The Story of Speedlink

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In an attempt to rescue one of its most important sources of revenue, in 1977 British Rail launched Speedlink, a business sector that would take on the client-based wagonload freight which had been a staple of UK railway operations since its very inception 150 years earlier, but is now more well known for its controversial demise in 1991 when, thanks to a mixture of profit chasing and political malice, the sector was abruptly wrapped up, essentially surrendering both short and long-distance client-to-client transportation to the roads.

Chapters:
0:00 - Preamble
1:04 - Origins of Wagonload Freight
3:26 - Common Carriers Act
5:12 - Post-War Traffic Decline
7:10 - A Rapidly Changing World
9:40 - Rise of Speedlink
11:44 - Sectorisation and Railfreight Distribution
14:13 - Fall of Speedlink
15:56 - Freightconnection and the Channel Tunnel
17:48 - Wagonload Freight today
19:24 - Conclusion

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References:
- RMWeb (and their respective sources)
- Hansard UK Parliament (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)