Serendipity

D4 Great Gable 50th birthday weekend 2009-09-27

British Railway Privatisation: second round of passenger franchising and the Network Rail era: approx 2002 to 2007 (coverage era subect to further random changes of government policy).

By 2001-02 the privatised railway was very much in crisis. Many of the first round of franchises had been withdrawn and re-let. The reasons behind this varied but included insolvency of the franchisee and inability to actually organise the running of trains. Other franchises had been extended (Virgin West Coast following Railtrack's WCML PUG1 fiasco)

Railtrack itself was forced into administration by the actions of the Government who, as the controlling shareholder via their Golden Share, declined to exercise a proper oversight and control of the company when it hit financial crisis as a result of mismanagement and a string of serious rail accidents.

This gallery covers the first five years of Network Rail - a time of recovery for the railway as it licked the wounds imposed by the ideologies of successive Tory and Labour transport policies (or, in Labour's case, lack of policies).

Covering the following passenger rail franchises: Southern,
as well as photos to come from the following first generation franchises and takeovers: Virgin WC/XC, First Great Western, Central Trains

BR Privatisation and the Railtrack era: approx 1996 to 2002

BR Blue and contemporary national liveries, 1972 to approx 1985.

BR Sectorisation era: approx 1986 to 1994

Sectorisation, the creation of commercially focussed business sectors within British Rail, came in as a policy as far back as 1977, with sectors such as Inter City, London and South East and Other Provincial Services.

At first this was chiefly an accounting change, aimed at giving Government visibility of the need for the hard-fought Public Service Obligation grant, as negotiated by Sir Peter Parker. The intention as far back as 1980 was that, as and when business permitted, the various Sectors should be removed from the PSO and turned to profit. but little difference was visible on the ground until Sectorisation took full effect in 1986 with the public launch of Network South East, InterCity, Provincial Railways, Rail Express Systems and the three heavy freight business Sectors.

Sectorisation liveries are included here but because of the long overlap and the slow re-branding, early sectorisation era photos may be included in the BR Blue era, and Sector liveries may also overlap into the post-privatisation galleries.