Operations
Initially, and for the majority of its history, the BRB operated under the structure inherited from the BTC Railway Executive. Operations were divided into five regions - Eastern, London Midland, Western, Southern and Scottish (later rebranded ScotRail). A North Eastern Region existed initially but was merged into the Eastern Region in 1967.
In the 1980s the BRB moved to a sectoral model based on business activity - InterCity for long-distance passenger trains, Network SouthEast for commuter trains in London, and Regional Railways for short-distance and commuter trains outside the Network SouthEast area. Railfreight was organised separately.
As well as the railway network, for much of its history the BRB also ran ferry services (later as Sealink) and hotels. These were sold in the 1980s.
The final BRB structure (1994-1997) was a shadow form of the future privatised railway industry, becoming a holding company for over 100 subsidiaries, including 25 passenger train operating, six freight, three rolling stock leasing, and a number of track maintenance companies. These were slowly sold during privatisation (the passenger subsidiaries were franchised to private sector concerns).
Read more about this topic: British Railways Board
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)