History of rail transport in Great Britain: Encyclopedia II - History of rail transport in Great Britain - The grouping period

History of rail transport in Great Britain - The grouping period

During the First World War the whole system was taken under government control and run by the Railway Operating Division of the War Office. This revealed some advantages in running the railways with fewer companies, and after the war it was widely agreed that the required development of the rail network could not be achieved under the conditions that had existed before the war. Nationalisation of the railways, which had been mooted by William Gladstone as early as the 1830s, was considered, but was rejected by the government and the owners of the rail companies. A compromise was created in the Railways Act 1921. Under this act, almost all of the hundreds of existing rail companies were grouped together into four new companies: the London, Midland and Scottish, the Southern, the London and North Eastern, and the Great Western. This "grouping" had been first proposed in the 1850s, and lasted from 1 January 1923 to 31 December 1947. This small amount of companies, although not in direct competition with each other, competed to be the fastest, most modern and most comfortable. The companies were spurred on even more by the ioncreased road competition. Products of this competition were the LMS and LNER races to Scotland, with the infamous Flying Scotsman and the Mallard's world speed record of 126 mph, the LMS's production of diesel railcars, electrification of lines by the LNER, the GWR's ingenious marketing and the SR's mass electrification scheme, which led to nearly the whole of the south east's trains being almost entirely electric. Many claimed Britain had the best railways in the world at this period, and it could certainly be justified.

However, road transport grew rapidly during the 1920s, stimulated by the cheap sale of thousands of war-surplus vans and lorries and the subsidised construction of new roads. The revenues of the railway companies suffered in particular because of the loss of freight to road haulage. This was largely because the Government would not release the railways from their obligations as 'common carriers'. The common carrier requirement had been brought in in the 19th century. It obliged railway companies to carry any cargo offered to it at a nationally agreed charge, which was usually well below a rate necessary to make the operation profitable for the railways. The intention had been to stop railway companies "cherry picking" the most profitable freight whilst refusing to carry less profitable freight. This had been a necessary measure when railways had had an effective monopoly over land transport. But with road competition encroaching, it put the railways at a disadvantage, because they had to subsidise unprofitable freight operations with profitable ones, which drove up charges.

The road haulage operators, who had no such restrictions, could therefore undercut the railways and take away their business. It was then thought that no large railway could operate at a profit unless more than half its traffic is freight, and the freight was being siphoned off by the road companies. The railway companies responded to this with a national campaign in the late 1930s for a 'square deal' to allow them the same commercial freedom as road operators. However just as the campaign looked like being successful, World War II started. The common carrier requirement was not lifed until 1957.

With the transport policy pursued by the government, and more general changes in lifestyle favouring travel by road, the Big Four railways never ran a healthy profit. Indeed, the LNER never made a profit at all. However, they were still able to produce the world-leading services on the East Coast Mainline, running trains at speeds of up to 110 mph. It was a remarkable achivement. Also the SR invested heavily in electrification of all its lines, and this electrification was done at a far faster rate than at any time under BR.

During World War II the railway companies' managements joined together, effectively becoming one company. The railways were used more heavily than at any time in their history during this period.

The railway system suffered heavy damage in some areas due to German Luftwaffe bombing, especially in cities such as London and Coventry. However this damage was not as extensive as it was in many other European countries such as France and Germany. This unwittingly worked to the railways' disadvantage, because in other European countries the damage to their railway systems had been so bad that it gave them an opportunity to essentially re-build their railway systems from scratch, and dramatically modernise them.

During the war very little was invested in the railways and they became increasingly run-down. With only essential maintenance work being carried out during the war, the maintenance backlog increased even further. Rolling stock also began to deteriorate. After the war, it was clear that the rail network could not be maintained in the private sector. According to a calculation by the Central Statistical Office during the period 1938-1953 the railways suffered a net disinvestment of £440 million (around £11 billion in 2005 prices)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The grouping period", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki