Government The Railways And The Modernization Of Britain

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 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 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 40 years after its publication, the 1963 Beeching Report on British railways remains controversial for recommending the closure of a third of Britain’s railways. In this book, Charles Loft examines: why the nationalized railways were in such dire financial straits by 1963 how government work on future transport needs led to conclusions which would have cut Britain’s railways down by thousands of miles what difficulties eventually halted attempts by Conservative and Labour governments to implement these cuts. This book will be invaluable to anyone interested in how transport policy is made or how it has arrived at its current state and sheds fascinating new light on the working of government, the economy and the mood of the times under Churchill, Eden, Macmillan and Wilson.

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 A U-Turn to the Future written by Martin Emanuel and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From local bike-sharing initiatives to overhauls of transport infrastructure, mobility is one of the most important areas in which modern cities are trying to realize a more sustainable future. Yet even as politicians and planners look ahead, there remain critical insights to be gleaned from the history of urban mobility and the unsustainable practices that still impact our everyday lives. United by their pursuit of a “usable past,” the studies in this interdisciplinary collection consider the ecological, social, and economic aspects of urban mobility, showing how historical inquiry can make both conceptual and practical contributions to the projects of sustainability and urban renewal.

Download or read book Transport Policy: Learning Lessons from History written by Colin Divall and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The key aim of this volume is to demonstrate ways in which an understanding of history can be used to inform present-day transport and mobility policies. This is not to say that history repeats itself, or that every contemporary transport dilemma has an historical counterpart: rather, the contributors to this book argue that in many contexts of transport planning a better understanding of the context and consequences of past decisions and processes could lead to more effective policy decisions. Collectively the authors explore the ways in which the methods and approaches of historical research may be applied to contemporary transport and policy issues across a wide range of transport modes and contexts. By linking two bodies of academic research that for the most part remain separate this volume helps to inform current transport and mobility policies and to stimulate innovative new research that links studies of both past and present mobilities.

Download or read book Alfred Raworth's Electric Southern Railway written by Peter Steer and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 703 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Southern Railway between 1923 and 1939 was the only British company to carry out a sustained programme of electrification which became known as the Southern Electric. Unlike many recent projects, each incremental step was completed on time and within budget. This successful project was more impressive as it was achieved during a period of economic stagnation (including the ‘great depression’) and despite government disapproval of the method of electrification. The driving force behind this endeavor was the railway’s general manager, Sir Herbert Walker, but at his side was his electrical engineer, Alfred Raworth, the man one journalist described as an ‘electrification genius’. Alfred Raworth’s career began working with his father the eminent consulting engineer and entrepreneur, John Smith Raworth. Following the collapse of his father’s business Alfred joined the railway industry and devised an ambitious and innovative electrification design. This was discarded when the railways of southern England were ‘grouped’ into the Southern Railway after which he took responsibility for the implementation of the electrification schemes. With Walker’s retirement in 1937, those who continued to support steam traction took the policy lead. A marginalised Raworth retired but was later to witness the fruition of many of his discarded ideas.

Download or read book Last Trains written by Charles Loft and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The debate about Dr Richard Beeching will rage until the Second Coming – and probably beyond. But in Charles Loft's careful examination of the Beeching Report, we have as fine a study as we are going to possess in the meantime." – Peter Hennessy "Loft's great strength is his judiciousness. He understands the political processes and assesses them fair-mindedly. And his verdict will, I suspect, hold up better than any of Beeching's judgements." – Matthew Engel, Financial Times "Prepare to be impressed, shocked and saddened ... This is undoubtedly one of the best books of the year – a riveting read." – Railways Illustrated "Lucid, to the point, thought-provoking at every turn, Last Trains is a volume that everyone should read before making judgements about the rail closures of the Sixties." – Heritage Railway "Thoughtful and well-researched analysis." – Edinburgh Evening News *** During the course of the 1950s England lost confidence in its rulers and convinced itself it must modernise. The failing steam-powered local railways, run by Colonel Blimp, symbolised everything that was wrong with the country – surely the future lay in motorways and high-speed express trains? Along came Dr Beeching with his diagnosis, and suddenly branch-line Britain was gone for ever. The debate about the Beeching cuts has raged ever since. In this superbly researched examination, Charles Loft exposes the political failures that bankrupted the railways and lays bare the increasing alienation of bureaucrats from the public they were trying to serve. The result is a fascinating study of a nation grappling to come to terms with modernity.