Dr James Fowler - Turning the lights on and the Railways off

Dr James Fowler, a business history lecturer at Essex University, discusses the little explored inter-relationship between the railways and energy networks like the national grid.  Before the national grid the railways were essential for delivering Britain’s domestic energy supply through transporting coal to every household in the land.  Then, in 1963, the arrival of the national grid, which coincided with the infamous Beeching report, meant a revolution in the railway network, transforming how the railways ran not only in the withdrawal of some rural services but in terms of the transition in the development of technology, allowing for the introduction of regular high speed trains and the pivot to focus on passengers rather than energy supply.