Railways, land-use planning and urban development : 1948-94.

The aim of this thesis was to bridge a gap in the research literature with regard to commentary on and evaluation of the relationship between British land-use planning and the management and development of the railway network in the years between 1948-94 when British railways were in public ownership. Although the research was focused on the nationalised main line system, it reviewed other rail systems where this was helpful to the analysis.The research utilised a review of the relationship between the railway network and urban form in the years to 1947 to derive analytical criteria and to serve as a point of departure for the core of the thesis. The overall relationship between the two sectors post-1948 was explored, at a broad geographical scale, with regard to institutional relationships, policy, and outcomes with regard to the spatial relationships between the railway network and patterns of urban form. The results of this research were used to derive hypotheses about the relationships which were then tested in a case study of the Manchester conurbation.The main conclusions are that there were few periods between 1948-94 when the ideological, institutional and policy frameworks necessary for a close and positive relationship between the planning and railway sectors were in place simultaneously. The contexts which were most favourable were with regard to: the location of new towns and town expansion projects in the South East in 1950s and 1960s; the improvement of railway networks in the PTE areas between 1968-79 along with the development of strategic policies for the restriction of major trip generators to CBDs; the period between 1985-94 when a surge in the property market was accompanied by BR Sectorisation, investment in other forms of fixed track transit, and the promotion of major development projects at and around stations, especially in CBDs.The research concludes by identifying opportunities for further historical research and briefly reviewing the relevance of the findings to contemporary research.