Editing British Rail (section)

=== Transport Act 1968 ===
{{Main|Transport Act 1968}}
Following the election of [[Labour government, 1964–1970|Labour]] in 1964, on a platform of revising many of the cuts, [[Tom Fraser]] instead authorised the closure 1,071&nbsp;mi of railway lines, following the recommendations from the ''[[Beeching cuts|Beeching Report]]'' even lines not considered closing.<ref>{{cite book |last = Henshaw |first = David |title = The Great Railway Conspiracy |publisher = McDermott|page = 165 |edition = Third |year = 2013 |isbn = 978-0-957651 1-0-4}}</ref> After he resigned in 1967, his replacement [[Barbara Castle]] continued the line and station closures but introduced the first Government rail subsidies for socially necessary but unprofitable railways in the [[Transport Act 1968]]. Part of these provisions was the creation of a [[passenger transport executive]] or PTE within larger metropolitan areas. Prior to this, public transport was run by individual local authorities and private companies, with little co-ordination. The PTEs took over the responsibility (but not ownership) of managing local rail networks.

The 1968 Act created five new bodies. These were:

* [[West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive|West Midlands PTE]] on 1 October 1969
* [[Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive|SELNEC PTE]] (South East Lancashire & North East Cheshire) on 1 November 1969 (now ''Greater Manchester'')
* [[Merseytravel|Merseyside PTE]] on 1 December 1969 (now Liverpool City Region)
* [[Tyneside Passenger Transport Executive|Tyneside PTE]] on 1 January 1970 (now ''Tyne and Wear'')
* [[Strathclyde Partnership for Transport|Greater Glasgow PTE]] on 1 June 1973 (now ''Strathclyde'')

This was the first real subdivision of BR since its inception in 1949, and likely saved many lines earmarked for closure,{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} notably the [[Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway]], which [[Northern line (Merseyrail)|now]] forms part of the [[Merseyrail]] network.