page_title: History of rail transport in Great Britain
hierarchical_section_title: History of rail transport in Great Britain
caption_attribution_description: English: GBR rail passengers by year 1830-2016. Image produced by myself in Microsoft Excel, adding new information onto an earlier chart produced by Tompw and correcting a minor typo in the dataset (for 1846). The data comes from: ATOC's 2008 publication Billion Passenger Railway for 1830 to 2001 The UK Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), specifically Passenger journeys by sector - table for 2002-15 and [http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/23376/passenger-rail-usage-2016-17-q2.pdf Passenger Rail Usage 2016-17 Q2 Statistical Release] for 2015/16 and 2016/17 Q1 &amp; Q2. The plotted data is the sum of the "Total franchised passenger journeys" and "Non franchised" columns. From 1984 onwards, the point plotted at a given year is actually the last three quarters of the year given and the first quarter of the year afterwards. So, the point at "1985" is the year from April 1985 to March 1986.
context_page_description: The railway system of Great Britain started with the building of local isolated wooden wagonways starting in the 1560s. A patchwork of local rail links operated by small private railway companies developed in the late 18th century. These isolated links expanded during the railway boom of the 1840s into a national network, although still run by dozens of competing companies. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained. The entire network was brought under government control during the First World War and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were demonstrated. However, the government resisted calls for the nationalisation of the network. In 1923, almost all the remaining companies were grouped into the "Big Four": the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. The "Big Four" were joint-stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until 31 December 1947.
  From the start of 1948, the "Big Four" were nationalised to form British Railways.
context_section_description: The railway system of Great Britain started with the building of local isolated wooden wagonways starting in the 1560s. A patchwork of local rail links operated by small private railway companies developed in the late 18th century. These isolated links expanded during the railway boom of the 1840s into a national network, although still run by dozens of competing companies. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained (see railway mania). The entire network was brought under government control during the First World War and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were demonstrated. However, the government resisted calls for the nationalisation of the network. In 1923, almost all the remaining companies were grouped into the "Big Four": the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. The "Big Four" were joint-stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until 31 December 1947.
  From the start of 1948, the "Big Four" were nationalised to form British Railways. Though there were few initial changes to the service, usage increased and the network became profitable. Declining passenger numbers and financial losses in the late 1950s and early 1960s prompted the closure of many branch and main lines, and small stations, under the Beeching Axe. High-speed inter-city trains were introduced in the 1970s. The 1980s saw severe cuts in rail subsidies and above-inflation increases in fares and losses decreased. Railway operations were privatised during 1994–1997. Ownership of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack, whilst passenger operations were franchised to individual private sector operators (originally there were 25 franchises) and the freight services sold outright. Since privatisation, passenger volumes have increased to their highest ever level, but whether this is due to privatisation is disputed. The Hatfield accident set in motion the series of events that resulted in the ultimate collapse of Railtrack and its replacement with Network Rail, a state-owned, not-for-dividend company.
caption: Rail Passengers in Great Britain from 1829-2019
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