Southern Region of British Railways


The Southern Region was a constituent part of British Railways, the national, state-owned railway company of Great Britain. It was created on 1 January 1948, taking over the network of the former Southern Railway and some privately owned lines. It ran train services, managed stations, and maintained infrastructure and rolling stock until April 1992, when its responsibilities were transferred to Network SouthEast. The Southern Region was formally abolished on 31 March 1994 in preparation for the privatisation of British Rail.

Geographical scope

The Southern Region was formed on 1 January 1948, from the network of the Southern Railway, which it replaced. The headquarters were at Waterloo station, and the region included six other London termini. By 1949, it covered around and was the second smallest region by route mileage after the North Eastern.
Some previously independent lines, which had not been part of the SR, were also incorporated into the region, including the Kent and East Sussex Railway and the East Kent Light Railway. The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, which had been jointly owned by the SR and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway before nationalisation, was wholly incorporated into the Southern Region. In contrast, the narrow-gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway remained independent. For the first two years of its existence, the region owned and operated Southampton Docks, but responsibility for the port was transferred to the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive in September 1950.
File:Richmond Railway Bridge.JPG|thumb|Richmond Railway Bridge spanning the Thames in Richmond upon Thames.
The boundaries of the region were adjusted several times during the 1950s and early 1960s, resulting in the exchange of several lines with the Western Region. The first alterations took place on 2 April 1950, when all former SR lines west of Exeter along with the northern part of the Somerset and Dorset Railway were transferred to the WR. In exchange, the Southern Region gained –, –, –, –, –, as well as the Weymouth–Channel Islands ferry services.
The second boundary alteration to affect the operation of the S&DR took place on 1 February 1958, when the line north of was transferred to the WR. A third change occurred on 1 January 1963, when the boundary was moved further southwards to between and. On the same day, the West of England line west of was transferred from the Southern Region to the WR.

Organisational history

End of the Southern Railway (1939–1948)

The Emergency Order 1939, issued by the UK government on 1 September 1939, brought the railways under the control of the Railway Executive Committee, which reported to the Minister of Transport. Throughout the Second World War, the Southern Railway was paid a fixed rental by HM Treasury, instead of receiving income from fares and freight charges. The movement of military personnel, supplies and equipment was prioritised, and on 11 September 1940 an emergency timetable came into force, with lower maximum train speeds and a significantly reduced evening service to allow more freight traffic to operate. Infrastructure works were directed to bomb damage repair, causing a backlog of routine maintenance, and the construction of new locomotives and rolling stock was restricted.
Following the end of the war, the SR worked to repair its network. However, the rental that had been paid by the government was insufficient to fund the works required. The trusts that had been set up by the government to pay for post-war reconstruction of the railways, were devalued through high inflation, and controls over building supplies delayed repairs further. Nevertheless, the SR was the most successful of the Big Four railway companies in restoring its services, and by October 1946 over 81% of its pre-war timetable had been reinstated. Key to the relative success of the SR was the electrification programmes of the inter-war period, which meant that the average age of its rolling stock was younger than that of the other companies and that it was less vulnerable to post-war coal shortages.

British Railways (1948–1960)

The Transport Act 1947 came into effect on 1 January 1948, taking the railways of Great Britain into public ownership. The act created a new body, the British Transport Commission, reporting directly to the Minister of Transport, to take ownership of the transport infrastructure in Great Britain. Eustace Missenden, who had previously been General Manager of the Southern Railway, was appointed to lead the Railway Executive, to which the management of the main-line railways was delegated. The Southern Region was one of six geographical subsidiaries of British Railways and was created to take over the day-to-day operations of the former SR and some previously independent railways in the south of England. The SR was officially dissolved on 10 June 1948, after the legal processes to transfer its assets to BR had been completed.
Under the Transport Act 1953, which came into force on 1 January 1955, the RE was dissolved and the Southern Region instead reported directly to the BTC. Greater autonomy was given to the region, and responsibility for strategic decisions was given to its board. The region was split into three divisions, each with a line manager responsible for managing rail operations. The South Eastern, the first division to be formed, was created in 1958, and the Central and South Western divisions followed in 1961.
In January 1955, the BTC published the Modernisation Plan, which set out a programme of investment for the railways. The plan, agreed by the government, envisaged the expenditure of £1,200 million in the period to 1970. It authorised the electrification of the railway lines in Kent, allowing for the complete replacement of steam with electric traction. Long-distance services on the London–Bournemouth and London–Exeter routes were converted to diesel traction, as were the services on the Tunbridge Wells–Hastings and Hastings–Ashford routes. Steam-haulage was eliminated from the South Eastern division on 26 February 1962 and from the remainder of the Southern region on 9 July 1967.
The financial position of the BTC deteriorated over the first half of the 1950s, and the British Railways accounts showed a net deficit for the first time in 1956. Competition from road transport was increasing, and a damaging industrial strike the previous year had resulted in a sharp decrease in the amount of freight being transported by rail. Falling revenues, coinciding with an increase in staff wages, created a financial crisis for the BTC, prompting the government to review its operations and remit. The Transport Act 1962 abolished the BTC and transferred the ownership of the railways to the newly created British Railways Board, which was chaired by Richard Beeching.

British Rail (1965–1982)

British Railways became British Rail on 1 January 1965, and a new brand identity was established across the railway network.

Sectorisation (1982–1994)

The organisational structure of British Rail was changed again on 4 January 1982, with the creation of five business sectors. Three of the sectors were responsible for passenger services. The new sectors were responsible for setting business parameters and specifying service levels. The regions continued to be responsible for all rail operations, including infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance, and ran train services under contract to the sectors. The sectors were able to propose large-scale infrastructure developments, although capital works costing under £1 million could be directly authorised by the regions.
On its formation in 1982, around two thirds of the revenue of the L&SE came from the Southern Region, and the posts of Senior Director L&SE and General Manager were held by the same person. The headquarters of both the sector and the region were run as a combined operation at Waterloo station. The L&SE sector did not attempt to establish a strong brand identity, and the electrification of the Hastings line, completed in mid-1986, was primarily promoted as a Southern Region project. The corporate colour scheme for the rolling stock in the south east was only applied to a limited number of trains, including the and units operating on Kent Coast and Brighton Main Line services.
A further reorganisation took place in mid-1985, which included the separation of the joint management of the L&SE sector and the Southern Region. Additionally, Gatwick Express services were transferred to Inter-City. In November of the same year, Chris Green was appointed as the sector director. He created a new corporate identity for the L&SE sector, launching the Network SouthEast brand on 10 June 1986. The Southern Region continued to run rail services until April 1992, when the direct management of all passenger operations, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance was transferred to NSE. Both the Southern Region and NSE were formally abolished on 31 March 1994, when the sector was divided into shadow franchises in preparation for privatisation.

Line and station closures

Line closures

Pre-Beeching

Passenger lines closed by the Southern Region between 1948 and 1963: