"Colin" wrote in message ...
"Chris Henderson" wrote in message
...
When British Rail was created, what were the reasons for not making the
London Underground part of it?

Doesn't the existence of two very separate railway networks in London make
travelling in or across London harder (when separate fares and/or tickets
are needed), less well informed (due to relative lack of public knowledge
of the ability to make many journeys by NR instead of/as well as by LU, or
vice versa), and more expensive (due to missed economies of scale in
management, staffing and many other areas) than could be the case with one
merged network? What mitigating circumstances are there?

A metro system that is part of the National Rail network seems to work
perfectly well in Liverpool. Are there reasons why it wouldn't in London?

(Genuine questions from a puzzled non-expert.)

The split of LUL from NR does indeed impede integrated transport in London
due to the numerous ticketing differences and splits in responsibility. One
such inconvenience at the moment is the inability to use Oyster Pre-Pay on
NR services within Greater London.

The Government has recognised the need for further integration and is
proposing to give the Mayor of London / TfL greater powers over Suburban
Rail services in the Greater London area. This should result in a common
fare structure, integrated publicity / maps etc. and a common point of
reference for passengers.

Technically there are very many differences between the NR & LUL networks, &
the huge short term cost involved in trying to merge the structures will
probably mean they will always stay seperate, as any eventual savings will
never be realised within a single mayoral term or Government.

Surely, regardless of the politics, it is a good idea to keep
Network-Rail separate from London Underground. The two are actually
quite different types of business and the Underground actually carries
more passengers per day in London than Network Rail does over the
whole country - albeit over shorter distances in most cases. I
nevertheless welcome TfL getting more control over the surbarban
services which do need to be better integrated with the Underground.

If you gave Network Rail control over LUL tracks they just wouldn't be
able to cope with it - they have enough on their plate as it is.
Integrating the two organisations would be a pointless exercise.
Integrated transport is better served by co-operation between the
various organisations involved, not takeovers.