Nortish Railways

Board of Railways

Type	Crown office
Industry	Railway transport and logistics
Founded	1 January 1919 (1919-01-01)
Headquarters	Lendert-with-Cadell , Great Nortend
Key people	Sir William Gouldon
Parent	H.M. Trade Office
Subsidiaries	City and Counties Railway Eastern Railway Gardolian Railway Great North and Central Railway Great North Western Railway Great Southern Railway Hambrian Railway Medden Railway Rhise and Fisharbour Railway

The Board of Railways is a Crown office of the Government of Great Nortend. It was established by the Railways Act 17 Edm. IX p. 230. The Board controls the public standard gauge railway network in Great Nortend through its nine subsidiary operating companies. As of 2019, the Board of Railways' network spans nearly 22,000 miles of track and 7,358 stations and halts.

Though it operates under the ministerial oversight of H.M Trade Office, the Board operates independently. The chairman of the board is the Master of the Board of Railways, presently the Rt. Hon. Sir William Gouldon, Second Lord of Trade. The position is a Cabinet level ministerial post.

History

Before Collation

Before the Collation in 1919, the railway network was operated by nearly a hundred railway companies in competition with each other. This was highly inefficient and wasteful. In 1913, the Government realised that the railways were an integral public utility necessary for the maintenance of Erbonian society which had become highly dependent on the railways. Royal acquisition was the standard method for securing such public services, as had occurred with the constabularies and fire brigades of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Corkton Report was published in 1915 outlining a plan to completely nationalise the railways which the Sowerton Drougher government took it to the 1916 elections. The elections were won by the Scodeliers, which instead proposed an alternative form of acquisition which collated the companies into ten amalgamated corporations. Collation as the process was known, was popular with the smaller railway companies, and they were facing bankruptcy with numerous small stations, dense bureaucracy and inefficient staffing. The larger railway companies, however, were opposed to the plans until the Government agreed to grant shareholders immediate compensation to the value of double their share price, as well as a Royal warrant entitling them to demand annual payments, in perpetuity, proportionate to any profits made.

The ten railway companies to be formed were reduced to nine and in 1919, the Railway Acquisition Act was passed and assented to.

Collation

In accordance with the Act, the Board of Railways was established by Order in Council on the 1st of July, 1919, taking over the assets of the 87 existing standard gauge railway companies. On the same day, the nine railway companies were established by Royal charter. Senior directors of their component railway companies were all appointed to the courts of directors of the new railway companies, and new chairmen appointed. After a transition period of five terms, all railway staff by operation of the Act became servants of their successor collated railway companies on the 1st of October, 2020, and all assets transferred.

Remarkably, the process went quite smoothly as stations, locomotives and rolling stock were repainted in their new company colours. Unification failed, however, to bring about any practical changes to the operation of the railway system until 1933, when the Board of Railways introduced a unified national through-ticketing scheme, known as the Clearing House system.

Thitherto, although goods could be sent across companies by a single consignment, passengers wishing to travel across railway companies where trains were operated by different companies still needed to buy tickets for each separate leg of the journey. Under the Clearing House system, a single ticket could be used across all trains, and could be purchased at any booking office. The ticket format was also standardised in a single scheme, known as the Board of Railways Ticketing Scheme, with the same basic design across all companies.

Renewal

A railway poster issued by the Board of Railways in 2009.

By the 1970s, Erbonian railways had fallen behind much of the rest of the world in terms of technology. Steam remained the main form of tractive power on the railways, supplanted by electricity on some suburban lines. This required teams of cleaners and porters to continually clean stations, infrastructure, locomotives and rolling stock to maintain them in presentable order. Furthermore, infrastructure was deteriorating with a lack of funds for maintenance or replacement.

A proposal was tabled by the Board of Railways to H.M. Trade Office which proposed the introduction of diesel power to replace steam, which was inefficient and 'dirty'. The cost of the programme was expected to run to the millions of pounds and was rejected.

Instead, the Trade Office published its own report in 1974. The 'Renewal Report' proposed a number of changes which aimed to renew and rejuvenate the ageing railway network. These included:

• Abolition of the nine railway companies and replacement with regional administrations under the Board.
• Unified national identity.
• Investment into new steam locomotive designs with greater efficiency.
• A new standard design of coaches and rolling stock.
• Electrification of more suburban lines.
• New sleeper and cross-country express services.
• Renewal of track and infrastructure, removal of level crossings, and duplication of track.
• Closure of several lines which duplicated existing lines.
• Opening of new regional marshalling yards for goods.

The Renewal Report was accepted by the Cabinet, with the exception of the complete nationalisation of the railway network. Instead, greater inter-company harmonisation and cooperation was ordered, starting with a greater prominence placed on the national Board of Railways name. The traditional 'Bramley badge' of the Board of Railways, with the standard crown, lion and oval, was to be used in conjunction thenceforth with the operating company's name and badges.

Companies

There are nine railway operating companies, excluding purely suburban and metropolitan services such as the Faunslaughter Railway. These are:

• City and Counties Railway (CC)
• Eastern Railway (ER)
• Gardolian Railway (GR)
• Great Central Midston Railway (GCMR)
• Great North and Midston Railway (GNMR)
• Great North West Railway (GNWR)
• Great Southern Railway (GSR)
• Hambrian Railway (HR)
• Rhise and Fisharbour Railway (RFR)