|
The Labour Government, elected immediately
after the war ended in 1945, came with a clear mandate for major
nationalisation schemes. The railway system had suffered to a great
extent during the two world wars, both in terms of the damage to its
rolling stock and the unavoidable lapses in routine track
maintenance. It was therefore a prime candidate to be taken into
state control, along with all other forms of public land transport.
There was to be strong opposition to these
new schemes, not least from the ‘Big Four’ pre-war railway
companies. However, despite this, the 1947 'Transport Act' was
passed, creating the ‘British Transport Commission’ responsible to
the ‘Ministry of Transport’. This was made up of six ‘Executives’ -
namely: ‘Docks and Inland Waterways’, ‘Hotels’, ‘London Transport’,
‘Road Haulage’, ‘Road Passenger’ and the ‘Railway Executive’, which
was obviously in charge of managing and operating the railways. |
 |
By 1st January
1948, the ‘Big Four’ had ceased to exist and in their place came the
'unified', state-controlled system ‘British Railways’. In actual
fact, the next two years or so were anything but ‘unified’ whilst
attempts were made to consolidate previous regional boundaries,
liveries and such like. In
addition to all this, the ‘Railway Executive’ faced the formidable
task of having to repair the damage done to the network during the
war. Unfortunately, the funds were not available for a full-scale
remodelling programme but, in the short term, almost 1000 new steam
locomotives were built to replace those lost in the war. |
|
Clement
Attlee, British Prime Minister 1945 - 1951. |
|
|
However, the days of the steam engine were
numbered. In other parts of Europe, diesel and electric trains were
already more common and proving more economical to run.
By 1955, now with a larger budget at its
disposal, the government embarked on a ‘Modernisation Plan’ to help
the rapidly declining railways become more efficient and compete
more effectively with the dramatic increase in road transport,
notably the rise of private car ownership. One of its prime
objectives was to completely replace steam on the railways with a
mixture of diesel and electric multiple units over a period of 15
years. |
|
Sadly, this grand ‘Plan’ did not prove to
be as successful as had been hoped. Granted, electric services had
been created along suburban lines out of London’s Kings Cross and
Liverpool Street stations and had extended to the Liverpool and
Manchester areas too. There had also been electrification, to some
extent, of the lines around Glasgow. Nevertheless, the government
was still faced with the issues of uneconomical rural lines, certain
design faults in early diesel locomotives and the general lack of
rationalisation across the network as a whole.
By the early 1960's, it had become obvious
that the ‘British Transport Commission’ was not managing ‘British
Railways’ successfully. Indeed it was running with a financial
deficit of over £100 million (£1.72 billion in today's money!). |
 |
|
The 'Big Four' became
'British Railways'. |
|
|
Consequently, the 1962 'Transport Act',
described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field
of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal
Traffic Act 1854" dissolved the ‘British Transport Commission’, on
the grounds of its being too large and unwieldy. In its place, five
brand new authorities were established - namely: ‘British Transport
Docks Board’, ‘British Waterways Board’, ‘London Transport Board’,
‘Transport Holdings Company’ and the 'British Railways Board’. |
|
© Patricia Wallis,
OTRBOT |
|
