Make a list of points to do with the topic.

3. Answer the following questions:

1. Do you know that unattended luggage can be removed?

2. Is there light train in Moscow?

3. Can you guess what kind of doors slide along and then pull inwards towards the coach to close?

4. Do you prefer forward facing seats or take a seat with your back to the engine?

5. Do you usually get on the line for tickets or jump the queue?

6. Speak about advantages and disadvantages of travelling by train.

 

Text 7.                    BRITISH RAIL

British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system from the nationalization of the "Big Four" British Railway companies in 1948 until its privatization in stages between 1994 and 1997.

This period saw massive changes in the nature of the railway network: steam traction was eliminated in favour of diesel and electric power, passengers replaced freight as the main source of business, and the network was severely rationalised.

The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century. After the grouping of 1923 by the Railways Act 1921 there were four large British railway companies, each dominating its own geographic area. These were The Great Western Railway (GWR), The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR).

The London Underground and the Glasgow Subway were independent concerns and there were a small number of independent light railways and industrial railways, which did not contribute significant mileage to the system. Neither were non-railway- owned tramways considered part of the system.

During the Second World War the railways were taken into state control. They were heavily damaged by enemy action and were run down aiding the war effort.

The Transport Act 1947 made provision for the nationalization of the network, as part of a policy of nationalizing public services by Clement Attlee's Labour Government. British Railways came into existence on 1 January 1948 with the merger of the Big Four, under the control of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission.

The new system was split geographically into six regions along the lines of the Big Four.

-Eastern Region (ER)

-North Eastern Region (NER)

-London Midland Region (LMR)

-Scottish Region

-Southern Region

-Western Region

These regions would form the basis of the BR business structure until the 1980s.

After the Second World War, Britain's railways fell behind others in the world. Countries like Japan, USA and France were experimenting with new diesels and electrics. Britain wasn't, and the run down network deteriorated even more because of painfully slow rebuilding. Finally came the modernization plan for Britain's railways. It cost the government much more than it should have, because of bad timing.

The 1955 Modernisation Plan, detailed in the British Transport Commission's (BTC) Modernisation and Re-equipment of British Railways, argued for spending one million two hundred forty million pounds over a period of 15 years. Services were to be made more attractive to passengers and freight operators, thus recovering traffic which was being lost to the roads. There were three important areas:

- Electrification of principal routes

- Large- scale introduction of diesel and electric traction with new coaching stock to replace steam locomotives

 - Resignalling and track renewal

However, the Modernisation Plan failed to take into account the effect that mass road transport would have upon traditional role of the railways, and as a result much money was wasted by heavy investment in things like marshalling yards, at a time when small wagon- load traffic was in rapid decline. The failure of the Modernisation Plan led to a distrust of British Rail's financial planning abilities by the Treasury which was to dog BR for the rest of its existence.

In 1960s also saw the "Great Locomotive Cull", with mass withdrawals of steam types, and their replacement with diesels, fewer of which were needed on the shrinking system.

From 1958 to 1974 the West Coast Main Line was electrified in stages at the French voltage of 25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead line electrification. Many commuter lines around London and Glasgow were also electrified. However electrification never reached system-wide level as on many other European railways.

Steam traction on British Railways ended in August 1968 after the system was rebranded British Rail. This introduced the double-arrow logo, still used by National Rail to represent the industry as a whole (though some cynics claimed the logo meant the railway "didn't know if it was coming or going"); the standardized typeface used for all communications and signs; and the rail blue livery which applied to nearly all locomotives and rolling stock.

In 1973 the system for classifying motives was introduced, and is the basis of the classification system. Also during this time, yellow warning panels, characteristic of British railways, were added to the front of diesel and electric locomotives in order to increase the safety of track workers.

In the 1980s the regions of BR were abolished and the system was sectorised into five sectors. The passenger sectors were InterCity (express services), Network SouthEast (London commuter services) and Regional railways (regional services). The maintenance and remaining engineering works were split off into a new company, BRML (British Rail Maintenance Limited).

Under John Major's Conservative Government's Railways Act 1993 British Rail was split up and privatized. This was a continuation of the policy of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government's privatization of publicly- owned services.

BR was privatized within the business structure that was in place. Passenger services within the business structure that was in each sector were franchised out to private companies, mostly by bus operators. National Rail was created to organize ticketing.

Privatization has had mixed results. Passenger growth has been stimulated, but this had been at extra cost to the taxpayer and passengers, who have seen steady fare increases since 1997. Freight has also been increased.

Railtrack's management proved to be incompetent and the Labour government refused to continue to subsidise the losses of shareholders. It went insolvent, was put in receivership and was placed by a not-for-profit publicly owned Network Rail. Some saw this as the first step towards renationalisation.

There has been some controversy over the decision to withhold subsidies from Railtrack, which forced it to become insolvent. Recent press reports have indicated that the then transport minister Stephen Byers deliberately forced the company to become insolvent, as this would remove any obligation on the government to provide compensation to Rail tracks' shareholders, who would lose their investment.

Up to the current moment, the BR network, with the trunk routes of the West Coast Main Line, East Coast Main Line, Great Western Main Line and Midland Main Line, remains unchanged.

The business structure is still of paramount importance as the tradition of travelling by train still remains one of the most popular today.

 

WHAT TO DO: