British Waterways

British Waterways was a public body in the UK and 100% in government property. She was responsible for the administration and management of almost all navigation channels and individual navigable rivers and harbors in England, Scotland and Wales. British Waterways was established in 1962 as the British Waterways Board. July 2, 2012 put British Waterways operating. Their duties took over the charitable foundation Canal and River Trust.

As of 2008, she was responsible for approximately 3450 km of waterways, some of which are over 200 years old. In contrast to continental European channels, however, go to the funds managed by British Waterways Waterways since the mid-20th century almost no cargo ships, but almost exclusively leisure boats, especially so-called narrowboats.

History

Nationalization of the canals in the 20th century

After the cargo had been taken to the driven almost exclusively by private companies UK channels in the first half of the 20th century due to increasing competition from road transport dramatically, in 1948 almost the entire channel network as well as most other inland waterways was nationalized along with the railroad and an authority named British transport Commission assumed.

The Transport Act 1962

Through the Transport Act 1962, the British Transport Commission disbanded in 1963, and the specially founded a year earlier for this purpose British Waterways Board took over responsibility for the waterways. The unusually severe winter of 1962 /63 who kept frozen over the channels for weeks, was one of the reasons that the British Waterways Board declared the commercial traffic on the formally called Narrowboat channels closed. At this time, the usable length of the sewer system was already shrunk to about half the level in the early 19th century.

The Transport Act 1968

Under the Transport Act 1968, the remaining waterways were divided into three categories:

• Commercial - Water ways in which seemed to be a commercial traffic still possible
• Cruising - waterways that were suitable for use for recreational purposes (traveling by private boat, fishing, etc. )
• Remainder - Waterways, which appeared neither commercially nor used for recreational purposes.

British Waterways has been committed by the Transport Act to obtain as Commercial and cruising classified waterways for the particular application. However, with as little cost as possible. As Remainder classified waterways, however, did not have to be kept in a navigable condition, they were also allowed to be closed.