22 APRIL 1955, Page 16

City and Suburban

BY JOHNBETJEMAN Bradshaw's Railway Guide goes up from is. 6d. to 10s. a copy from June 13. All railway lovers have to have this publica- tion which has become the official obituary of murdered branch lines. But 10s. is a lot to pay if it is still to contain loose pages of information supplied by British Railways, with their usual highhandedness and lack of consideration, too late for inclu- sion in the Guide. Only somebody with a magnifying glass, a mapping pen and three or four hours to spare could possibly make the corrections. Since he is increasing the price, I hope that Bradshaw will give full timetables of the railways in Southern Ireland, which are not quite so cut down as the single page given to them in the present Guide would lead one to believe. I notice from the current number that the Transport Commission is doing its best to kill the twenty miles of railway from Cambridge to Mildenhall by cutting down the three week- day trains to only one each way, stopping at all stations. This is the usual policy, for the Commission will then be able to say that no one now uses the line and therefore it need not be kept open. The more humane and far-sighted thing to do would be to put on frequent services of diesel trains.