"Mark Brader" wrote in message
...
Robin Payne:
I tend to beleive the more probably explanation that the Southern
Railway took suburban commuters seriously as a market, and provided
frequent, electric commuter trains. The other 3 of the big 4
basically ignored this market...

I tend to believe this one as well. And I'll add that the reason behind
the reason is that London is in the southeast of Great Britain -- so that
lines running north or west from London could carry lucrative
long-distance
traffic, but other lines could not, because there were no long distances.
The southern railways, and later the Southern Railway, *had* to concen-
trate on short- and middle-distance traffic, because except for one line
to Exeter that competed with the GWR, that was all there was.


Of course, the SER and the LCDR did have the lucrative route to Dover and
other Channel ports (and the South Coast resorts to a lesser extent, if you
include the LB&SCR), but this only increased railway penetration in what was
northern Kent and Surrey, as the railway companies sought to gain some
return on the massive capital outlay they made on competing lines and rival
West End and City terminii.

In the inter-war period, the SR simply had greater financial advantages than
LU. Slapping on a third rail brought in as many new surburan passengers as a
Tube line would, at much less cost (even if an existing line had simply been
converted for use by Tube stock). I think the SR in these years could boast
a 14% return on capital for electrification against the 1% for an
Underground extenstion produced. The SR wasn't going to give up any of these
profits to the Tube easily, and fought so hard over the extension to Morden
that expanding elsewhere in South London just wasn't practical.

I sometimes wonder whether I would gain from a Tube line serving me locally.
I live on the Hayes line, which would be a prime candidate for incorporation
into an extended Bakerloo line (for example). As it stands (assuming normal
service and no nasty surprises in forthcoming timetables) I can reach large
parts of both the West End and the City within 30-40 minutes of my
departure. If the line were wholly given over to LUL, the City would no
longer be directly accessible, and journey times to London would probably be
slower on the most likely route. There should be no problem about ensuring
the off-peak 4tph to London could still be maintained if both services were
allowed to run, but NR trains at peak times would still be fairly crowded.