| Background |
| Part of the Labour Party's 1945 General Election manifesto promised nationalisation of the nation's inland transport except for private cars and those lorries operated by a company solely for its own needs. This was enacted under the Transport Act 1947 and came into effect on 1st January 1948 under the auspices of the British Transport Commission. Part of its remit was to run an integrated transport service. |
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Whereas the "big four" railway companies has been transport providers across all modes providing integrated movement of both goods and passengers the BTC was divided up into separate "Executives". |
| The Executives took control of the railway, London Transport (buses and trams as well as the underground), docks, canals and road transport. Included in this were the railway company ferries, hotels as well as Thomas Cook travel agents, Pickfords hauliers (both part of the Hayes Wharf group) and others. |
| In practice each of the executives ran its own operation with any notion of integration falling by the wayside. This made it fairly straightforward for the 1951 Conservative government to de-nationalise most of British Road Services. |
| Prior to World War 2 the Government had imposed "Common Carrier" status on the railway companies requiring them to carry whatever goods they were offered at a rate set down by a Parliamentary Tribunal. These rates were published for all to see. No such obligation was imposed on the road haulage industry with the consequence that the road hauliers could undercut the railway who were prevented from fighting back. This Common Carrier status remained in place until the mid-1950s. |
| A new Minister of Transport was appointed in October 1959, Ernest Marples. Rising from humble beginnings he had become an MP in 1945 and co-founded the road construction company Marples Ridgeway a few years later. |
| In March 1960 a six man committee was established with Sir Ivan Stedeford of Tube Investments as Chairman. One of the members of the Stedeford Committee was Dr Richard Beeching, technical director of ICI. Of the remaining four, two were industrialists, and the remaining two were civil servants, one each from the Treasury and the Department of Transport. |
| Their unpublished report provided the basis for the white paper of December 1960, "Proposals for the reorganisation of nationalised transport undertakings". Broadly, this suggested the disbandment of the British Transport Commission and its replacement by separate boards for each of the functions, thus making even more difficult the integration of inland transport. |
| In May 1961 Sir Brian Robertson retired as chairman of the BTC having been paid £10,000 a year for his services. One of the members of the Stedeford Committee was appointed to succeed him and eventually to become chairman of British Railways when the BTC was dismantled, Dr Richard Beeching, . |
| Before agreeing to take the job Beeching insisted on a salary equivalent to his ICI salary, £24,000. In those days it was a huge amount for the head of a nationalised industry at a time when equivalent posts were being paid less than half that and a railway clerk was on £630 per year. |
| Upon appointment Beeching initiated a number of studies into the railways operations and finances. A report, "The Reshaping of British Railways" was the result. |
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The effects of the cuts over the period 1962-1968 were as follows:-
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Sources:- Books; Pollins, Harold,1971, "Britain's Railways: An Industrial History", David & Charles. Sampson, Anthony, 1962, "Anatomy of Britain", Hodder & Stoughton. Dyos, HJ & Aldcroft DH, 1974, "British Transport: An Economic Survey from the Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth", Penguin. Rallis, Tom, 1977, "Intercity Transport: Engineering & Planning", The Macmillan Press.
Websites; The Transport Salaried Staffs Association. Pickfords Limited. |