British Rail

The British Railways Board assumed control on 1 January 1963, and a major report followed in March, entitled ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’. This proposed the closure of some 2,000 stations and 8,000km of route. The report is thought to have been written mainly by the BRB chairman Dr Richard Beeching. The majority of the recommended closures had been carried out by the early 1970s.

A second report, ‘The Development of the Major Trunk Routes’, followed in February 1965. This did not propose further closures but identified about 5000km of the network for investment, leaving the fate of the remainder unclear. In reality, the Board was privately preparing to close most of the routes which were not named for development, although such a severe reduction did not go ahead.

Beeching also modernised rail freight by closing thousands of station goods yards and introducing ’Liner Trains’, which carried containers. A further reform was a new identity for the railways from 1965, which were to be branded British Rail. This change was explained to publicity and design staff, as well as senior managers, in a detailed manual which eventually occupied four loose-leaf volumes.

A new look for the railways

The core of the identity was a new ‘double arrow’ symbol.

This symbol has survived the end of British Rail and is still used by National Rail now. It is also to be the logo of the proposed organisation Great British Railways.

The regional structure lasted until the end of the 1980s, when a new initiative ‘Organising for Quality’ was introduced. At the start of the 1990s BR now operated through several business sectors, including InterCity, Network SouthEast and Regional Railways. Other sectors were concerned with freight and parcels.

The three passenger businesses were divided into 25 Train Operating Units in 1993-4 as a preparation for privatisation.

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