Hi everybody.
AAAHHH, I see we are into the “what if” stage of the thread.
However, I do not believe there were many “what if” options open to the Labour government of 1945 or the Conservative government of 1950 in relation to Britain’s rail system. Britain’s railways had carried the full burden of the war effort transportation throughout the six years of the Second World War, and although the regional operators were in name private companies such as LMS and GWR throughout the war years they had operated on a national basis under government directive.
When the war ended in 1945, the regional companies where all but bankrupt in line with the whole British economy. Many millions were owed to the rail companies by way of government debt but again in line with other industries, those war debts the companies knew would not be paid for many years, if at all. Therefore the regional rail companies did not fight against nationalisation because the alternative would be having to make wholesale reductions in their infrastructure, if not outright bankruptcy may well have lay in store.
On nationalisation of the railways in 1948 the Labour government tried to protect and support the rail industry by also nationalising the road haulage industry (trucking) as I outlined in my posting at #’8 of this thread. However, the nationalisation of the road transport industry turned out to be an absolute disaster and it was quickly de-nationalised as one of the first acts of the Conservative government elected in 1950.
Britain at that time was in the throes of introducing the National Health Service and also engaged in a massive government funded council house building programme that was replacing the city slums and the many thousands of homes in cities all over the country had been damaged by the wartime air bombing blitz. Food rationing in Britain was also very much still in being and would not fully come to an end until 1954 eight years after the war ended. Therefore, with the government struggling to feed its people, build decent homes for those returning from the war and at the same time improve the health of the nation there was never going to be any money for the railways.
Indeed, in the above there is very strong evidence that the Conservative government of 1950 very much wished to drastically reduce the finance it was giving to the railways for rolling stock and locomotive replacement. A clause was contained within the transport act which de-nationalised the road transport industry which stated that British railways must openly publish all charges and contract prices it negotiated and obtained from its customers. The foregoing meant that road hauliers (truckers) could easily see the prices being charged by British rail to consignees which allowed them to easily undercut those prices and gain the work. It was like taking candy from a baby.
There are other factors which very much added to the decline of the railways not least the decision in 1949 that the main motive power in the industry would remain as steam which was also confirmed again in 1951 by the new Conservative government . The foregoing helped seal the fate of the freight traffic on the railways and in the late 1950s there began the growth of the car as the main personal transport of the population which eventually sealed the fate of its passenger traffic.
Therefore I believe there were no “what if’s” for the railways for the entire period of 1939 until 1963 when Doctor Beeching with his axe very much changed the agenda and set the scene that would eventually lead to the passenger growth and investment we see today in Britain’s railways.
Bill