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British Rail: A New History

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With Britain stuck in a seemingly inexorable loop of lockdowns, there was a notion that trains and all who live by them were for the breaker’s yard. Some of the tales are more interesting than others but the infuriating thing is that some of the good ones do not go far enough.

The majority of pages are undamaged with some creasing or tearing, and pencil underlining of text, but this is minimal. The other side of economisation was the launch of new products, such as the InterCity brand, to draw in more passengers. Seller has stated it will dispatch the item within 1 working day upon receipt of cleared payment - opens in a new window or tab .

A signed paperback copy of British Rail: A new history - published by Penguin is Christian Wolmar's latest book and an account of the 50-year history of the organisation, both good and bad. Overuse and underinvestment during the war years, not to mention the depredations of the Luftwaffe, had left the railways in a threadbare state and the Big Four effectively bankrupt. This opened the way for managers like Chris Green who achieved legendary and cult status amongst many rail enthusiasts with his skilful branding and revolutionary approach to revitalising the networks which came under his control.

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. I thought this book would be quite dry and a slog to read but this turned out to not be the case at all. Your details will only be used by the Museum and suppliers working on our behalf and you can unsubscribe at any time.It goes a long way to dispel the popular image of British Rail in politics and the media as a bloated state run agency, providing poor service and value for money. Decisions both good and bad have influenced operations, pressure from both political parties and lobbying groups have steered it in odd directions and public perception has constantly shifted. The HST, also known as the Inter-City 125, offered new levels of speed and comfort for passengers, but most continental rail operators had by then electrified their lines, meaning that its export potential was minimal. His books include The Great British Railway Disaster (1997), Stagecoach (1999), Down the Tube (2002), The Subterranean Railway (2004), Broken Rails (2001, updated 2005), On the Wrong Line (2005), Fire and Steam (2009), Blood, Iron and Gold (2009), Engines of War (2010), The Great Railway Revolution (2013), and Railways and The Raj (2017). Wolmar reminds us that this was merely the peak of a continuous retrenchment drive, which saw successive rounds of station and branch-line closures, staffing reductions and sales of assets, including the fifty-four hotels, the multi-million-pound wine cellar and the handful of golf courses BR had inherited from the Big Four.

On the one hand Beeching can be credited with leaving a railway that had shed much of what hobbled it, on the other the excess of closures hacked off and abandoned many vital limbs. British Rail was the last big state run company to be privatised and as the author states Mrs Thatcher was reluctant to be responsible as she knew that most people had a strong attachment to it. Colin Maggs is one of the country's foremost transport and engineering historians and has written over one hundred books as well as innumerable magazine articles. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. The thing that should worry those who use Britain’s trains is that none of these figures actually represent the railways.And I would have liked to have seen more detail, for example, of the seating, food provided in the dining cars and suchlike. But through its 50-year lifetime, British Rail transformed our transport system, and for a time provided one of the fastest regular rail services in the world. Similarly, the London-centric management never properly handled what was dismissively referred to as the 'Provincial' region. Excellent book providing a comprehensive, fairly high-level but fascinating and compelling account of BR’s history.

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