpayer this year. This is partly due to the costs of clearing Railtrack’s maintenance backlog and the annual subsidy will decline to £4.5 billion by 2008.

Under the Treasury’s plan the subsidy would fall by a further £1.5 billion from 2009, leaving the railway with £3 billion a year. This would still be three times what British Rail received in today’s prices before it was privatised. The Treasury accepts that the subsidy will never fall back to BR levels but is determined to cut loss-making services.

The first targets are small stations on main lines. Frequency will be reduced on many lines and there will be shutdowns for months at a time for engineering works rather than at weekends.

A transport spokesman said: “We can’t say at this stage what the subsidy will be from 2009, but every pound the railway gets will have to deliver a pound of value.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Shrinking violet Gordon turns into raging bull
• Eddie Izzard: 'I keep thinking if I do all these things she'll come back'
• Is sex for the disabled the last taboo?