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Transport Act 1947

 

 
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Under the Transport Act 1947 the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission

The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour Party government as a part of its Nationalization programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain ....
 for operation. The commission was responsible to the Ministry of Transport
Department for Transport

In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the Departments of the United Kingdom Government responsible for the English transport network and transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved....
 for general transport policy, which it exercised principally through financial control of a number of executives set up to manage specified sections of the industry under schemes of delegation.

Act was part of the nationalisation
Nationalization

Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state....
 agenda of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Fellow of the Royal Society was a British people politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955....
's Labour
Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Left-wing politics in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently organised again....
 government, and took effect from 1 January 1948.






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Under the Transport Act 1947 the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission

The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour Party government as a part of its Nationalization programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain ....
 for operation. The commission was responsible to the Ministry of Transport
Department for Transport

In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the Departments of the United Kingdom Government responsible for the English transport network and transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved....
 for general transport policy, which it exercised principally through financial control of a number of executives set up to manage specified sections of the industry under schemes of delegation.

Overview

The Act was part of the nationalisation
Nationalization

Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state....
 agenda of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Fellow of the Royal Society was a British people politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955....
's Labour
Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Left-wing politics in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently organised again....
 government, and took effect from 1 January 1948. In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland

conventional_long_name = Northern Ireland|native_name= Tuaisceart ?ireannNorlin Airlann|motto =|image_map = Europe location N-IRL2.png...
, the Ulster Transport Authority
Ulster Transport Authority

The Ulster Transport Authority ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966.The UTA was formed by the 1948 Transport Act , which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board and the Belfast and County Down Railway ....
 acted in a similar manner. The government also nationalised other means of transport such as canals, sea and shipping ports, bus companies, and eventually amidst much opposition, road haulage. All of these transport modes including British Railways were brought under the control of a body called the British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission

The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour Party government as a part of its Nationalization programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain ....
 (BTC).

The BTC was a part of a highly ambitious scheme to create a publicly owned, centrally planned, integrated transport system. In theory the BTC was to coordinate different modes of transport, to co-operate and supplement each other instead of competing. This was to be achieved by means of fare and rate adjustments.

Road transport

The road haulage industry bitterly opposed nationalisation, and they found allies in the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
. Once the Conservatives were elected in 1951 road haulage was soon de-nationalised and de-regulated, but the still heavily regulated railways and buses were left under the control of the BTC.

Railways

After the war the Big Four
Big Four British railway companies

The Big Four was a name used to describe the four largest Rail transport companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923-1947. The name was coined by the Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era"....
 railway companies of the grouping era were effectively bankrupt, and the Act was intended to bring about some stability in transport policy. As part of that policy British Railways
British Rail

British Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the Rail transport in Great Britain from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until Privatisation of British Rail in stages from 1994 to 1997....
 was set up to run the railways.

Shares in the railway companies were exchanged for British Transport Stock
Gilts

Gilts are government bond issued by the governments of the United Kingdom, South Africa, or Ireland. The term is of British origin, and refers to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England, which had a gilt edge....
, with a guaranteed 3% return chargeable to the BTC . The government had based the levels of compensation for former railway shareholders, on the peppercorn valuation of the railway companies in 1946, a time when the railways were in a dilapidated state because of war damage and minimal maintenance.

See list of constituents of British Railways
List of constituents of British Railways

The following is a list of constituents of British Railways. British Railways was formed by nationalisation on 1 January 1948 in accordance with the Transport Act 1947....
.

Despite nationalisation and the creation British Railways (BR), the rail system changed little, and was left in much the same way as it had been before nationalisation. BR was divided into six administrative regions:

  • Eastern Region of British Railways
    Eastern Region of British Railways

    The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992....
  • London Midland Region of British Railways
    London Midland Region of British Railways

    For the modern day train operating company see London MidlandThe London Midland Region was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England and Wales....
  • North Eastern Region of British Railways
    North Eastern Region of British Railways

    The North Eastern Region was a region of British Rail from 1948. It was merged with the Eastern Region of British Railways in 1967....
  • Scottish Region of British Railways
    Scottish Region of British Railways

    The Scottish Region was one of the six regions created on British Railways and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway and ex-London and North Eastern Railway lines in Scotland....
  • Southern Region of British Railways
    Southern Region of British Railways

    The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992....
  • Western Region of British Railways
    Western Region of British Railways

    The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992....


These closely mirrored the regions covered by the former companies in England and Wales, although with the addition of a separate Scottish Region. At first there was a separate North Eastern Region, although this was eventually amalgamated with the Eastern Region, reflecting the English operations of the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway

The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four British railway companies" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain....
.

Transport Act 1962


Fifteen years later, under the Transport Act 1962
Transport Act 1962

Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", the Transport Act 1962 was passed by Harold Macmillan's Conservative Party government to dissolve the British Transport Commission , which had been established by Clement Attlee's Labour Pa...
, Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, Order of Merit, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council was a British Conservative Party politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
 government dissolved the British Transport Commission, and created the British Railways Board
British Railways Board

The British Railways Board was a nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that existed from 1962 to 2001. From its foundation until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in Great Britain, trading under the brand names British Railways and, from 1965, British Rail....
 to take over its railway duties from 1 January 1963 and the Transport Holding Company
Transport Holding Company

The Transport Holding Company was a British Government owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission ; it came into existence on 1 January, 1963....
 to take over its bus operations from the same date.