The Network South East Story
By Chris Green and Mike Vincent.
Item code: NSES.
By the early 1980s, the traditional regional structure of British Rail was increasingly outdated and, in 1982, the passenger business was split into three sectors: InterCity, London & South East and provincial. For the first time in British railway history, all of the main-line services operating into the London termini along with the rest of the railways in southeast England were united into a single and co-ordinated structure.
In 1986, following the appointment of Chris Green as Managing Director, the London & South East sector was rebranded as Network SouthEast with a new and bright livery of red, white and blue. With the area of operation extended to include King's Lynn and Exeter, there was to be almost a decade of major investment in new rolling stock, infrastructure and marketing that was to see NSE as one of the most innovative of railway operators.
NSE-branded locomotives operated on services from Waterloo to Exeter, from Paddington over the Great Western mainline and over the ex-GER lines of East Anglia, whilst major investment saw electrification to Norwich and the reopening of the Snow Hill tunnel, permitting the creation of the electrified service from the ex-Midland main line through to the former Southern Region. New units arrived in large numbers, revolutionising services, for example, into London Marylebone.
The Network South East Story is compiled by Chris Green and Mike Vincent, who write with authority, and follows the updating and re-issuing in 2013 or their Inter-City Story.
Since his retirement from the rail industry, having also both BR's InterCity service and latterly Virgin Trains, Chris Green is now a Railfuture vice president, and has spoken at several Railfuture conferences most notably at the time of launching Operation Princess for Virgin Trains.
The book is only available in hardback format.