Transport Act 1962
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the re-organisation of the nationalised transport undertakings now carried on under the Transport Act, 1947, and for that purpose to provide for the establishment of public authorities as successors to the British Transport Commission, and for the transfer to them of undertakings, parts of undertakings, property, rights, obligations and liabilities; to repeal certain enactments relating to transport charges and facilities and to amend in other respects the law relating to transport, inland waterways, harbours and port facilities; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. |
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| Citation | 1962 c. 46 |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 August 1962 |
| Commencement | September 1962 |
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Status: Amended
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to dissolve the British Transport Commission (BTC), which had been established by Clement Attlee's Labour government in 1947 to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport. The Act established the British Railways Board, which took over the BTC's railway responsibilities from 1 January 1963 until the passing of the Railways Act 1993.
The Act put in place measures that enabled the closure of around a third of British railways the following year as a result of the Beeching report, as the Act simplified the process of closing railways removing the need for pros and cons of each case to be heard in detail.
By the end of 1960, British Railways had accumulated a deficit of some £500 million and the annual rate of increase of the deficit was estimated to be in the region of £100 million. The Act sought primarily to remedy this situation by putting public transport operators on the same footing as private companies, reversing the policy that had been in place since the earliest days of transport law, namely that the carrier was a monopolist to be controlled and regulated by the State for the benefit of the public.
By virtue of Sections 36 and 38 of the Act, some of the debts of the BTC, including the funds invested in the failed 1955 Modernisation Plan, were written off or transferred to the Treasury. The British Railways Board was directed, under Section 22, to run the railways so that its operating profits were "not less than sufficient" for meeting running costs.
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