Rail Industry – 500 Years of Transport By Duncan Freer At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

During the early 1820’s, as Britain experienced a massive trade-boom, it became apparent that the emerging technologies of mobile steam engines and iron rail construction could contribute enormously to the existing road, canal and coastal shipping networks. None of these methods of transport had required government-funding, so a group of private investors petitioned Parliament for the right to construct the lines they thought were commercially beneficial. Parliament agreed and the companies involved soon made substantial profits.

However, without a central governing body to oversee the regional developments, companies started trying to steal custom from each other by building new and more direct lines between major routes. The result was a waste of resources and expenditure and, consequently, lower returns for the companies involved. Larger and more ambitious companies decided to try and overturn the current regime, resulting in a series of amalgamations in the 1840’s. By 1870, the fifteen largest companies controlled 83% of gross traffic revenues and 80% of the paid-up capital.

By 1914, amalgamation had continued to such an extent that over 1,000 small railway companies were absorbed, under the watchful eye of the then President of the Board of Trade, Winston Churchill. From 1923, the remaining companies were grouped into ‘the big four’ – The Great Western Railway, The London and North Eastern Railway, The London, Midland and Scottish Railway and The Southern Railway – who ran the networks separately, until 1947, when the managements united to form one company. This company was nationalised under the British Transport Commission and remained that way until the 1990’s, when privatisation saw passenger operations franchised to 25 individual private sector operators.

Today’s rail network transports over 1 billion people per year, as well as freight and cargo, over 10, 300 miles of track that serve over 2,500 stations. With the changes in rail technology, new rail jobs have been created. Rail vacancies in 1847 would certainly have advertised for ‘navvies’ to lay the miles of track, but there were other railway jobs available. Railway engineering is a specific and skilled job that, when combined with the construction industry, saw the rise of civil engineering. The need for lawyers to sort out the contentious issues of land ownership, sale and conveyancing helped the emergence of accountancy as a separate profession.

Britain has the fastest-growing rail-network in Europe, but the post-privatisation years saw the railways taking on more than they could handle; many routes – especially those to London – were oversubscribed in off-peak times. The Department of Transport, under the leadership of the government, has ordered a restructure of the British railway infrastructure. This, in turn, will open up new job-opportunities for those already in railway jobs and for those wishing to join its ranks.

Today, the basic functions of a railway have evolved into fully-fledged rail careers, with a host of rail jobs available. Rail vacancies now advertise for people with a broad range of skills from commuters to computers, in fields such as construction, technical, customer-services and operations. With advances continually being made in the transport sector, the likelihood is that there will soon be even more new and exciting railway jobs to fill.

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