The Network SouthEast Story

En savoir plus sur le livre

By the early 1980s, the traditional regional structure of British rail was increasingly outdated and, in 1982, the passenger business was split into three InterCity, London & South East and provincial. For the first time in railway history, all of the main-line services operating into the London termini along with the rest of the railways in southeast England were united into a single and co-ordinated structure. In 1986, following the appointment of Chris Green as Managing Director, the London & South East sector was rebranded as Network SouthEast with a new and bright livery of red, white and blue. With the area of operation extended to include King's Lynn and Exeter, there was to be almost a decade of major investment in new rolling stock, infrastructure and marketing that was to see NSE as one of the most innovative of railway operators. NSE-branded locomotives operated on services from Waterloo to Exeter, from Paddington over the GWR main line and over the ex-GER lines of East Anglia, whilst major investment saw electrification to Norwich and the reopening of the Snow Hill tunnel, permitting the creation of the electrified service from the ex-Midland main line through to the former Southern Region. New units arrived in large numbers, revolutionising services, for example, into London Marylebone.