Line upon line. Main lines. Branch lines. Loop lines. Junction upon junction. Network upon network. Mighty achievement that was an inspiration for the world. Pathé News, ‘Transport’
The transcontinental railway opened up half a billion acres of land and eight new states, using two hundred thousand miles of track. Hewn out of hostile terrain. America: The Story of the US: Superpower, History 2010
Angry passengers from across Britain have sent their own stories to our special website A Journey from Hell. ‘That’s going to cost me £173 exactly’ … ‘I’ve had trouble booking tickets’. A decade and a half on from privatisation we’ve ended up with a rail system part-private part-public that’s leeching billions of pounds from the taxpayer. We’ve got overcrowded trains, while passengers complain of an incomprehensible and rapacious ticketing system. The trains are said to be running on time, but are they really? I’m trying to find out what’s going on. But the train companies don’t seem too keen for me to film on the trains. Dispatches: Train Journeys From Hell, Richard Wilson reporting, Channel 4 2011
The biggest government subsidy too ... the highest in Europe. ibid.
Nationally there has been a 40% increase in passenger numbers in the last decade. But less than a 10% increase in the number of trains. ibid.
‘I’ve paid £4,000 for mine. To stand.’ ibid. woman crouching in luggage rack
Richard Wilson: How often do you get a seat?
Man on Southern Trains: Never. ibid.
Richard Wilson: When did you last get a seat?
Woman: I honestly can’t remember. ibid.
When Which? Travel surveyed station staff and national rail enquiries about tickets, they said around half got the wrong information. ibid.
It’s a fairs free-for-all. ibid.
Jimmy Savile made it all so much easier when the trains were nationalised. ibid.
We’ve ended up effectively paying twice for the railways. ibid.
Manchester Victoria was voted the worst railway station in Britain. ibid.
This is such an annoying noise endured hour after hour. ibid.
There are other ways to improve punctuality figures – by building more time into the timetable, and without telling the passengers. ibid.
Some things I just don’t believe. ibid.
Across the north of England cash-strapped local train lines are in crisis. But the government’s pouring vast sums into HS2, a high-speed link from London to Birmingham and on to Manchester and Leeds. Dispatches asks, Will HS2 bring jobs and growth to the north of England as the government has promised? We’ve learned HS2 could be scrapped. Dispatches: HS2: The Great Train Robbery, Channel 4 2019
Fares are rising with overcrowding at record levels. ibid.
The Great British railway. A grand and historic institution ... Travelling across iconic feats of Victorian architecture … on trains designed to get us from city to city quickly, directly and theoretically on time. But they aren’t, are they? Today’s railways are in chaos with delays and cancellations and endless broken promises of track replacements, high-speed trains and upgrades. Dispatches: Ben Elton: The Great Railway Disaster, Channel 4 2023
I want to find out why. What’s gone wrong with our railways? ibid.
Since privatisation a quarter of all rail franchises have failed. ibid.
And even before the pandemic, the government was handing over three times as much cash to railways as it did in the days of British Rail. ibid.
Since privatisation the cost of running the passenger network is £64.3 billion more than if run by British Rail. ibid.
This is the Age of the Train. Jimmy Savile, Age of the Train adverts
There’s all sorts of concerns. Mainly around price, and the price of the tickets. There’s so many people who can’t get what they think is the cheapest price on a ticket. Rochelle Turner, Which? Travel
A train is only considered late at its final destination. Rochelle Turner
Long-distance trains are allowed ten minutes to be late and they are still considered to be on time; shorter-distance trains are allowed five minutes, and still considered on time. It’s a ridiculous thing. Rochelle Turner
There were a couple of American tourists on the train ... They’d got the wrong ticket. They were tourists for goodness sake! How could they be expected to understand the incredibly Byzantine Kafkaesque structure of British Rail's fairs now? ... They were fined £103 I think. Simon Hoggart, journalist
It’s the passions our railway generates that makes it politicly sensitive. Panorama: British Rail: The Ultimate Sell-Off, Fred Emery reporting, BBC 1989
Customers would get a better deal the government believes with a private train. ibid.
Panorama tonight can disclose the radical approach ministers are taking towards rail privatisation. ibid.
Overcrowded, often late and over-priced. Take your place for a ride on Britain’s railway. Panorama: Train Fares: Taken for a Ride? BBC 2012
Fairs are higher than anywhere else in Europe. ibid.
After years of planning and protests, work on Britain’s biggest building project is underway. Those in the way of the high-speed railway have to move. The word is costs are rising. Panorama: HS2: Going Off the Rails? BBC 2018
It will take up to 25,000 workers to build the line. ibid.
From this day in 1830 nothing would be the same again. This is where the modern world begins. Locomotion: Dan Snow’s History of Railways
One billion passengers still travel these lines each year. ibid.
By the early 1800s British was at the centre of a world-wide trading web. ibid.
The people fell in love with them. ibid.
The Stockton & Darlington became world famous. ibid.
The Railways came along and changed everything. ibid.
In the late 1830s a great swathe of Victorian London was ripped apart. The railway had arrived in the capital. Locomotion: Dan Snow’s History of Railways II
Hills were being mined and blasted, valleys were being bridged. ibid.
Trains could already hit fifty miles an hour. ibid.
The working classes got their first taste of the railway … cheap excursions were being offered. ibid.
As the investors vowed never to gamble on the railways again, the whole banking system teetered on the edge. The government had to step in. ibid.
Britain begins to export the railways to the rest of the world. ibid.
In just fifty years railways have rocketed from a few lines carrying coal to the strongest industry in the strongest nation on the planet. Railways had come of age. Locomotion: Dan Snow’s History of Railways III
The railways would unify people as never before. ibid.
Whose railways were they anyway? ibid.
Health & Safety was an alien concept. ibid.
Warren Point, 12th June 1889: 800 tickets were printed but 950 people got on that train, two thirds of whom were children but they never arrived here at Warren Point. ibid.
Workers’ rights had become national and political. ibid.
By 1915 Argentina had over 22,000 miles of railways. ibid.
Railways were responsible for the horrifying and iconic nature of warfare on the western front. ibid.
Britain’s railway: the oldest and one of the busiest in the world. A huge network under constant pressure. The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track I: Kings Cross, BBC 2013
King’s Cross: forty-seven million people a year pass through this station ... Costing half a billion pounds and fifteen years in the making. ibid.
‘We’re paid a pittance to clear it up. Oh, if you want to find a dirty book – first class.’ ibid. cleaning lady
‘Overcrowding in the rush hour has been at its worse for twenty years.’ ibid. commentator
‘It is like a cattle shed’. ibid. lady passenger
That’s £323.50. The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track II: Summer Madness, Leeds fares’ bloke
Summer has arrived and the afternoon rush hour is in full swing. ibid.
The English Defence League is en route to one of their regular summer demonstrations across Yorkshire. ibid.
With the sun comes the alcohol. ibid.
A trespasser is killed nearly every week on our railways. ibid.
Cable theft has become one of the biggest threats to the railways, and Yorkshire suffers most. ibid.
‘Surely this is illegal to be packed in like this?’ The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track III: Standing Room Only, lady crammed & standing
The West Coast Mainline is the busiest with trains running back to back. ibid.