South Eastern and Chatham Railway
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway ( SE&CR ) was a British railway company that existed from 1899 to 1922. It was a joint operating company of the South Eastern Railway (SER) and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR). The length of the route network in the south-east of England was 1,026 km in the last year of operation.
history
During the 19th century, the SER and the LC&DR had fierce competition. As a result, several parallel and bypass routes were built in the county of Kent and many towns still have two train stations today. The ruinous rivalry ended in 1894 after the resignation of Edward Watkin , longtime director of the SER. Both companies recognized the rationalization potential that could be achieved with close cooperation.
On January 1, 1899, SE&CR was founded, in which directors from both companies were represented. From a technical and operational point of view, the SER and the LC&DR were a unit, but remained legally and financially independent in order to avoid the duties such as capital gains tax or stamp tax that would arise if they were completely combined. 59% of the income went to the SER, 41% to the LC&DR.
The SE&CR built numerous connections to unite the two mostly separate route networks. New offers have been introduced in order to benefit from the advantages of a joint operation. In addition, SE&CR built three short branch lines in 1901 and 1902, but two of them have now been closed.
After the end of the First World War , SE&CR planned to electrify the suburban routes south-east of London . The plans could not be implemented as planned, as the SE&CR went into effect on January 1, 1923 with the coming into force of the Railways Act 1921 in the Southern Railway and the successor company decided on a different power system.
See also
literature
- CF Dendy Marshall: History of the Southern Railway. New edition. Ian Allan, London 1968, ISBN 0-7110-0059-X .
