October 30, 2012

  • On the Wrong Line

    The book I read to research this post was On the Wrong Line by Christian Wolmar which is an excellent book which I bought from a secondhand bookshop. This book looks at the history of British Rail and in particular looks at some of the incompetent decisions and some of the scandals. The first purpose built passenger railway was the Manchester to Liverpool line built in 1830. After that of course railways sprang up all over britain at an amazing rate. Railways made it possible to have fish and chip shops inland because fresh fish could be delivered quite quickly. Also farmers could get their produce to market via trains. They were forced by government legislation to provide third class travel at set rates which was very unpopular with the railway firms. often these carriages kept passengers in worse conditions than the animals. Many railways either made a small profit or no profit and every time they built one an act of parliament had to be made. They had no set rules to follow and would often allow 2 railways which were in competition on the same route. If a local MP supported it chances were he was set to benefit financially. Initially the government merged the railways into 4 large firms. The company which ran the west coast line to Scotland was the biggest company in the world around 1900. These later on were merged into 1 company which was British Rail. In the early 60's under Dr Beeching most of the network was seen as unprofitable and closed down. Beeching saw the railway as a link between major cities. At this time the government thought the way forward was roads and that railways would decline like canals had done. In the 80's much of the railway was privatised. Nowadays of course trains are getting more popular and the railways actually make a profit. In Britain they are being expanded. The french system with its TGVs is envied in Britain.

oldscratbag

Categories