Transport Act 1947
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the establishment of a British Transport Commission concerned with transport and certain other related matters, to specify their powers and duties, to provide for the transfer to them of undertakings, parts of undertakings, property, rights, obligations and liabilities, to amend the law relating to transport, inland waterways, harbours and port facilities, to make certain consequential provision as to income tax, to make provision as to pensions and gratuities in the case of certain persons who become officers of the Minister of Transport, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. |
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| Citation | 1947 c. 49 |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 6 August 1947 |
| Commencement | 1 January 1948 |
| Repealed | 1 January 1963 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Transport Act 1962 |
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Status: Repealed
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The Transport Act 1947 (c. 49) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation. The commission was responsible to the Ministry of Transport for general transport policy, which it exercised principally through financial control of a number of executives set up to manage specified sections of the industry under schemes of delegation.
The Act was part of the nationalisation agenda of Clement Attlee's Labour government, and took effect from 1 January 1948. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Transport Authority acted in a similar manner. The government also nationalised other means of transport such as canals, sea and shipping ports, bus companies, and eventually, in the face of much opposition, road haulage. All of these transport modes, including British Railways, were brought under the control of a new body, the British Transport Commission (BTC).
The BTC was a part of a highly ambitious scheme to create a publicly owned, centrally planned, integrated transport system. In theory the BTC was to co-ordinate different modes of transport, to co-operate and supplement each other instead of competing. This was to be achieved by means of fare and rate adjustments. In practice, very little integration between modes ever materialised.
Section 5 of the Act provided for the setting up of a number of Executives within the BTC: the Railway Executive; the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive; the Road Transport Executive; and the London Transport Executive were to be created immediately, with the Hotels Executive to be set up at a later date. The same section allowed the number and names of these Executives to be varied as necessary.
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