The Transport Act 1962 (10 & 11 Eliz. 2. c. 46) 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",[1] 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.
Historical context
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.[2]