Railways Act 1993

The Transport Act 1993 was in 1993 under the conservative British Prime Minister John Major Resulting law to complete privatization of the railways .

Origin of the law

After the surprising victory of the Conservative Party in the general election in 1992 , there was driven as hastily Transport Act 1993 privatization of British Railways . With the law coming into force on April 1, 1994, British Rail was divided into over 100 different companies. There were some regulatory mechanisms: contracts for the use of the railway infrastructure had to be approved by the Office of Rail Regulation . The individual routes were combined into regional groups and advertised as concessions for which private companies could apply. Operating companies such as Virgin Trains or Connex South Eastern emerged. In many cases, bus companies such as the Stagecoach Group or the National Express Group also made use of this option. In order to continue to guarantee a uniform tariff system, the marketing company National Rail was established . The entire rail infrastructure ( tracks , signals , tunnels , bridges , level crossings ) and some train stations were taken over by the private company Railtrack .

Consequences of privatization

In 1997 the privatization process was completed. In the following years there was an increase in the number of passengers carried , the maintenance of the facilities was neglected for reasons of cost. The British railways endangered their reputation due to numerous breakdowns and fatal accidents .

The Transport Act 2000 then led to the fact that the British Railways Board , founded with the Transport Act 1962 , which had already been stripped of a large part of its tasks with the privatization, was finally dissolved.

After the 1997 Southall railway accident, the Ladbroke Grove railway accident on October 5, 1999, with 31 deaths and 296 injuries, was the second serious railway accident to occur on the Great Western Main Line , just a few kilometers east of the first accident site. Both railway accidents made a significant contribution to shaking public confidence in the privatization of the railway. But it was the railway accident at Hatfield on 17 October 2000 with four dead and 70 injured then led to the collapse of the rail infrastructure company Railtrack plc., Which on 7 October 2001 by the Transport Minister Stephen Byers under receivership was created and written on 18 October 2002. On that day, under the pressure of events , the shareholders decided to voluntarily dissolve the company. The rail infrastructure was sold to the newly formed, not-for-profit Network Rail for £ 500 million .

State subsidies fell in the first few years of privatization, but rose again around 2002 as a result of increased transport demand.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Railways Act 1993 - The Railways Archive
2. ^ Theo Stolz: The British Railways now need more subsidies than they did in the State Railways era . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 3/2004, ISSN  1421-2811 , pp. 130-132.