| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the appointment and functions of a Rail Regulator and a Director of Passenger Rail Franchising and of users' consultative committees for the railway industry and for certain ferry services; to make new provision with respect to the provision of railway services and the persons by whom they are to be provided or who are to secure their provision; to make provision for and in connection with the grant and acquisition of rights over, and the disposal or other transfer and vesting of, any property, rights or liabilities by means of which railway services are, or are to be, provided; to amend the functions of the British Railways Board; to make provision with respect to the safety of railways and the protection of railway employees and members of the public from personal injury and other risks arising from the construction or operation of railways; to make further provision with respect to transport police; to make provision with respect to certain railway pension schemes; to make provision for and in connection with the payment of grants and subsidies in connection with railways and in connection with the provision of facilities for freight haulage by inland waterway; to make provision in relation to tramways and other guided transport systems; and for connected purposes. |
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| Citation | 1993 c. 43 |
| Territorial extent | |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 5 November 1993 |
| Commencement | 1 January 1994 |
| Other legislation | |
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Status: Amended | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Railways Act 1993 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, fromlegislation.gov.uk. | |
TheRailways Act 1993 (c. 43) was introduced byJohn Major'sConservative government and passed on 5 November 1993. It provided for the restructuring of theBritish Railways Board (BRB), the public corporation that owned and operated the national railway system.
While the administration ofMargaret Thatcher had not done so, theMajor government were determined to privatiseBritish Rail. Railways in the 18th and 19th centuries had originally been built and run with private capital, but subsidised heavily by Parliament and communities who gave land for building through compulsory purchase. Rail was increasingly regulated, for instance under theRailways Act 1921, but was finally nationalised by theTransport Act 1947. Calls for reform of the nationalised system combined with people who believed only the private sector could run rail to ensure better service for passengers at less cost. This led to the Railways Act 1993.
The legislation created a new regulatory regime for the railways, with the establishment of theRail Regulator (dealing with the monopoly and dominant elements of the industry, principallyRailtrack) and theDirector of Passenger Rail Franchising, whose role was to sell passenger rail franchises to the private sector.
A few residual responsibilities of the British Railways Board remained withBRB (Residuary) Ltd.
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The legislation enabled theSecretary of State for TransportJohn MacGregor to transfer separated parts of the railway to the private sector. Passenger rail services werefranchised to private companies includingVirgin Rail Group, Connex and the coach companiesStagecoach andNational Express, and the national railway track and signalling companyRailtrack was floated on theLondon Stock Exchange in 1996.British Rail's track maintenance and renewal operations were sold to private companies, with contracts to provide infrastructure services to Railtrack. The three rolling stock leasing companies orROSCOs, owners of the passengerrolling stock, were sold tomanagement buyout teams.
The Director of Passenger Rail Franchising was replaced in 2001 by theStrategic Rail Authority. When the SRA was abolished in 2006, franchising was taken over by theSecretary of State for Transport. The statutory position of Rail Regulator was abolished in July 2004 and his functions were taken over by theOffice of Rail Regulation.
Railtrack collapsed in highly controversial circumstances in October 2001, and in October 2002 the company emerged from railway administration, a special state of insolvency for railway companies created by the Railways Act 1993, asNetwork Rail. Some commentators regard the creation of Network Rail and its taking maintenance in-house as the beginning of the reversal of rail privatisation.
The legislation has been amended several times, most significantly by theTransport Act 2000, theRailways and Transport Safety Act 2003 and theRailways Act 2005. ThePassenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 greatly altered the sections concerningpassenger rail franchising, as theLabour government took passenger operations into public ownership.[1][2]