British Railways

1. British Railways or Britrail, former national railway system of Great Britain, was created by the Transport Act of 1947.

2. The first railway built in Great Britain was the Stockton and Darlington, opened in 1825.

3. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson and was practical only for hauling minerals.

4. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, was the first modern railway that carried both passengers and freight.

5. When World War II began in 1939, Britain’s railways were placed under government control.

6. The Transport Act of 1947 nationalized the railways, which were taken over by the British Transport Commission (BTC) in 1948 and given the name British Railways.

7. The BTC divided Britain’s rail network into six (later five) regions on a geographic basis.

8. A 1962 law replaced the BTC with the British Railways Board in 1963.

9. As part of a modernization program, steam locomotives began to be replaced by diesels in the 1950s, and this was followed in the 1960s by electrification.

10. The board undertook track reconstruction, installed long, continuously welded rails, and introduced new signaling systems.

11. A computerized freight service was introduced in 1975.

12. Track improvements and the High Speed Train (InterCity 125), a diesel train operating at speeds up to 125 miles per hour (200 km per hour), cut travel time between Britain’s major cities.

13. The British government restructured British Rail in 1993.

14. A new state-owned company, Railtrack, was created in 1994 to own and manage the system’s track, signals, land, and stations.

15. Its business was assumed by Network Rail, Ltd., a private company, in 2002.

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