Golden year and 10 year spell for UK railways

[Philip]

What would you say was the best consecutive 10-year period we've had on our railways and, more specifically, if you could pick a 'golden year' for the railways, what would it be? Factors can include safety, reliability, how much/little industrial action there was, quality of the timetable & the trains, public opinion of the railways etc

If I started off and said 2005-2014; and specifically 2010, does this seem a fair shout? There didn't seem to be that much going wrong within this timeframe; one major rail crash where the actions of the driver and the strength of the train prevented a lot of fatalities, not much industrial action, booming passenger numbers, increasing frequencies & lots of signalling/track upgrades but still with fairly reliable timetables, lots of new trains, Network Rail well established after the Railtrack shambles, most TOCs generally performing well (especially Northern inbetween both Arriva Trains North disasters).

I chose 2010 because the Virgin HF timetable had settled down and was proving a roaring success with huge increases in passenger numbers - and it didn't really cause that many problems for the surrounding network if I remember rightly.

 

[Route115?]

I think that I would agree - performance improved, frequencies increased and passernger numbers rose. Mind you the period followed the gauge cracking fiasco and the failure of Railtrack and whilst things got better under Network Rail there was still a failure to control costs, particularly for new infrastructure and upgrades like electrification during the period, which meant that we perhaps did not get as much bang for our buck as we should have done. (Roger Ford's boiling frog syndrome.)

 

[30907]

The years before the privatisation agenda kicked in weren't bad as I remember (though it was largely "watched from afar" as time and money were tight). Not perfect - too few 15x and the older units were past their best...

 

[Irascible]

Around 1900-1910, maybe 1925-1935. After that there was ever increasing competition as the orimary means if transportation.

 

[satisnek]

If I started off and said 2005-2014; and specifically 2010, does this seem a fair shout?

For a period of stability and reliability, I would push that forward a couple of years to 2007-2016. By that time the bulk of the WCML upgrade disruption was over and, certainly in the Midlands, timetables saw little change and things ran pretty much like clockwork. It started to go awry towards the end of the London Midland franchise, with staff shortages etc.

As for a single 'golden year', I don't think I could pick one from that period, and I would suggest that if such a year did exist, it was before any of our lifetimes

 

[Rescars]

Around 1900-1910, maybe 1925-1935. After that there was ever increasing competition as the orimary means if transportation.

The golden Edwardian period up to 1914 must be a strong contender. Major advances in loco design, rolling stock comfort, the start of power signalling, the first steps with electrification etc. On the other hand, this was the era of the Taff Vale dispute and some pretty horrendous accidents. Not all the customers were happy either. There was a curious diatribe written in this period by J W Martin complaining in considerable detail about the inadequacies of the Great Eastern Railway's management and its inability to get his freshly harvested strawberries from East Anglia to Covent Garden overnight. It's titled "The Ruin of Rural England"!

 

[nw1]

Strange, I had the same thought but for a 20 year span rather than 10.

I don't know enough about the history of the railways to know how good it actually was, but maybe 1948-57? The first 10 years of BR, before Beeching started kicking in.

If you focus on modernisation rather than network mileage, you could argue something like 1967-1976 (covering both SWML electrification and the introduction of HSTs). However the sheer number of closures would overall preclude this being a 'golden' period, I suspect.

For "personal nostalgia" reasons (so restricted to 1982 onwards) I'd say the first 10 years, 1982-91. Why? Any personal nostalgia era for me would have to feature CIGs, VEPs and CEPs on mainline Southern Region/NSE services and loco-hauled XC services which restricts it to around 1982-2001. The late 90s also had its charms: however I'll say the first half of this era as my preference is for nationalisation over privatisation.

As for a single golden year, that would have to be within personal experience, so I'll say 1989. A good mix of classic and new stock, and also improved frequencies on many routes and clockface timetables becoming popular again.

 

[TommyJ]

I’d vote for 1983-1992. Golden year 1988. Post the disruptive 1982 strikes.
Lots of infrastructure improvement. ECML electrification approved in 1984, opened to Leeds in 89 and Edinburgh in 91. Other electrification to Hastings, Weymouth, Ayr etc. New stations such as Milton Keynes Central (ok that was 82, but nearly).
Sectorisation prompted innovation: Network SouthEast launched in 1986. InterCity really took off with HSTs, Pullman services, better catering, better marketing.
Large increases in passenger numbers (til the 92 recession at least!)
Loads of new rolling stock such as Sprinters, 455s, 442s, Networkers, Turbos, 91s and Mark 4 coaches etc. Nice refurbishments of Mark 3 coaches which were common to the whole InterCity network.
Also a railway which was highly efficient in terms of subsidy requirement.
So thats my vote!

 

[nw1]

I’d vote for 1983-1992. Golden year 1988. Post the disruptive 1982 strikes.
Lots of infrastructure improvement. ECML electrification approved in 1984, opened to Leeds in 89 and Edinburgh in 91. Other electrification to Hastings, Weymouth, Ayr etc. New stations such as Milton Keynes Central (ok that was 82, but nearly).
Sectorisation prompted innovation: Network SouthEast launched in 1986. InterCity really took off with HSTs, Pullman services, better catering, better marketing.
Large increases in passenger numbers (til the 92 recession at least!)

That's why I picked 1982-91 rather than 1983-92, as it happens. But very similar to my choice within the era of personal experience.