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The World's First Railway System - Enterprise, Competition, and Regulation on the Railway Network in Victorian Britain (Hardcover)
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The World's First Railway System - Enterprise, Competition, and Regulation on the Railway Network in Victorian Britain (Hardcover)
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The British railway network was a monument to Victorian private
enterprise. Its masterpieces of civil engineering were emulated
around the world. But its performance was controversial: praised
for promoting a high density of lines, it was also criticised for
wasteful duplication of routes.
This is the first history of the British railway system written
from a modern economic perspective. It uses conterfactual analysis
to construct an alternaive network to represent the most efficient
alternative rail network that could have been constructed given
what was known at the time - the first time this has been done. It
reveals how weaknesses in regulation and defects in government
policy resulted in enormous inefficiency in the Victorian system
that Britain lives with today.
British railway companies developed into powerful regional
monopolies, which then contested each other's territories. When
denied access to existing lines in rival territories, they built
duplicate lines instead. Plans for an integrated national system,
sponsored by William Gladstone, were blocked by Members of
Parliament because of a perceived conflict with the local interests
they represented. Each town wanted more railways than its
neighbours, and so too many lines were built. The costs of these
surplus lines led ultimately to higher fares and freight charges,
which impaired the performance of the economy.
The book will be the definitive source of reference for those
interested in the economic history of the British railway system.
It makes use of a major new historical source, deposited railway
plans, integrates transport and local history through its regional
analysis of the railway system, and provides a comprehensive,
classified bibliography.
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