Britain: An official handbook > 1956

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
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are not policy-making but each of which takes a special interest on behalf of the
Commission in the activities of one of the ‘ Divisions ’ (see below) and serves as a
clear and easy channel of approach to the Commission. Committees and Sub-
Commissions are composed of members of the Commission. There is also a General
Staff which channels all communications from Divisions, railway areas and London
Transport, after such co-ordination as may be required, to the appropriate
Committee or Sub-Commission.
The separate activities of the undertaking are called Divisions, except in the case
of London Transport which, as already noted, has retained its Executive. There are
seven Divisions: British Railways, British Road Services, Tilling (bus) Group,
Scottish Omnibus Group, British Transport Docks, British Transport Water¬
ways, and British Transport Hotels and Catering Services. The Divisions con¬
cerned with road services, docks and waterways are managed by Boards of Manage¬
ment, the two bus groups retain their group status for the purpose of management,
and the hotels and catering services are run by a General Manager without a
Board. Management of British Railways is in the hands of six Area Boards (the
areas corresponding with the former regions) which leave day-to-day management
to the General Managers of the areas. The Boards are appointed by the Commission
and consist of not more than seven persons, one or more of whom must be a member
of the Commission and the rest drawn in part from outside the industry but not
representative of any particular interest. Certain railway matters are reserved to
the Commission, including the design, manufacture and standards of maintenance
of locomotives, rolling stock, permanent way and signalling; major labour relations;
the general level of charges and the broader aspects of financial control; and general
commercial policy. These matters are dealt with by the British Railways Division,
which consists of a Central Staff for British Railways, the General Managers’
Committee and the British Railways Committees. The Railways Sub-Commission
is available to give quick decisions on behalf of the Commission to the Division’s
staff and to resolve at once any problems which arise between it and the regions.
Financial Results
During 1954, the Commission earned a working surplus of £45-5 million (see
Table 29 overleaf), but this was insufficient to meet interest and other charges and
the net result was a deficit of £11-9 million (compared with a surplus of £4-2
million in 1953) which brought the cumulative deficit during the Commission’s
seven years of working to £39 million. The working surplus in 1954 was £13-9
million less than in 1953 due to a fall in the net traffic receipts of British Railways.
The Commission explains the deterioration by the fact that fares and freight charges
were never able to catch up with rising costs in the shape of higher wage and price
levels.
RAILWAYS
In 1954, 99i»i93,o°0 passenger journeys were made on British Railways, which
also carried 283,498,000 tons of freight.
Britain was the pioneer of railway development, which provided the improved
transport essential to industrial and commercial expansion.
Railroads were in use around pits and iron works before the end of the sixteenth
century. Trucks were mainly drawn by horses. The first railroad to carry goods for
the public was the Surrey Iron Railway built between Wandsworth and Croydon in
1801 to 1803. In 1812, William Hedley, a colliery engineer, following up the work
of William Symington, William Murdock, Richard Trevithick and others, showed
how locomotives could be used on railroads. About the same time, George