NATIONALISING TRANSPORT

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2022 :: RMTnews 24 The Transport Act 1947 was part of the left-wing domestic agenda of Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government which led to the nationalisation of the railways on January 1, 1948. The government also nationalised other means of transport such as canals, sea and shipping ports, bus companies and, in the face of much opposition, road haulage. As a result, all these transport modes were brought under the control of a new body, the British Transport Commission (BTC). The BTC was a part of a highly ambitious scheme to create a publicly owned, centrally planned, integrated transport system to co- ordinate different modes of transport to co-operate and supplement each other instead of competing for funding, cargo and passengers. After the Second World War, the Big Four railway companies were effectively bankrupt, and the Act was intended to bring about some stability and investment in the chronically underfunded and crumpling railway network. As part of that policy, British Railways was established to run the network. Shares in the railway companies were exchanged for British Transport Stock, with a guaranteed three per cent return chargeable to the BTC and were repayable after forty years. Three of the Big Four were already effectively bankrupt before the onset of war in 1939 and were only saved from declaring insolvency by the guaranteed income provided by the wartime government and the temporary surge in rail traffic caused by the restrictions on other forms of transport. The exchange of potentially worthless private stock for government gilts based on a valuation during an artificially created boom was, in fact, a very good deal. The road haulage industry bitterly opposed nationalisation and, not surprisingly, found allies in the Conservative Party. Once the NATIONALISING TRANSPORT 75 years ago a Labour government nationalised much of the transport network after years of decline and lack of investment