If you had a time machine...

[Helvellyn]

There's many things on the railway today that exist for historic reasons. So if you had a time machine and could go back to influence a specific decision that would mean the railway today would work better/differently, what would yours be?

My starter suggestions:

• Southern Railway completes the LSWR initiated rebuild of Waterloo.
• Southern Railway uses the land it had at Woking to actually grade separate the junction in the 1920s or 1930s.
• LMS rebuilds Euston in the 1930s - we would still have lost the Great Hall and probably the Arch but I'd prefer a (hopefully) Art Deco masterpiece to 1960s concrete.
• LNER four-tracks Welwyn (Viaduct and Tunnels) in the 1920s or early 1930s, removing a bottleneck.
• BR was able to build the PicVic Tunnels in the late 1970s, with the associated electrification of lines from Victoria.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

The electrification programme that started with the Modernisation plan in 1955 never stopped at Weaver Junction but continued with ECML followed then MML and then GWML and a lot of Scotland.

 

[frankmoh]

3 things.

1. The Woodside & South Croydon Railway actually was built to connect at South Croydon, allowing for some alternative routes at the London end of the Brighton Main Line.
2. British Rail got to electrifying the Marshlink and Uckfield lines despite their usage.
3. Thameslink/FCC keeping services to Moorgate. I guess they extend the platforms at Farringdon the other way somehow. Maybe I would need to go back to 1922 for that one.

 

[Backroom_boy]

When Birmingham New street was rebuilt capacity was not so restricted. (More platforms, less conflicted approaches)

 

[Magdalia]

LNER four-tracks Welwyn (Viaduct and Tunnels) in the 1920s or early 1930s, removing a bottleneck.

The GNR had already removed the bottleneck as it existed at the time. They extended the line from Enfield through Hertford to Stevenage, opening for freight in 1918 and passengers in 1924. That's the decision that you would have to change.

But bear in mind that Greenwood (near New Barnet)-Potters Bar was only 2 tracks until the late 1950s, you have to persuade the GNR to make that 4 tracks too.

 

[Helvellyn]

The GNR had already removed the bottleneck as it existed at the time. They extended the line from Enfield through Hertford to Stevenage, opening for freight in 1918 and passengers in 1924. That's the decision that you would have to change.

But bear in mind that Greenwood (near New Barnet)-Potters Bar was only 2 tracks until the late 1950s, you have to persuade the GNR to make that 4 tracks too.

So maybe it's about persuading BR to do two sets of four-tracking in the 1950s.

 

[devon_belle]

Plenty of ideas for things I'd like to have happened, which could have/were going to happen:

• Appoint more ex-LBSCR staff to the board of the SR to give them more influence in the hope that they retain the OHLE system (just to see how that would play out).
• Pursue the full quadrupling of the Brighton Mainline, SWML Southampton to Basingstoke, and GWR Line from Taunton to Exminster.
• Prevent the 1960s BR(S)/BR(W) boundary changes that resulted in various Ex-LSWR lines being severely downgraded.
• Start building the 1936 Dawlish Avoider and the SR Exeter St Davids bypass line well in advance of WWII.
• Build the 'express' tube lines that were planned to duplicate existing lines and only call at major stations.
• Allocate slightly more funding to the 1980s Westbury and Newton Abbot resignalling schemes so they could keep 4 platforms each.
• Probably give the Big Four more time to recover after WWII, then come up with a better modernisation and electrification plan which works.
• Keep up the policy of strict vegetation cutback beyond the 1980s.

 

[Halwynd]

1990: Sir Robert Reid (I) didn't retire as BR Chairman, carrying on for several more years before handing over to Chris Green. Mrs Thatcher didn't resign later that year, Captain Charisma didn't take over, Labour won the 1992 election and... railway privatisation never happened.

Subsequently... Labour lost the 2002 election and Michael Portillo became Prime Minister - so sadly we never got to see his great railway programmes. But nor did we see Prime Minister Cameron and some of the loons who followed...

 

[43096]

There's many things on the railway today that exist for historic reasons. So if you had a time machine and could go back to influence a specific decision that would mean the railway today would work better/differently, what would yours be?

My starter suggestions:

• Southern Railway completes the LSWR initiated rebuild of Waterloo.
• Southern Railway uses the land it had at Woking to actually grade separate the junction in the 1920s or 1930s.
• LMS rebuilds Euston in the 1930s - we would still have lost the Great Hall and probably the Arch but I'd prefer a (hopefully) Art Deco masterpiece to 1960s concrete.
• LNER four-tracks Welwyn (Viaduct and Tunnels) in the 1920s or early 1930s, removing a bottleneck.
• BR was able to build the PicVic Tunnels in the late 1970s, with the associated electrification of lines from Victoria.

Back to the 1970s to get the Government to carry on with HST construction to the original plan rather than cutting it off at 95 trains.

 

[Palmerston]

I'd show BR a graph of passenger numbers and explain they come back up again, so if you need to close a route, it might be sensible to keep the land.

 

[brad465]

Get Network Southeast to electrify all of its turf (apart from maybe Salisbury-Exeter), among benefits of this:

-Provide a strong foundation to complete remainder of GWR electrification
-Most of Chiltern would be electric, providing faster and longer services and reducing diesel pollution that's bothered the Marylebone area.
-Southern would have no diesel fleet and an enlarged Electrostar fleet with more flexibility.
-North Downs Line would have longer services and stronger passenger growth

1990: Sir Robert Reid (I) didn't retire as BR Chairman, carrying on for several more years before handing over to Chris Green. Mrs Thatcher didn't resign later that year, Captain Charisma didn't take over, Labour won the 1992 election and... railway privatisation never happened.

Sir Robert Reid died in 1993, he wouldn't have done "several" more years; he might even have lived slightly less due to the stress of work. I also don't see how the chair of BR was who kept Thatcher in office at the time, which is what this seems to imply?

 

[WAO]

I would go back to 1947 and appoint Sir E J Missenden as General Manager of British Railways Ltd, not as Chairman of a Railway Executive. I would also have appointed Sir Cyril Hurcombe to head a Royal Commission on Colonial Railways, to involve extensive visits to each one, for the rest of his career, rather than to head up the stalemating British Transport Commision. Hopefully, EJM's visits to the USA would have then resulted in US Diesel techology coming over, avoiding the need for BR Standard classes and the coal lobby would have been placated with more power station coal for electrification.

WAO

 

[Mikey C]

Not selling off the land at Marylebone to pay for the late 1980s upgrade OR just selling the air rights, so that the BNP building was built over the platforms, rather than destroying them. The extra platforms Chiltern subsequently added are inconveniently located because of this decision.

 

[KNN]

I'd show BR a graph of passenger numbers and explain they come back up again, so if you need to close a route, it might be sensible to keep the land.

This would be my answer as well, I'd make sure any closed lines could be reopened again.

Same goes for stations but that's easier to remedy.

 

[Halwynd]

Sir Robert Reid died in 1993, he wouldn't have done "several" more years; he might even have lived slightly less due to the stress of work. I also don't see how the chair of BR was who kept Thatcher in office at the time, which is what this seems to imply?

It's not real... that's the point of the thread: events that didn't happen.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Plenty of ideas for things I'd like to have happened, which could have/were going to happen.

• Keep up the policy of strict vegetation cutback beyond the 1980s.

Now that I definitely agree with!

 

[spyinthesky]

Award the 2012 Olympics to Manchester/Leeds joint bid and HS2 would currently be in build between Stratford and Ashford with potential extensions to Central London and the coast.

 

[Magdalia]

It's not real... that's the point of the thread: events that didn't happen.

So if you had a time machine and could go back to influence a specific decision that would mean the railway today would work better/differently, what would yours be?

I hope that this isn't just a fantasy list of crayons through history. As the OP says, it is about specific decisions, where the decision makers chose option A and the time traveller could get them to choose option B instead. But they need to be the options that were actually on the table, not projects that were not on the agenda, or were never going to be feasible because of the economic and political situation at the time.

And it also includes events that did happen but our time traveller could have intervened to stop them from happening. Two thought provoking examples here are:

• privatisation in the 1990s goes direct to a Network Rail type option missing out the Railtrack era
• the coalition government in 2010 pulls the plug on HS2

Two more historical examples are:

• the BTC tells Riddles not to disappear down the Standard Steam rabbit hole, and just build "Big 4" loco designs as an interim measure
• the BTC doesn't panic, lets the Modernisation Plan pilot scheme run its course, and makes informed decisions at the end of it

 

[jupiter]

I’d look at the architecture, the buildings. It‘s not just on the railways that we’ve fallen into cheap and lazy construction. There’s some fabulous stations, but the newer ones have tended to be cheap and desperately ugly.

 

[Halwynd]

I hope that this isn't just a fantasy list of crayons through history. As the OP says, it is about specific decisions, where the decision makers chose option A and the time traveller could get them to choose option B instead. But they need to be the options that were actually on the table, not projects that were not on the agenda, or were never going to be feasible because of the economic and political situation at the time.

And it also includes events that did happen but our time traveller could have intervened to stop them from happening. Two thought provoking examples here are:

• privatisation in the 1990s goes direct to a Network Rail type option missing out the Railtrack era
• the coalition government in 2010 pulls the plug on HS2

Two more historical examples are:

• the BTC tells Riddles not to disappear down the Standard Steam rabbit hole, and just build "Big 4" loco designs as an interim measure
• the BTC doesn't panic, lets the Modernisation Plan pilot scheme run its course, and makes informed decisions at the end of it

My apologies, I'll put my crayons away.

 

[yorksrob]

I'd expose Earnest Marple's dodgy dealings and get him out of office before he had a chance to ruin the network.

I'd put Barbra Castle in the transport job from the outset of the Labour Government so we could get the social railway underway sooner.

I'd also have ditched the common carrier obligation in the 1940's and spent the money saved on marshalling yards on the Sussex electrification scheme encompassing Christs Hospital - Shoreham and the routes radiating from Tunbridge Wells West.

 

[CMS1]

I would tell the Atlee government of the reality/disasters of BR inc the finances, passenger numbers, modernisation plan and Beeching, and prevent nationalisation

 

[yorksrob]

I'd also prevent the reorganising of the regions (west of Salisbury etc) as this proved to be a terrible decision.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2026 ==

I'd also de-invent non-slam doors, so that we didn't have to wait around on cold platforms for ages for someone to open up the b****y train.

 

[devon_belle]

Get Network Southeast to electrify all of its turf (apart from maybe Salisbury-Exeter), among benefits of this:

Basingstoke to Exeter was planned along with all the way to Weymouth in the late 1930s, but WWII got in the way. I would influence the SR board to press ahead then, rather than the NSE board whose infrastructure was already rationalised.

 

[jupiter]

I’d also take the southern over or under the western and straight on at Dorchester junction rather than stopping short and merging to Weymouth.

 

[Backroom_boy]

the BTC doesn't panic, lets the Modernisation Plan pilot scheme run its course, and makes informed decisions at the end of it

I would have the equivalent of a more focused Beeching before the investment of the Modernisation Plan

 

[The Foghorn]

I'd have built a better connection from Sheffield Midland to the Woodhead line for quicker trans Pennine journeys.

I'd have retained Spalding to March and upgraded it to eliminate the numerous crossing keepers.

Gerry Fiennes article in Modern Railways would have gained him praise not punishment.

 

[tbtc]

The OP has raised an annoyingly good question
In the nicest possible way.

I could bemoan various things but a lot of these are trends (e.g. complain about nationalisation all you want but it was inevitable that a hugely loss making industry that was a bastion of Union power would be on the Conservative radar - if not under Major then under a subsequent PM)

Various schemes turned out to be dead ends but I can at least understand why they attracted investment (in another universe, maybe APT would have been the future of LDHS services, or bionic duckweed would have fuelled trains or certain locomotives would have been more reliable/ had longer lifetimes/ not seen the work that were designed for dry up after just a few years)

To try to limit this to things where there were a realistic alternative:

1. The initial XC franchise should have been given to someone planning a timetable based on 100mph trains. There seems no inevitability about 125 trains/ tilting etc (many services were run by 47s/86s or even 158s, so didn't need specialist stock), but the decision for such flagship trains meant XC had spent decades stagnating, unable to easily find additional carriages/trains because they couldn't cope with the fast acceleration/ top speed etc of Voyagers. A 100mph XC would have meant scope to acquire trains like 170s/185s over the years to boost capacity

2. Jimmy Saville. I couldn't understand BR's decision to make that creepy bloke the face of the railway at the time, and it looks significantly worse now we know what we know

3. All the penny pinching under 1980s BR. Singling junctions, chopping 155s in two, the bus shelters on many platforms. Incredibly short sighted, and the evidence is that remedying BR's mistakes at a station like Dore take many years and many millions

4. Following Beeching's recommendation to keep the Woodhead and Bakewell routes open (whilst closing the Edale route). We're stuck where we are now, and the costs of remedying this error would be astronomical, but IMHO Beeching got this right and BR got it badly wrong

 

[Halwynd]

2. Jimmy Saville. I couldn't understand BR's decision to make that creepy bloke the face of the railway at the time, and it looks significantly worse now we know what we know

There was a shortlist. The candidates were asked to write an expression of interest and Saville was the only one who was genuinely positive about rail travel, demonstrating this by being a regular user of British Rail. Sir Peter Parker had reservations, but that was what swung it for him.

 

[PMN1]

There was a shortlist. The candidates were asked to write an expression of interest and Saville was the only one who was genuinely positive about rail travel, demonstrating this by being a regular user of British Rail. Sir Peter Parker had reservations, but that was what swung it for him.

Who else was on the shortlist?