Download or read book British Rail 1974 1997 written by Terence Richard Gourvish and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-29 with total page 770 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on privileged access to the British Railway Board's rich archives, this book provides and authoritative account of the progress made by the British Railway System prior to its privatization. It offers a unique account of the last fifteen years of nationalized railways in Britain, and it sheds light on the current problems of privatized railway systems. This volume is divided into four complete and concise sections for complete study: 'Railways Under Labour (1974-1979)', 'The Thatcher Revolution (British Rail in the 1980's)', 'On The Threshold of Privatization: Running the Railways (1990-1994)', and 'Responding to Privatization (1981-1997)'. Author Terry Gourvish is considered Britain's leading railway historian.
Download or read book British Rail 1974 1997 written by Terry Gourvish and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-03-28 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain's privatised railways continure to provoke debate about the organisation, financing, and development of the railway system. This important book, written by Britain's leading railway historian, provides an authoritative account of the progress made by British Rail prior to privatisation, and a unique insight into its difficult role in the government's privatisation planning from 1989. Based on free access to the British Railway Board's rich archives, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the main themes: a process of continuous organisational change; the existence of a persistent government audit; perennial investment restraints; the directive to reduce operating costs and improve productivity; a concern with financial performance, technological change, service quality, and the management of industrial relations; and the Board's ambiguous position as the Conservative government pressed home its privatisation programme. The introduction of sector management from 1982 and the 'Organising for Quality' initiative of the early 1990s, the Serpell Report on railway finances of 1983, the sale of the subsidiary businesses, the large-scale investment in the Channel Tunnel, and the obsession with safety which followed the Clapham accident of 1988, are all examined in depth. In the conclusion, the author reviews the successes and failures of the public sector, rehearses the arguments for and against integration in the railway industry, and contrasts what many have termed 'the golden age' of the mid-late 1980s, when the British Rail-government relationship was arguably at its most effective, with what has happened since 1994.
Download or read book From Rail to Road and Back Again written by Colin Divall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The coming of the railways signalled the transformation of European society, allowing the quick and cheap mass transportation of people and goods on a previously unimaginable scale. By the early decades of the twentieth century, however, the domination of rail transport was threatened by increased motorised road transport which would quickly surpass and eclipse the trains, only itself to be challenged in the twenty-first century by a renewal of interest in railways. Yet, as the studies in this volume make clear, to view the relationship between road and rail as a simple competition between two rival forms of transportation, is a mistake. Rail transport did not vanish in the twentieth century any more than road transport vanished in the nineteenth with the appearance of the railways. Instead a mutual interdependence has always existed, balancing the strengths and weaknesses of each system. It is that interdependence that forms the major theme of this collection. Divided into two main sections, the first part of the book offers a series of chapters examining how railway companies reacted to increasing competition from road transport, and exploring the degree to which railways depended on road transportation at different times and places. Part two focuses on road mobility, interpreting it as the innovative success story of the twentieth century. Taken together, these essays provide a fascinating reappraisal of the complex and shifting nature of European transportation over the last one hundred years.
Download or read book British Rail written by Christian Wolmar and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authoritative and fascinating history of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail 'Wolmar's book is impeccably organised and makes a fast, enjoyable read' THE TIMES Literary Supplement________ British Rail wasn't how we're asked to remember it . . . From ancient rolling stock to patchy service, stale sandwiches to the wrong kind of snow, British Rail - our last great state-owned organisation to be privatised - has received a terrible press. But after its controversial 1948 creation, British Rail was actually an innovative powerhouse that over five decades transformed the UK, creating one of the fastest regular rail services in the world. Award-winning journalist Christian Wolmar takes us from promise to punchline, exploring British Rail's birth into post-war austerity, the many battles and struggles to evolve what many considered to be a dinosaur, and how, at the height of its success, the service was misunderstood and unfairly maligned, ruthlessly broken up and privatised._______ Praise for Christian Wolmar 'Wolmar is the high priest of railway studies' Literary Review 'The greatest expert on British trains' Guardian 'Our most eminent transport journalist' Spectator 'If the world's railways have a laureate, it is surely Christian Wolmar' Boston Globe 'Christian Wolmar is in love with the railways. He writes constantly and passionately about them. He is their wisest, most detailed historian and a constant prophet of their rebirth . . . if you love the hum of the wheels and of history, then Christian Wolmar is your man' Observer
Download or read book Tracing Your Railway Ancestors written by Di Drummond and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Di Drummond's concise and informative guide to Britain's railways will be absorbing reading for anyone who wants to learn about the history of the industry and for family history researchers who want to find out about the careers of their railway ancestors. In a clear and accessible way she guides readers through the social, technical and economic aspects of the story. She describes in vivid detail the rapid growth, maturity and long decline of the railways from the earliest days in the late-eighteenth century to privatization in the 1990s. In the process she covers the themes and issues that family historians, local historians and railway enthusiasts will need to understand in order to pursue their research. A sequence of short, fact-filled chapters gives an all-round view of the development of the railwaysIn addition to tracing the birth and growth of the original railway companies, she portrays the types of work that railwaymen did and pays particular attention to the railway world in which they spent their working lives. The tasks they undertook, the special skills they had to learn, the conditions they worked in, the organization and hierarchy of the railway companies, and the make-up of railway unions - all these elements in the history of the railways are covered. She also introduces the reader to the variety of records that are available for genealogical research - staff records and registers, publications, census returns, biographies and autobiographies, and the rest of the extensive literature devoted to the railway industry.
Download or read book The Development of Corporate Governance in Japan and Britain written by Etsuo Abe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The topic of 'corporate governance' attracts the interest of commentators, policy makers and academics due to its focus on major differences between national business systems and their performance. Yet many works engage in generalizations, and fail to appreciate the realities and circumstances of its long-term evolution. Comparative study is used in this book to analyse national, legal, cultural and industry-specific contexts and the broad range of key factors contributing to the emergence of business institutions. Historical insight into the origins of corporate governance systems and the impact of institutional legacy is used to unravel development pathways in Japan and Britain. The book is the result of genuine international cooperation between established Japanese and British business historians and management academics.
Download or read book Government the Railways and the Modernization of Britain written by Charles Loft and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work explains the background to, and politics behind, the infamous Beeching Report, which recommended the closure of a third of Britain's railways.
Download or read book The Privatisation of British Rail written by Sean McCartney and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-23 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The privatisation of the British railway industry was a unique political and economic event. An integrated industry was broken-up into numerous component parts and sold off to private sector interests. The result was a highly fragmented industry that was structurally unsound and operationally dysfunctional. This authoritative volume presents an enlightening portrait of an industry that is less efficient, more costly and still more dependent on state subsidy today than its nationalised predecessor. The nine chapters in this work present a comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of how and why the industry has become so dysfunctional and costly, supported by detailed financial analysis and industry examples. Seven chapters comprise a series of peer-reviewed academic papers by Professor McCartney and Dr Stittle and published in leading international journals over the period 2004–2017 which analyse selected key segments of the privatised industry: where appropriate, updates are provided at the end of these chapters outlining developments since initial publication relevant to the analysis therein. Two chapters are published here for the first time: Chapter 7 reviews the performance of the freight sector, while Chapter 1 ‘bookends’ the volume by providing first, an account of how rail privatisation was conceived and implemented in the 1980s/90s, and then reviews the impact of the pandemic and the proposals of the Williams-Shapps White Paper of 2021 which, if enacted, will effectively end the Major government’s experiment. Going far beyond the usual superficial analysis of the topic, this volume will be of significant interest to researchers and advanced students of accounting, economics, business history, transport studies, as well as industry and specialised business interests in transport and privatisation.
Download or read book Commuter City written by David Wragg and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-09-19 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the eve of the railway age, London was the worlds largest and most populous city and one of the most congested. Traffic-clogged roads and tightly packed buildings meant that travel across the city was tortuous, time-consuming and unpleasant. Then came the railways. They transformed the city and set it on a course of extraordinary development that created the metropolis of the present day. This is story that David Wragg explores in his fascinating new book. He considers the impact of the railways on London and the Home Counties and analyzes the decisions taken by the railway companies, Parliament and local government. He also describes the disruptive effect of the railways which could not be built without massive upheaval. His study of the railway phenomenon will be thought-provoking reading for anyone who is keen to understand the citys expansion and the layout of the capital today.
Download or read book The LMS Handbook written by David Wragg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2016-07-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The London Midland & Scottish Railway was the largest of the Big Four railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping. It was the only one to operate in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as having two short stretches of line in the Irish Republic. It was also the world's largest railway shipping operator and owned the greatest number of railway hotels. Mainly a freight railway, it still boasted the best carriages, and the work of chief engineer Sir William Stanier influenced the first locomotive and carriage designs for the nationalised British railways. Packed with facts and figures as well as historical narrative, this extensively illustrated book is a superb reference source that will be of interest to all railway enthusiasts.
Download or read book A Historical Dictionary of Railways in the British Isles written by David Wragg and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Railways played a key role in Britain's social, economic and industrial history. These companies have long since gone, but all over the country relics remain to remind us of that pioneering age. David Wragg's Historical Dictionary of Railways in the British Isles is a comprehensive, single-volume reference guide to the old railway companies and their heritage. He provides brief histories of the companies and their many-sided activities, and he gives biographies of the men who created the rail network. He covers what is now the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. His book is essential reading and reference for enthusiasts of every region and period of railway history.
Download or read book Britain s 100 Best Railway Stations written by Simon Jenkins and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect new gift from the bestselling author of Britain's 1000 Best Churches It is the scene for our hopeful beginnings and our intended ends, and the timeless experiences of coming and going, meeting, greeting and parting. It is an institution with its own rituals and priests, and a long-neglected aspect of Britain's architecture. And yet so little do we look at the railway station. Simon Jenkins has travelled the length and breadth of Great Britain, from Waterloo to Wemyss Bay, Betws-y-Coed to Beverley, to select his hundred best. Blending his usual insight and authority with his personal reflections and experiences - including his founding the Railway Heritage Trust - the foremost expert on our national heritage deftly reveals the history, geography, design and significance of each of these glories. Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs throughout, this joyous exploration of our social history shows the station's role in the national imagination; champions the engineers, architects and rival companies that made them possible; and tells the story behind the triumphs and follies of these very British creations. These are the marvellous, often undersung places that link our nation, celebrated like never before.
Download or read book British Rail written by Tanya Jackson and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Rail was a success. British Rail is a contentious company, as controversial as Dr Beeching and his axe. However, this examination of BR's passenger services shows just how vital the organisation was. It successfully carried millions of commuters to and from their jobs every day; organised its trunk route services to yield a profit under the brand name 'Inter-City'; and pioneered world-beating research and technological development through its own research centre and engineering subsidiary. It transformed the railway system of Britain from a post-Second World War state of collapse into a modern, technologically advanced railway. And it did all this despite being starved of cash and being subjected to the whims of ever-fickle politicians. British Rail: The Nation's Railway is a story, expertly weaved by Tanya Jackson, of how all this was achieved against the odds. Complemented by stunning black-and-white and colour images, this is certainly a volume that no rail enthusiast should be without.
Download or read book Great British Plans written by Ian Wray and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the British plan? Sometimes it seems unlikely. Across the world we see grand designs and visionary projects: new airport terminals, nuclear power stations, high-speed railways, and glittering buildings. It all seems an unattainable goal on Britain’s small and crowded island; and yet perhaps this is too pessimistic. For the British have always planned, and much of what they have today is the result of past plans, successfully implemented. Ranging widely, from London’s squares and the new city of Milton Keynes, to ‘High Speed One’, the motorways, and the secret first electronic computers, Ian Wray’s remarkable book puts successful infrastructure plans under the microscope. Who made these plans and what made them stick? How does this reflect the defining characteristics of British government? And what does that say about the individuals who drew them up and saw them through? In so doing the book casts refreshing new light on how big decisions have actually been made, revealing the hidden sources of drive and initiative in British society, as seen through the lens of ‘plans past’. And it asks some searching questions about the mechanisms we might need for successful ‘plans future’, in Britain and elsewhere. Includes foreword by the Right Honourable the Lord Heseltine CH.
Download or read book Fire and Steam written by Christian Wolmar and published by Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2008-05-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, Fire and Steam tells the dramatic story of the people and events that shaped the world's first railway network, one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. The opening of the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of the railways' vital role in changing the face of Britain. Fire and Steam celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious Victorian pioneers who developed this revolutionary transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a country-wide network to emerge. The rise of the steam train allowed goods and people to circulate around Britain as never before, stimulating the growth of towns and industry, as well many of the facets of modern life, from fish and chips to professional football. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the railways' magnificent contribution in two world wars, the checkered history of British Rail, and the buoyant future of the train, Fire and Steam examines the social and economical importance of the railway and how it helped to form the Britain of today.
Download or read book The LNER Handbook written by David Wragg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for its express locomotive Mallard setting a world speed record (126mph) for steam locomotives that endures to this day, the London & North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the 'Big Four' railway companies to emerge from the 1923 grouping and also the most diverse, with its prestigious high-speed trains from King's Cross balanced by an intensive suburban and commuter service from Liverpool Street and a high dependence on freight. Noted for its cautious board and thrifty management, the LNER gained a reputation for being poor but honest. Forming part of a series, along with The GWR Handbook, The LMS Handbook and The Southern Railway Handbook, this new edition provides an authoritative and highly detailed reference of information about the LNER.
Download or read book Britain s Railways 1997 2005 written by Terence Richard Gourvish and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain's leading railway historian provides a critical examination of the Blair governments' involvement in the rail industry from 1997 as they attempted to deal with the UK's fragmented, privatized railways. The book focuses particularly on the work of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), and considers the role of individuals --John Prescott, Stephen Byers, Alistair Darling, Sir Alastair Morton, and Richard Bowker--and events--the Hatfield accident (2000), the demise of Railtrack (2001-2), and the funding crisis of 2003-4--in the shaping of emerging policy. The book was commissioned by the SRA, and written with access to government files. Dr. Gourvish argues that the establishment of the SRA as a Non-Departmental Public Board proved largely unsuccessful. It produced tensions with the industry's existing institutions--Railtrack/Network Rail, the operating companies and the economic regulator. There were some gains from the experiment, notably the rescue of the West Coast Main Line project. However, it remains to be seen whether by winding up the SRA and taking responsibility for strategy and funding back into its own hands the Department for Transport has resolved the problem of managing a fragmented industry. This important book is essential reading for those concerned with, and interested in, railway policy, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
