On 1 January 1948 the Southern Railway was nationalised to become the Southern Region of British Railways. January 1963 saw the all the lines in the area transferred to the Western Region and this was soon followed by the "Reshaping of British Railways" report. On 29 November 1965 the Lyme Regis branch line was closed; goods traffic had been withdrawn in 1960. On 11 June 1967 the main line was rationalised – Axminster was now in the middle of a single-track section between Chard Junction and Honiton.