| In June 1993 BR's Board
announced the abolition of its business sectors
(including NSE), coming into effect as of April 1st
1994. This decision was a part of several
organisational changes keyed towards
privatisation, and on November 4th
1993 the Railways Privatisation Bill was passed
by Parliament. In preparation for
privatisation, Network SouthEast was split into
11 separate businesses on April 1st
1994, and between 1995 and 1997 these new
businesses were sold off as franchises to the
preferred bidder. What had been the NSE South
London Lines thus became the Network SouthCentral
Franchise.
Almost the only sign of the
coming changes to be seen on the Epsom Downs
branch was the rolling stock, though one did at
times have to look twice to see whether the
brandings on the EMUs were NSE or NSC...
Another small indication that
things were changing were the posters put up at
the stations on the line, although the NSC
leaflet shown here - picked up at Sutton in April
1995 - nicely illustrates the sort of identity
crisis NSC had: Whilst the logo of the advert is
NSC, the Network Card illustrated actually
displays the branding Network SouthEast...
Train services, on the other
hand, remained untouched on the branch, the only
novelty of the 1994/95 timetable therefore being
the NSC branding.
(click for full timetable)
The Network South Central
franchise was awarded to Connex Rail Limited, a
wholly owned subsidiary of the CGEA Group, for a
period of 7 years, starting on May 26th 1996. As of
that date, the company operating the Epsom Downs
branchline would now be called Connex South
Central.
|
|
NSC branding on a Cl 455 at
Banstead in December 1997 - the NSC franchise had
already been won by Connex Rail at that time and
thus itself become a part of British railway
history.
(Adrian Wymann)
(click for full size image)
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