"As far as I can gather, the last of the fish trains from Fleetwood was in 1967 or thereabouts, a road distribution network having been set up to replace the rail network. Presumably road distribution was required to maintain access to inland markets which no longer had their own rail services."

This is a typical example of the far-reaching effect of rail closures and the subsequent social cost to the tax payer (vastly subsiding increased road traffic/damage/accidents/congestion etc).