Building a British Rail in Britain: Advocating For a Nationalised Industry 1960-1990

In 1965, the nationalised railway changed its name from “British Railways” to “British Rail” (BR). This move was designed to broaden the appeal of the railways to the travelling public. Over the course of the period, BR’s marketing saw a subtle shift in focus from “places” to “people” as it used new marketing methods to understand its traveller base. BR opened the doors to new experts, new media (including TV), new methods ultimately for new markets. This paper explores some of the challenges of marketing the newly “modernised” railway between 1960 and 1990. It explores how BR – an effective and competent marketer – responded to different pressures from the public and from successive governments (from all parties).

But BR was not alone with these challenges: Nationalised industries across the period were also getting to grips with their ability to “market”. This talk sees BR in the wider context of nationalised industry marketing efforts, arguing that the pressures exerted by the stakeholders in nationalised industries had a profound impact on the evolution of marketing.

This session ties in with the ‘Railway 200’ programme, being marked nationally during 2025.

Dr Lewis Smith is a Lecturer in Marketing at Brunel University of London with particular interests in corporate heritage, business history, marketing and the state. In particular, he has worked on the organisational and marketing histories of a number of different historic nationalised industries including Britain’s nationalised airways, railway and energy industries. Recently this has included projects on the public and third sector in Britain since the Second World War, most recently focusing on the nationalised energy industries and their use of communications in the post-war period.