In praise of British Rail

The British Railways Lion over Wheel crest used in the 1950s. The British Railways Lion over Wheel crest used in the 1950s. Credit: Roger Bamber / Alamy Stock Photo

A quarter of a century on, the political party that abolished British Rail seems to be busy recreating it. Back in the 1990s the Conservative Party thought a state-run national railway organisation was anathema. In the words of John Major, BR was “inefficient… hidebound by tradition; and poorly managed.”

In fact, BR was very different from Major’s description. Of course, it was by no means perfect, and it had suffered from considerable under-investment during most of its 50-year existence, as Major himself later acknowledged. But to characterise BR in such a dismissive and facile way was wrong. Indeed…