Age of rolling stock at privitisation

[odorucam]

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently researching for my undergraduate dissertation on British Privatisation.

Basically im wondering if anyone might know where I can find data on the age of rolling stock either by sector or train operating company (though by TOC would be better), because the ORR datasets only go back as far as 2000 and 2007 respectively, while I need the age back at the start of privatisation.

Any help would be massively appreciated!

 

[edwin_m]

Googling for "Platform 5 Combined Volume 1995" should bring up several "spotter books" from the period. These give details of build year and operator of each vehicle.

 

[odorucam]

THanks for your quick reply!

Is "British Railways Locomotives and Coaching Stock" a good spotters book?

 

[cjmillsnun]

THanks for your quick reply!

Is "British Railways Locomotives and Coaching Stock" a good spotters book?

That'll do.

 

[odorucam]

Super, you all wouldn't happen to know where I could find the route size in kilometres/ miles of each franchise in 1997?

 

[D60]

Average ages of rolling stock pre- and post-privatisation would take some research... But it is an acknowledged fact that whereas BR had a planned programme of rolling stock renewals keeping both BREL and private sector providers busy, the process and implementation of 'privatisation' led to a "1000 day drought" in orders for new rolling stock... which guaranteed the shut-down and closure of most of the UK's train-building capability... ensuring that, whatever its age, (virtually?) all post-privatisation new-build stock is either imported, or UK-built by foreign-owned suppliers..

 

[yorkie]

I'm currently researching for my undergraduate dissertation on British Privatisation.

Good luck. Privatisation put the brakes on many rolling stock replacement projects, hopefully you will mention this!

But a word of caution: age doesn't mean a lot by itself, and the age of the actual vehicle is an irrelevance for passengers. For example, an unrefurbished Class 365 may look newer on the outside, but be a rather unsatisfactory travelling experience for passengers (low seats,, compared to the interior of an HST/IC125 train 15 years older, but recently refurbished, in an adjacent platform at King's Cross. Or compare CrossCountry's HSTs with their incredibly tatty - yet much newer - Voyagers.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I'd ask the question why this became an important statistic back in the mid 2000's. It certainly wasn't one at privatisation! Remember that in the early 2000's privitisation was failing we had several first generation franchise holders delivering if that's the right word appalling service I.e Connex, Northern Spirit etc, several high profile crashes, Railtrack falling apart etc. the Government and the SRA needed a good news story. Fortunately John Prescott had made his blank cheque promise about replacing MK1 commuter stock in the south east and some of the InterCity franchises had ordered new stock so when you crunched the numbers it looked at face value like a good news story amidst the sea of gloom.