British Rail - British Rail Marine Services - J

British Rail - J
 
British Rail Marine Services
 
British Rail Ships
 
British Railways operated ships from its formation in 1948 on several routes. Many ships were acquired on nationalisation, and others were built for operation by British Railways or its later subsidiary, Sealink. Those ships capable of carrying rail vehicles were classed under TOPS as Class 99.
 
Sealink
 
Sealink was originally the brand name for the ferry services of British Rail in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Services to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were run by Sealink UK as part of the Sealink consortium, which also used ferries owned by French national railways (SNCF), the Belgian Maritime Transport Authority Regie voor Maritiem Transport/Regie des transports maritimes (RMT/RTM) and the Dutch Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland (Zeeland Steamship Company).
 
Historically, the shipping services were exclusively an extension of the railways across the English Channel and the Irish Sea in order to provide through, integrated services to mainland Europe and Ireland. As international travel became more popular in the late 1960s and before air travel became generally affordable, the responsibility for shipping services was taken away from the British Rail Regions and, in 1969, centralised in a new division – British Rail Shipping and International Services Division.
 
With the advent of car ferry services, the old passenger-only ferries were gradually replaced by roll-on/roll-off ships, catering for motorists and rail passengers as well as road freight. However, given that there was now competition in the form of other ferry companies offering crossings to motorists, it became necessary to market the services in a normal business fashion (as opposed to the previous almost monopolistic situation). Thus, with the other partners mentioned above, the brand name Sealink was introduced for the consortium.
 
In the late 1960s, as demand for international rail travel declined and the shipping business became almost exclusively dependent on passenger and freight vehicle traffic, the ferry business was incorporated as Sealink UK Limited on 1 January 1979, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Railways Board, but still part of the Sealink consortium. In 1979, Sealink acquired Manx Line, which offered services to the Isle of Man from Heysham.
 
On 27 July 1984, the UK Government sold Sealink UK to Sea Containers for £66 million. The company was renamed Sealink British Ferries. The sale excluded the operations of Hoverspeed, the Isle of Wight services and the share in the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, as well as the Port of Heysham. In 1996, the Sealink name disappeared when the UK services, by then owned by Stena, were re-branded as Stena Line. The agreement with the SNCF on the Dover to Calais route also ended at this time, and the French-run Sealink services were rebranded as SeaFrance.
 
Hovercraft
 
The joint hovercraft services of British Rail in association with the French SNCF. British Rail Hovercraft Limited was established in 1965, under authority given to it by the British Railways Act 1967 and started its first service in 1966. Sea speed started cross-Channel services from Dover to Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, France using SR-N4 hovercraft in August 1968.
 
British Rail Overview
 
British Rail Type: State-owned enterprise
British Rail Industry: Railway transport, logistics, shipping, and manufacturing of rolling stock
British Rail Predecessor:
Great Western Railway
London, Midland & Scottish Railway
London & North Eastern Railway
Southern Railway
British Rail Founded: 1 January 1948
British Rail Defunct: 20 November 1997
British Rail Fate: Privatised
British Rail Successor:
National Rail
Train Operating Franchises:
Railtrack
EWS
Freightliner
British Rail Headquarters: London, England
British Rail Area Served: Great Britain
British Rail Key People: Alastair Morton
(Final Chairman of the British Railways Board)
British Rail Products: Rail transport, cargo transport, services
British Rail Owner: Government of the United Kingdom
British Rail Parent:
1948–1962:
British Transport Commission
1962–1997:
British Railways Board
British Rail Divisions:
From 1948:
Eastern Region
London Midland Region
North Eastern Region
Scottish Region
Southern Region
Western Region
British Rail Research Division
Collection & Delivery
Freightliner
Motorail
Night Star Parcels
Speedlink
Rail Express Parcels
Red Star Parcels
From 1982:
InterCity
Network SouthEast
Railfreight
Railfreight Distribution
Rail Express Systems
Regional Railways
Trainload Freight
British Rail Subsidiaries:
British Rail Engineering Ltd
British Transport Hotels
European Passenger Services
Sealink
Seaspeed
Travellers Fare
 
Rail Holidays
Rail Vacations
Luxury Trains
Luxury Tours
International Trains
International Tours
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