Railways Act 1921

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Railways Act 1921 (also known as the Grouping Act ) was a law enacted in 1921 by the British government under David Lloyd George . The intention was to contain the ever-increasing losses of the 120 railway companies , to reduce internal competition and to preserve some of the advantages that had come from state control of the railways during and after the First World War . For this purpose, all companies should be merged into four companies.

The British railway network had been built up by dozens of companies, large and small, competing in numerous areas. During the First World War and until 1921, all railways were under state control. Complete nationalization was considered, but then abandoned this concept for the time being. Nationalization was finally accomplished after World War II with the Transport Act 1947 .

When discussing the bill, Parliament decided to divide the Scottish societies, which were originally intended to form an independent group, into the Midland / Northwest and East groups. This was to ensure that the three most important Anglo-Scottish trunk lines are owned by a single company each along their entire length: The West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line should belong to the Midland / Northwest group, the East Coast Main Line to the Eastern group .

The law came into force on January 1, 1923. Individual mergers had already been carried out before that day. The four new companies were known as The Big Four ("the Big Four"). They were:

Individual routes were not part of the Big Four, many were operated together. The largest of these joint ventures were the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (LMS and LNER) in east England and the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (LMS and SR) in south west England.

Web links