Thatcher loathed BR wanted it privatised, and so cut funding and sold off its assets etc.....
That's a load of complete bollocks Reg. You are wearing rose tinted Thatcher bashing specs. I have been doing a fair amount of digging on the story of Maggie's relationship with the railways and she left them alone to get on with it and there were no cuts of any kind or selling off when she was in power. This objective forum post sums it up:
Mrs Thatcher chose her battle grounds with care. With the exception of the Poll Tax (her nemesis, some might say) she only took on fights that she could win with a positive outcome. The railways offered no such opportunities; A showdown against the rail unions would have been difficult to contrive, and achieve nothing. Mrs T. also sensibly shelved Serpell, realizing that it would only alienate potential voters. She was, at best, lukewarm on rail privatisation, perhaps instinctively aware of the possible pitfalls. Her lack of interest in railways probably helped them to find their own way under her premiership. For once, and not for long, railwaymen were allowed to run the railways. This example of 'hands off' government control is a far cry from today's micro-management by Whitehall.
Margaret Thatcher's relationship with the railways wasn't complicated, it was mild disinterest. Nothing happened during the Thatcher years to make BR appear anything but a declining industry. There was no capital, political or otherwise, to be made for the Iron Lady, so she left it to others to manage.
Ardiles has it right, she went after the declining industries like mining. She had nothing to do with the axing of the Swindon to Weymouth train.
In fact there was a lot of investment under her stint:
The Thatcher years do seem to have contained a surprisingly large rolling electrification programme, that for various reasons, fizzled out from the mid 90s onwards with the chaos of the privatized railway, the cost overruns of the WCML upgrade and Labour inactivity before Adonis.
ECML
Completion of Bedpan
St Albans Abbey
Cambridge (followed by King's Lynn)
Wessex electrics
Hastings
East Grinstead
Ayrshire Coast Line
Not bad for an 'anti rail' PM and government
If you want a scapegoat then you should review John Major's government who botched the privatisation of BR.
This is true, the coffin had already been assembled but Thatcher nailgunned in the final spike.
Again, incorrect John. What do you base that on? Also, it seems to me that today's railways are not that bad. Ok, so they are effectively still run by the government through franchises and the TOCs do not own the track which is ridiculous, but I will take the train at every opportunity I can. And do.
