Railways Act 1993
The Transport Act 1993 was in 1993 arisen under the British Conservative Prime Minister John Major Law for full privatization of the railways.
Development of the law
After the surprising victory of the Conservative Party in the general election in 1992, came to the pushed forward in haste Transport Act 1993 on the privatization of the British railways. With the entering into force on 1 April 1994 Act British Rail was split into over 100 different companies. There were a number of regulatory mechanisms: So had contracts for the use of railway infrastructure by the Office of Rail Regulation are hereby approved. The individual lines were grouped together into regional groups and advertised as concessions to the private companies could apply. Operators such as Virgin Trains or Connex South Eastern arisen. Often also made bus company as the Stagecoach Group or the National Express Group of this possibility. To continue to ensure a uniform tariff system, the Marketing Society National Rail arose. The entire railway infrastructure (tracks, signals, tunnels, bridges, level crossings) and some stations were taken over by the private company Railtrack.
Consequences of privatization
In 1997, the privatization process was completed. In subsequent years, there was indeed an increase in the number of passengers, the maintenance of facilities has been neglected for reasons of cost. Through numerous breakdowns and fatal accidents endangered the British Railways their reputation.
The Transport Act 2000 led to the fact that the founded with the Transport Act 1962 British Railways Board, which had already been stripped of the privatization of a large part of his duties, was finally dissolved.
After the railway accident at Southall in 1997 was the railway accident at Ladbroke Grove on 5 October 1999, 31 dead and 296 injured, the second serious railway accident which occurred on the Great Western Main Line, just a few kilometers east of the first accident. Both railway accidents contributed significantly to sustainable shake public confidence in the privatization of the railways. But it was the railway accident at Hatfield on 17 October 2000 with four dead and 70 injured then led to the collapse of the railway infrastructure company Railtrack plc., Which was dissolved on October 7, 2001 by the Transport Minister Stephen Byers in receivership and on 18 October 2002. On this day, the shareholders resolved under the pressure of events, the voluntary liquidation of the company. The railway infrastructure was sold for 500 million pounds sterling to the newly founded non-profit company Network Rail.
The government grants went back to the first years of privatization, but increased due to higher demand for transport to recovery in 2002.