Agency_Scum":18ic619o said:She sent our railways back further than Beeching's cuts, insisting the privatised British Rail be divided into an irreversible 96 independent companies.
That was the act of a bunch of civil servants and lower-profile members of HMG. John Major set the wheels of rail privatisation in motion, and even then it wasn't carried out in the manner he wanted it to be done (i.e. essentially a reversion to the "Big Four" pre-nationalisation entities with no separate infrastructure company).
That said, Thatcher was not a very pro-rail PM*, a stance which put her very much at odds with BR chairman Sir Peter Parker.
David
*Then again, actively pro-railway politicians are like hens' teeth. I'm struggling to name one, other than ex-Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.