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Why "The Grouping" |
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Between 1914 and 1921, the railways had been "temporarily nationalised" in order to facilitate the war effort. It was felt that the railways could not be allowed to return to the state they were in before World War I; the question was, what should be done. The benefits of unified operation had been shown during the war, should the railways be permanently nationalised? It was decided to implement a compromise. The railways would remain in private hands, but instead of the 120 or so companies that existed before the war, only four would operate, with most of the existing railways merging into one of these four (some would be joint ventures, a very few would remain independent). The 1921 Railways Act set out the way British railways would be run for 25 years and thus the "Big Four" came into being, effective 1st January 1923. However, it is interesting to note that it could have been the "Big Six" as the government briefly toyed with the idea of making Scottish Railways as a fifth company and merging the Midland and Great Central railways to form a sixth. This would have at least avoid the LMS being saddled with two bitter rivals (the MR and LNWR), but at the end of the day, it was felt that the Scottish railways would not make a profit by themselves, and so six became four, and the LMS suffered initially because of this. The ultimate aim was to make the railways more efficient and to provide a standard method of charging. It was expected that with intercompany rivalry reduced, surplus routes would be closed down, but ultimately, no significant action was taken in the Grouping Era, and it was left to British Rail to do this. In general, the railways did not fare very well under grouping. Social and economic changes meant that the railways were no longer as vital as they had been in the previous century, and although the railways generally operated more efficiently, their financial performances during grouping were never brilliant. In some respects, the Railways Act actually hampered the railways, especially with regards to charging. The question of the success of the "Big Four" is still strongly debated today, especially since it seems that the British railway situation has reverted to a similar situation to pre-Grouping. The Four Companies
The Great Western Railway (GWR) - The GWR was the only member of the
"Big Four" that existed prior to The Grouping. (abbreviations used throughout this site) |