Technical Note: The South Eastern and Chatham Railways Managing Committee

In 1898, two railways serving the south-east of England agreed to be managed by a joint committee. This paper finds clear statistical evidence of the negative impact this had on total economic costs, including opportunity costs of capital, as well as working expenditure. Thus, additional support was provided for the then British railway policy already strongly suspicious of railway mergers on competition grounds. At the same time the findings could reopen the discussion on the wisdom of today’s British rail privatisation philosophy. In particular, one could argue that, instead of separating infrastructure and train operations, the creation of vertically-integrated regional duopolies along the pre-1899 networks might lead to genuine competition, require less regulation, reduce costs, and thus increase economic surplus.