Network SouthEast

Network SouthEast was a British Rail Sector formed on 10th June 1986 when the London and South East Sector was rebranded.

Sectors were formed when the six passenger regions of British Rail (Southern Region of British Railways, Western Region of British Railways, London Midland Region of British Railways, Eastern Region of British Railways (merged with North Eastern in 1967), North Eastern Region of British Railways (merged with Eastern in 1967), Anglian Region of British Railways (formed in 1988) and Scottish Region of British Railways) were reorganised into business led-sectors.

This process known as 'Sectorisation' saw BR move from its embedded regional structure into three business-led passenger sectors. The other two passenger sectors were; InterCity and Provincial. InterCity was viewed as a 'commercial railway' and London & South East and Provincial as 'social railways'. The sectors of British Rail were merely a business and planning units rather than an operational or administrative one. This meant the regions maintained control over the day to day running of trains were as the sectors specified the nature and quality of service to be provided, prepared investment projects, developed new products and marketing initiatives, and took profit responsibility for the services

The rebranding of the London and South East to Network Southeast included repainting of trains and stations in a hope of reinvigorating the sector. With the Organisation for Quality in 1992 the regions of British Rail were abolished and the sector took over Civil Engineering and the running of trains, under the Network SouthEast 2000 program, also known as Network 2000. Under this program the six individual divisions of the sector became nine profit centres responsible for the running of trains on individual routes. OfQ was overseen by John Welsby a former economist for the Department of Transport who had become Chief Executive of BR in 1990.

Network SouthEast was run from Network House, 1 Eversholt Street, London, NW1 1DN, next to Euston station. The sector was initially headed by Chris Green who was then replaced by John Nelson on 6th January 1992 when the former moved to head InterCity.

Network SouthEast was the largest of the business sectors as well as being the 15th largest company in the United Kingdom, in terms of turnover. Initially the Area Managers of each Region controlled the track, stations and rolling stock but after the abolition of the Regions, under the Organisation for Quality, Network SouthEast became responsible for 2,017 miles of track, 942 stations and 7,160 rolling stock vehicles. It ran trains across the South East of England as well as commuter trains into all of the London terminuses from East Anglia, the Midlands and along the Great Western Mainline. This was spilt over six divisions: North, East, West, Southwest, Southcentral and Southeast, within which the regions operated trains through 27 administrative areas. These were latter split into the nine profit centres used to run trains under the Network 2000 program. These were split into two groups, the South Group: Thames Link, South East, South Central, South West, and the North Group: Great Eastern, London Tilbury and Southend, West Anglia and Great Northern, North and Thames and Chiltern. Each of these was headed by a Divisional Director who reported to the Group Director who in turn reported to the Sector Director.

In addition to this the sector included the only Underground stock to be run by British Rail, the Waterloo and City line as well as on the Isle of Wight, part of the South West division. These profit centres were broken up, in 1994, into the 11 Train Operating Units, Great Eastern, London Tilbury Southend Rail, North London Railways, Network South Central, South Eastern, South West Trains, Isle of Wight, Chiltern Lines, Thames Trains, Thames Link and West Anglia and Great Northern.

Network SouthEast ceased to operate on 1st April 1994 when it was split into 11 franchises operated directly by the British Railways Board until they were sold off between 1995 and 1997.