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London & SouthEast Sector

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Other possible pics of dismal stations: [1] [2] [3]

By the early 1980s, many British Rail stations were in poor condition. Coulsdon South is seen here in 1983.

Upon nationalisation in 1948, British Railways' operations[note 1] were split into five regions. Of these, four were involved in running passenger rail services in London and surrounding areas of southeast England. The London Midland Region operated out of Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras and Broad Street stations; the Southern Region was responsible for Waterloo, Victoria, Charing Cross, Holborn Viaduct, Cannon Street and London Bridge;[1] the Western Region covered Paddington; and the Eastern Region operated out of King's Cross, Moorgate, Broad Street, Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street.[citation needed] There was no coordination and little interaction between the regions, and they prioritised different types of traffic: the Southern Region was heavily focused on suburban commuter journeys, principally on electrified lines, the Eastern Region had some intensive commuter traffic mixed in with long-distance services, and the other two regions focused on main-line long-distance traffic operated by steam and diesel trains.[2][3]

A low point had been reached by the late 1970s. Discontent was growing among passengers, British Rail's board members and successive governments—which had to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to subsidise the railways.[3] Revenue from commuters was falling because of the recession,[note 2] fare evasion was high (£6 million annually was lost in the London and southeast England commuter area according to a British Rail survey in the early 1970s),[5] strikes were affecting the operation of the rail network,[6] and rolling stock and other assets were ageing. Dirty, poorly lit and dangerous stations and litter-strewn, graffiti-covered trains characterised all parts of the network.[7] Delays and cancellations affected London and southeast England particularly badly, and the region's network "was rapidly becoming a hot potato in the media" as commuters used the press to express their dissatifaction.[6]

The election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party in 1979 brought "a much more businesslike approach to running the railways" and a greater focus on reducing the subsidies paid to support them.[3] In that year, British Rail's chairman Sir Peter Parker unveiled a successful "Commuter's Charter",[6] and a year later the Monopolies and Mergers Commission analysed passenger services in London and southeast England to determine whether the government's subsidy of £400m per year represented value for money. It raised concerns about the lack of senior leadership to deal with cross-regional issues affecting the whole area: "London and Southeast is [at present] neither an operational nor an administrative management unit. There is no senior manager responsible for the whole business sector ... the [British Railways] Board should consider the merits of establishing such a post."[8]

In 1981, the Board and government ministers started to work together to create a new operational sector which would sit above British Rail's regional structure. It would deal with all aspects of London and southeast England's railway operations, including train service planning, marketing and rolling stock requirements.[note 3] Assets and costs associated with the London and southeast area would also be allocated to the new sector, which would be responsible for its own profit and loss account. A more efficient investment process was also designed. Ultimately, the government would decide a level of subsidy for the sector, ending the situation where the government paid a single subsidy to British Rail with no ability to target it.[3][10] On 4 January 1982 the London & SouthEast Sector (L&SE) became one of five "business sectors" of British Rail, alongside InterCity, Provincial, Freight and Parcels. British Rail chief executive Bob Reid installed David Kirby, formerly of BR's Sealink division, as L&SE's managing director. The sector was split into six geographical sub-sectors—South East, South Central, South West, East, West and North—each of which had its own director. All were based at the Southern Region's Waterloo headquarters.[11] British Rail's structure now consisted of centralised functions (such as finance, engineering and property), regions and sectors—an example of matrix management which challenged the existing power and independence of the regions. The sectors, including London & Southeast, "would set the business parameters" and the regions would run their rail services according to these.[12]

Trains on the newly electrified Hastings Line were the first to be painted in the L&SE sector's "Jaffa cake" livery.[13]

The L&SE sector was responsible for several initiatives—many of which contributed to NSE's later success.[14] The joint BR and London Transport Capitalcard ticket—a "hugely successful" product which "touch[ed] the lives of almost every commuter"—was expanded in scope in January 1985 by integrating it with BR season tickets, so commuters could use one ticket for their whole journey. Later that year, BR approved the reopening of the Snow Hill link in central London after 70 years of closure, allowing through running between north and south London. The moribund North London Line was revitalised: four new stations were opened, the eastern section to North Woolwich was electrified for £9m, and train frequencies were greatly improved. The Hastings Line was electrified south of Tunbridge Wells in 1984, and in the same year a regular non-stop service between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria was introduced. It was so successful that it was transferred to InterCity a year later to help that sector's profitability.[15] The L&SE sector's own financial performance was also successful: by the 1985/86 financial year, its subsidy requirement had fallen to £196m, from £322m two years earlier[16] and approximately £400m when it was created in 1982.[2]

When the sector was created, British Rail's standard train livery was blue and grey. L&SE considered developing new liveries for each of the sub-sectors, or for long-distance and inner suburban services, but decided on just one—chocolate, orange and grey exteriors and interiors—which would only be applied to refurbished or new stock. The livery was immediately nicknamed "Jaffa cake".[13]

Appointment of Chris Green

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David Kirby was promoted to the British Railways Board in November 1985, and Chris Green was appointed as L&SE director with effect from 6 January 1986. He was the General Manager of ScotRail[note 4] and had previously been in charge of operations to and from London Waterloo. Green had aggressively relaunched a declining Scottish railway network to cope with increased bus competition and greater public expectations, and had achieved 25% growth—impressing British Rail chairman Bob Reid.[18] He saw that the L&SE sector had started growing again but was facing complaints from the Department of Transport about substandard services, dowdy stations and poor commuting experiences.[19] Accordingly he told Green "to do a ScotRail in the South East".[18]

Green aimed to launch the rebranded sector in June 1986.[20] His experiences at ScotRail showed the need to make many improvements before marketing the new brand to the public. In February 1986 he announced Operation Pride, a "major drive on punctuality and cleanliness" for which £10 million was invested in staff recruitment, deep cleaning and maintenance of stations and rolling stock, reliability improvements to reduce train cancellations and delays.[21] For example, thousands of carriages would receive a "heavy clean" every month, in which the interior and all fittings would be pressure-washed or replaced, as well as a nightly interior and exterior clean.[22] Before Operation Pride, these targets were met for 53% and 21% of carriages respectively; nine months later, the figures were 96% and 94% respectively.[23]

Notes

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  1. ^ The trading name British Rail was adopted in 1965.
  2. ^ Commuting into London declined by 15% in the 13 years to 1979.[4]
  3. ^ However, the BR regions were still responsible for the timetabling of trains (to the new sector's specifications) and the staffing of the network.[9]
  4. ^ A brand he created in the early 1980s to distinguish BR's Regional Railways services within the Scottish Region.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Body 1984, p. 22.
  2. ^ a b Green & Vincent 2014, p. 12.
  3. ^ a b c d Brown & Jackson 1990, p. 7.
  4. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 22.
  5. ^ Heard 1980, p. 3.
  6. ^ a b c Green & Vincent 2014, p. 11.
  7. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 23–24.
  8. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 12, Table 1.1.
  9. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 14.
  10. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 12–15.
  11. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 13–14.
  12. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 13.
  13. ^ a b Green & Vincent 2014, p. 18.
  14. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 16.
  15. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 14–19.
  16. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 19.
  17. ^ Brown & Jackson 1990, p. 8.
  18. ^ a b Green & Vincent 2014, p. 21.
  19. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 21–23.
  20. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 23, Table 2.1.
  21. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, pp. 31–34.
  22. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 58.
  23. ^ Green & Vincent 2014, p. 56, Table 5.4.

Bibliography

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  • Body, Geoffrey (1984). Railways of the Southern Region. PSL Field Guides. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 0-85059-664-5.
  • Brown, David; Jackson, Alan A. (1990). The Network SouthEast Handbook. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport Publishing. ISBN 185414-129-5.
  • Cooksey, A. (1989). Railway Accident: Report on the collision that occurred on 4th March 1989 at Purley (PDF). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-550996-8. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  • Cooksey, A. (1992). Health and Safety Executive: A report of the collision that occurred on 8 January 1991 at Cannon Street Station (PDF). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-886303-7. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  • Croughton, Godfrey. "The British Railway Ticket 1946–1996". In Harman, ed., David (ed.). The Transport Ticket Society Golden Jubilee 1946–1996. Luton: The Transport Ticket Society. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0-903209-21-7. {{cite book}}: |editor-last= has generic name (help)
  • Curson, David (1996). A Checklist of Electronic Ticket Issuing Points on British Railway and Light Rail Systems. Luton: The Transport Ticket Society. ISBN 0-903209-19-5.
  • Green, Chris; Vincent, Mike (2014). The Network SouthEast Story 1982–2014. Hersham: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-86093-653-4.
  • Heard, B.D. (11 March 1980). "Section 3: Automatic Revenue Collection". Automatic Revenue Collection (Report) (Advance ed.). London: The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.
  • Hidden, Anthony (1989). Investigation of the Clapham Junction Railway Accident (PDF). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-10-108202-0. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
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