History of UK Rail Transport

Despite the fact that the idea of ​​moving freight trolleys along paths carved in stone dates back to Ancient Greece , and horse-drawn tracks with wooden rails appeared in Germany in the 16th century , the first steam locomotive appeared in Britain. The early "railways" were built from parallel wooden rails along which horse-drawn trolleys moved. They were replaced in 1793 by L-shaped cast-iron rails used by in the construction of the skate . This type of rail soon gave way to cast-iron rails without a “shelf”; on the wheels they began to make protrusions that kept the cars on rails (the modern design of the wheels and rail), thanks to the beginning of the production of such a design by . Cast iron is a brittle material, so the rails often broke. Later, in 1820, began to use wrought iron for rails.

The first public passenger railway was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , opened in 1807 . It used horse drawn power and previously constructed tracks.

In 1804, Richard Trevitik designed and built the first (not given a separate name) steam locomotive for riding on smooth rails ^[1] .

The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Salamanca , built in 1812 by and for a 1219 mm gauge on the ^[2] . Salamanca worked on a rack and pinion gear , where the gears moved with two cylinders built on top of the boiler .

In 1813, and Timothy Hackworth designed the Puffing Billy locomotive for use on the tramway between Stockton and Darlington. ^[3] The design of this locomotive used two connecting rods , going up to the rotating beams, which were attached to the crankshaft , and he, in turn, moved the levers of the wheels. This meant that the wheels were paired, giving better grip. A year later, George Stephenson made improvements to this project, creating his first Blucher steam engine ^[4] , which became the first locomotive with wheels similar to modern ones.

This project convinced investors of the new Stockton-Darlington railway to designate Stephenson as a line engineer in 1821 . It was originally intended to use horses, but Stephenson updated the route design to allow the use of steam locomotives. After that, the Parliamentary Act was passed, allowing the use of steam traction and the transport of passengers on this railway. The 40-kilometer route was opened on September 27, 1825 and, with the participation of Locomotion No. 1 , became the first locomotive public railway in the world.

In 1830, the Liverpool-Manchester Railway , 56 km long, was built. In fact, it was the first railroad of the modern type, connecting large cities with regular passenger and freight traffic, completely engine powered. The financial success of this road predetermined the rapid development of railway transport in subsequent years.

The first railways were built as local branches and operated by small companies. As speed increased, more and more railways were built, often without taking into account the potential for their use. The 1840s were the most significant decade for the growth of British railways thanks to the " railway mania ." In 1840 , at the beginning of the decade, there were only a few separate lines torn from each other, but only 10 years later an almost complete network of railways was built, almost all cities and villages had a railway, and often two, and three. In the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most of the first independent railway companies merged or were acquired by more successful competitors, so that only a few large operators remained.

During this period, there was also a gradual increase in state regulation, especially in matters of security. The 1840 Act ^[6] authorized the to appoint railroad inspectors. In the same year, the Railway Inspectorate was established to investigate the causes of accidents and make recommendations on how to avoid them ^[7] . Back in 1844, for the first time, a bill was submitted to Parliament offering the government to buy all the railways, but it was not adopted. Nevertheless, the minimum standards for railcar designs ^[8] and mandatory provision for the placement of passengers in the 3rd class, which created the so-called , were adopted. In 1846, after heated discussions (which became known as the “ rut wars ”), the English parliament approved the railway gauge of 1435 mm as the standard for the construction of new railways, and the gauge of 2140 mm was gradually eliminated.

The entire railway network was transferred under the control of the government during the First World War , at which time some advantages of network integration were discovered. Nevertheless, members of the Parliamentary Coalition opposed the idea of nationalizing railways until 1921 .

On January 1, 1923, virtually all railway companies were into the Big Four: Great Western Railway , London and North Eastern Railway , London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and Southern Railway ^[9] . Several joint lines, by then already operating under the general management of large companies, were not included in the new merged companies. The Big Four were joint stock companies and operated the UK railway system until December 31, 1947 .

Competition on the part of automobile transport in the 1920s and 1930s significantly reduced railroad revenues, despite the fact that the need for maintaining and updating the network has never been so high, since almost no investments were made in the war decade. Railway companies accused the government of patronizing road transport because Highways were built with taxpayer money, and antitrust laws limited the size of railway tariffs. In response, the government released several studies with no concrete findings. In 1933, it was finally decided to direct taxation of road transport to finance the construction of roads, increase the transport tax and excise taxes on fuel. Also, the study that formed the basis of these decisions noted that many small branches could never compete on a par with road transport. Although these changes helped save the railroads, a period of gradual decline in rail transport began due to lack of investment and changes in transport policy and lifestyle.

During the Second World War, management teams of companies joined forces, de facto forming a single company. Assistance to the country in the war left a strong imprint on the resources of the railways and formed a great need for new investments. After 1945, for practical and ideological reasons, the government decided to transfer railway transport to the public sector of the economy .

Since the beginning of 1948, railway companies were nationalized and the British Railways company was formed (later the name was reduced to British Rail), managed by the British Transport Commission ^[10] . Despite the insignificance of the initial changes, the activity of using the railways increased and the network became profitable. The renewal of tracks and stations was completed by 1954 . In 1955, rail network revenues fell again, making the industry unprofitable. In the mid -1950s , the rapid commissioning of diesel and electric locomotives began in exchange for steam locomotives in accordance with the adopted modernization plan, which cost millions pounds , but the expected reverse transition from cars to railways did not occur and losses began to accumulate ^[11] . This failure of attempts to bring railways to profitability through investments has led all politicians to agree on a reduction in investment and the search for possible financial reductions.

The desire for profitability led to a significant decrease in the railway network in the mid -1960s as a result of the closure of unprofitable branches. The government has set the task of reorganizing the railroads, the plan of which is called “ ” or “Beeching Ax” on behalf of the author of the corresponding report ^{[12] [13]} . The proposals put forward by Richard Beaching led to the elimination of many lines and branches, as they were recognized as economically ineffective. The closure of a large number of rural stations led to a decrease in passenger traffic on the remaining main lines. The closure of many freight stations used by individual large enterprises, such as the coal industry, led to the transfer of their goods to road transport. The closure of the stations was very unpopular among ordinary people and this opinion has not changed so far.

Passenger traffic has been steadily declining from the late 1950s to the late 1970s . ^[14] After that, passenger traffic stabilized with the advent of high-speed InterCity 125 trains in the late 1970s and early 1980s ^[15] . In the 80s, government subsidies to the industry also significantly decreased, and the fare increased significantly, as a result, the railway network became more profitable.

From 1994 to 1997, British Rail was privatized ^[16] . The ownership of the routes and infrastructure was transferred to , and passenger transportation was divided into separate franchises and sold to private operators (initially 25 franchises were created), freight transportation was divided into 6 companies and completely sold (it is worth noting that 5 out of 6 freight companies were ultimately bought by the same new owner) ^[17] . The government of John Major believed that privatization would improve passenger traffic. Since then, the level of passenger traffic has constantly grown at a high pace ^[18] .

Since privatization, passenger flow has grown rapidly, in 2010 more passengers were transported than ever after the 1920s ^[19] .

Railways have also become much safer since privatization ^{[20] [21]} . British Railways are the second most secure after Luxembourg ^[22] . However, public opinion of rail traffic was affected by several notable accidents after privatization, including the (a train with an inoperative automatic security system drove a red light) ^[23] , a crash near Paddington Station (the train also traveled to red light) ^{[24] [25]} and the (the cause was the destruction of the rail due to microscopic cracks) ^[26] .

Following the Hatfield crash , Railtrack, an infrastructure company, introduced over 1,200 speed limits throughout the network and launched an extremely expensive urgent rail replacement program nationwide. The resulting serious train delays across the country and the company's enormous costs led to a chain of events that resulted in the bankruptcy of the company and its replacement with Network Rail , a state - owned non-profit organization ^[27] .

When extending their franchises, some companies increased the cost of use (especially the ), there is a possibility of a significant decrease in the profitability of operators, especially in light of the increase in deductions in favor of the treasury. If the franchisee ceases to fulfill its functions, the operational management of trains will be transferred back to the Transport Department, leading to active calls for the re-nationalization of the industry. However, the recently terminated franchise was nationalized before the end of the franchise as , but was then again sold to private operators as Southeastern .

• Railway History