British Railways in Transition: The Economic Problems of Britain’s Railways Since 1914

265 Pages·1968·21.324 MB·English

by  Derek H. Aldcroft (auth.)

British Railways in Transition
The Economic Problems of Britain's Railways Since I9I 4
Edited by the same author
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH INDUSTRY AND
FOREIGN COMPETITION I875-I9I4
With H. W. Richardson
BUILDING IN THE BRITISH ECONOMY BETWEEN THE
WARS
British Railways
In Transition
The Economic Problems of Britain's Railways
Since 1914
Derek H. Aldcroft
Senior Lecturer in Economic History,
Universi!1 of Leicester
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-00710-3 ISBN 978-1-349-00708-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00708-0
© Derek H. Aldcroft I g68
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1968 978-o-333-10177-3
Published by
MACMILLAN AND CO LTD
Little Essex Street London wc2
and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras
Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg
The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne
The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd Toronto
StMartin's Press Inc New Tork
Library of Congress catalog card no. 6g-I438o
To My Parents
Contents
LIST OF TABLES AND MAPS page xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii
PREFACE XV
I THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
BRITISH RAILWAY SYSTEM
BEFORE I9I4 I
A The Pattern and Dimensions of Railway Expansion,
187o-1914 2
B The Genesis of the Economic Problems 9
(a) The Problem of Excess Capacity 9
(b) Competition and Uneconomic Services I4
(c) Pricing Policies I8
(d) The Enterprise and E.fficiency of British
Railways 23
(e) Conclusion 25
2 BRITISH RAILWAYS IN WAR AND
PEACE, I 9 I4-I 939 25
Introduction 25
A The Railways under Government Control, 1914-
1921 29
(a) War-time Control and Operation 29
(b) The Problem of Investment and Renewal 32
(c) The Cost and Price Structure 36
(d) The ReorganV:;ation of the Railways
39
viii CONTENTS
B The Inter-War rears 47
(a) The Stagnation in Traffic 49
(b) The Impact if Motor Transport 55
(c) Pricing Policy and the Problem ifC osts 59
(d) The Pattern ifI nvestment 68
(e) Technical Progress 77
(f) The Role if Government Policy 83
(g) Conclusions 87
3 WAR-TIME CONTROL AND
NATIONALIZATION 8g
(a) The Financial Basis if War-time Control go
(b) Some Aspects if Railway Operations in War-
time 94
(c) The Balance Sheet and the Problem if Recon-
struction 100
(d) The Motives for Nationalization 105
(e) The Transport Act, 1947 108
4 RAILWAYS UNDER THE BRITISH
TRANSPORT COMMISSION 117
(a) The Statistical Record 119
(b) Division if Traffic Between Rail and Road 124
(c) Unfair Competition and the Problem if Track
Costs 127
(d) Costing and Pricing Policy 134
(e) The Elimination ifE xcess Capacity 145
5 INVESTMENT, MODERNIZATION
AND EFFICIENCY 150
(a) The Pattern if Investment 150
(b) The Modernization Plan 153
(c) Impact if Modernization 160
(d) The Efficiency ifB ritish Railways 167
(e) The B. T.C. rears in Retrospect 173
CONTENTS ix
6 A REVOLUTION ON THE
RAILWAYS: TRANSPORT POLICY
IN THE 1 96os 179
(a) Background to Reorganization 179
(b) The Transport Act, 1962 182
(c) The Reshaping Report 185
(d) Some Criticisms of the Beeching Proposals 194
(e) Implementation 200
(f) Impact of the Reforms 207
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 2II
7
(a) Labour's 'New Deal' for Transport 2II
(b) The Transport Bill of 1967 220
(c) Prospects for the Railways 222
BIBLIOGRAPHY 226
INDEX 241
Tables and Maps
TABLES
2 Railway traffic, I870-191 2 (Great Britain) 5
2 Capital, receipts and expenditure of British
Railways, I870-1912 7
3 Rolling stock per 1 ooo miles ofline I 7
4 Increases in railway charges and costs, 1913-
1921 38
5 Expenditure and receipts of main-line railway
working, 1913-38 48
6 Freight traffic on main-line railways, 1913-38 50
7 Passenger traffic on main-line railways, 1913-38 51
8 Estimated number of passenger miles travelled
by final consumers on public land transport
in the U.K., 1920-38 56
9 Average receipts per passenger and ton mile on
British Railways, 1913-38 62
10 Investment in British Railways, 1920-38 70
1 1 Man hours per train mile 79
12 Wagon and train loads in tons in 19 30 82
13 Net financial return of the controlled under-
takings, 19 40-6 93