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Author: Terence Richard Gourvish Publisher: ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
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.
Author: Terence Richard Gourvish Publisher: ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
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.
Author: Christian Wolmar Publisher: Penguin UK ISBN: 0241456215 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
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
Author: Sean McCartney Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000880966 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
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.
Author: T. R. Gourvish Publisher: ISBN: 9780191696701 Category : Railroads Languages : en Pages : 309
Book Description
Britain's leading railway historian provides a critical examination of the Blair governments' involvement in the rail industry from 1997 as they tried to deal with the UK's fragmented, privatized railways.
Author: Di Drummond Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1844686701 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 177
Book Description
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.
Author: Charles Loft Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135773661 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
This work explains the background to, and politics behind, the infamous Beeching Report, which recommended the closure of a third of Britain's railways.
Author: Colin Divall Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317131851 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 473
Book Description
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.
Author: David Parker Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136331239 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 674
Book Description
This is Volume II of Professor Parker's authoritative Official History of Privatisation, covering the period from the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in 1987 to the election of Tony Blair in 1997. Volume II considers in detail several of the major privatisations, including those of airports, steel, water, electricity, coal and the railways, as well as a number of smaller ones. Each privatisation involved major challenges in terms of industrial restructuring, organising successful sales and, in a number of cases, establishing effective regulatory regimes. The policy evolved and new methods of selling and regulating were put in place that enabled further disposals to occur. Monolithic nationalised industries with their emphasis on the benefits of economies of scale, vertical integration and rationalisation, were replaced by industrial structures rooted in the importance of commercial management, risk taking and competition. In government departments and parts of the National Health Service, direct employees were replaced by private contractors, and private investment became a characteristic of public infrastructure in the form of PFI/PPP schemes. This study draws heavily on the official records of the British government, to which the author was given full access and on interviews with the leading figures involved in each of the privatisations, including ex-ministers, civil servants, business and City figures, as well as academics that have studied the subject. This book will of great interest to students of privatisation, British political history and of business and economics in general.
Author: Tom Haines-Doran Publisher: Manchester University Press ISBN: 1526164043 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 186
Book Description
Why don't trains run on time? Why are fares so expensive? Why are there so many strikes? Few would disagree that Britain's railways are broken, and have been for a long time. This insightful new book calls for a radical rethink of how we view the railways, and explains the problems we face and how to fix them. Haines-Doran argues that the railways should be seen as a social good and an indispensable feature of the national economy. With passengers and railway workers holding governments to account, we could then move past the incessant debates on whether our railways are an unavoidably loss-making business failure. An alternative vision is both possible and affordable, enabling the railways to play an instrumental role in decreasing social inequalities, strengthening the economy and supporting a transition to a sustainable future. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9, Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Author: Matthias Finger Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN: 1789901782 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 416
Book Description
Taking a global approach, this insightful Handbook brings together leading researchers to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in railway regulation with a particular focus on countries that rely heavily on railways for transportation links. The Handbook also considers the most pressing issues for those working in and with railway systems, and outlines future trends in the development of rail globally.
Author: Terence Richard Gourvish
Author: Terence Richard Gourvish
Author: Christian Wolmar
Author: Sean McCartney
Author: T. R. Gourvish
Author: Di Drummond
Author: Charles Loft
Author: Colin Divall
Author: David Parker
Author: Tom Haines-Doran
Author: Matthias Finger