Transport Act 1962

Transport Act 1962
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to provide for the re-organisation of the nationalised transport undertakings now carried on under the Transport Act, 1947, and for that purpose to provide for the establishment of public authorities as successors to the British Transport Commission, and for the transfer to them of undertakings, parts of undertakings, property, rights, obligations and liabilities; to repeal certain enactments relating to transport charges and facilities and to amend in other respects the law relating to transport, inland waterways, harbours and port facilities; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Citation10 & 11 Eliz. 2. c. 46
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent1 August 1962
CommencementSeptember 1962
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes
Amended byTransport Act 1962 (Amendment) Act 1981
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

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.

  1. ^ Kahn-Freund, Otto (March 1963). "Transport Act, 1962". Modern Law Review. 26 (2): 174–184. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1963.tb00706.x. JSTOR 1093306.