☆ Channel 4 News: launch of Network SouthEast | 10 June 1986

[@CoastwayWill]

...and it was the largest success in our railway history in the UK! Still highly recognised today! Clap clap!

[@soundseeker63]

NSE really did look quite fresh on the newer units like the class 317 - 321 etc. But didn't sit quite so well on some of the older slam door units particularly those found on the Southern region, which dated back to the 1950s. Some of which were still running well into the new millennium! You can still see those NSE style red benches dotted around the place, usually at the more minor stations. Since privatisation NSE is now operated by about a dozen different private companies, and I'd wager the public subsidy for them is considerably more than NSE ever got!

[@Cliffjumper24]

I can't remember which exact year it was, but it was around 1992-94... NSE had joined IntertCity as the passenger sector that didn't require a subsidy at all. As the NSE livery, I thought the livery looked great on older slam-door units... far better than the Blue/Grey livery that came before it. Amusingly, when I first got interested in trains in 1988, my Unit spotting book had a shiny newly liveried vehicle in NSE livery, and I thought it looked really futuristic! Little did I know... they were the Waterloo & City stock from 1940, and were almost 50 years old!! The front cover had a brand new Class 319 in NSE, and even today I have a fond place in my heart for Class 319's! Nowadays, I get to see them often, operating out of Manchester where I live!

[@rjjcms1]

Those benches,signage and the reddy-pink paintwork became a familiar sight on platforms for many a year,of course.

[@AFCManUk]

The creation of Network Southeast was a major factor in saving Marylebone Station from closure, and the whole Chiltern Line itself.

[@steved8193]

Finsbury Park: "a bright, stylish, clean, well-lit, welcoming environment!"

[@mbvideoselection]

😁

[@dronespace]

😂

[@CoxallK]

What a guy Chris Green was, never blamed anyone else, took sole responsibility of his decisions, spoke well, was honest and said 'I' instead of 'we' "spend" ... making clear that if anything was to go wrong, he was reasonsoble without blaming anyone else publically. How refreshing when you consider the lying, thieving, robbing pricks we got all over the place now.

[@grahampearson5670]

I remember Chris Green being managing director of Network South East. Rail magazine interviewed Chris a few times during his operational career.

[@keiko909]

At least they showed both positive and negative opinions from the public

[@mikekaraoke]

Loving the electric door trains in the 80's, I remember in the early 80's they were all door ones then by 1984 electric door trains came in :-) I remember thinking it was so futuristic when I saw it on TV and then in person

[@Faulty720]

You can still find those trains in service around the southeast area (the one shown here operates between Cambridge and Liverpool Street for example) but are quickly being replaced by new class 720 trains on this route, which in my opinion are less comfortable.

[@PeteS_1994]

1:25 The train looks so modern there.

[@Keithbarber]

It was a new class 317 min original livery

[@james9958]

Now those new trains, Class 317s featured in this video have been scrapped or withdrawn from service as of July 2022.

[@damixneditz]

5:47 we served the south, and it abandoned us

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

I can’t imagine what the old station seating must have been like...

[@TheGreenjacketbilly]

Network Southest was brilliant

[@dronespace]

Loved the livery

[@Keithbarber]

Whatsleft of network southeast? The network railcard and a few remnants of their livery

[@soundseeker63]

You can still see quite a few of those "Network seat" aka metal benches dotted around the place (all over the UK actually) and possible some of the digital clocks. I think most of the 317 units are still running too, for the time being at least.

[@Juniper458]

My local station (Downham Market) underwent a refurb a few years back, it included a repaint of the station lampposts, benches and station buildings which saw them back into the NSE blood red colour, NSE station signage was also brought back. In fact the finished station was unveiled with the help of Mr. Green himself :)

[@moocow4654]

Lots of old signs still remain albeit many of them have had their NSE colours covered.

[@JamieMurphy25]

Of course in later life, Network SouthEase was privatised and divided into several franchises, which today are: c2c, Chiltern Railways, Abellio Greater Anglia, First Great Western, Island Line, London Midlands, London Overground, Southeastern, Southern, Govia Thameslink Railway and South West Trains.

[@tobysummers471]

Now Great Western Railway instead of fgw

[@nathanw9770]

And soon crossrail

[@vanillasplash6198]

Crossrail (Elizabeth line) is a tube line so it doesn't count sorry

[@nathanw9770]

vanillasplash It's not really a tube line. First of all although it's run by tfl it's not classed as a tube train due to its shape, classification number, and simply because it's terminus (reading) is far out of Greater London. Here's a video with more reasons kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5ncl5Z8f5yGiZY

[@vanillasplash6198]

I think the majority of londoners/tourists ect will see the map at the stations and think 'oh cool the tube goes to Reading' and a large percentage of people will only ride it in the central core, with the misleading 'Elizabeth line' name i can see it being reffered to as a tube by non train savvy people. thanks for the link

[@deldirk7123]

I was going to London with a South East Pass aimed at visitors from outside the UK, in the late 1980's to explore the London area surface rail network. I wasn't sure what the trains were like. I had seen David Attenborough's 1984 series 'The Living Planet' which showed a London Train, a yellow and blue slam door DC unit. I was expecting mainly slam doors trains, based on that programme, however I got what I later found out was a 455 with automatic doors from Victoria to Purley. I noticed the freshness of the NSE branding with 3 'network expresses' on some services, including refurbished DC stock on the newly electrified Hastings line, 321's on the Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria, and NSE liveried class 47's hauling NSE liveried Mk1 coaches (or were they Mk2) from Paddington to Oxford and Bedwyn. I also travelled on NSE branded 101 DMU's and the 2-coach DMU's on some other non electrified NSE routes including Paddington to Reading. I noticed over the next few years NSE extended its branding to some services from Paddington to Birmingham. I'm not sure but I seem to remember Waterloo to Exeter services were NSE branded. Certainly that route was included on maps of NSE if the service was not branded NSE. When 'The Living Planet' was made, NSE had not been launched. 'Network Express' seemed to be the NSE equivalent of the 'Express' brand in the 'Provincial' sector of BR, which later became Regional Railways, those Provincial 'Express' services I think were Super Sprinters. NSE non electrified routes started to get new stock in the early 1990's with their own Networker Turbo units

[@Thunderer0872]

Great for daytime travel for those of us who didn't commute, and of course for those poor souls who did. However, all the red seats and lighting poles were too much for drivers who complained about the fact red means stop. Anyway £3 go anywhere the first weekend was a great day out. But Mk1 coaches with paint on the inside of doors, hap-dash was not a new coach. Certainly by 1990 with new units on the Weymouth, Thameslink Kings Lynn made up for what it was like in the first days.

[@Xgeneration28]

Chris Green was very blunt lol

[@sladeblade103]

1 million for a full train! Pah how times have changed. Sheffield's new trams cos 3 times that.

[@PeteS_1994]

Also a million pounds was more expensive then than it is now.

[@ClydebridgeStation]

Is it OK to put this link onto my layouts Facebook page?

[@2001JamesTV]

This is from the day after I was born!

[@coastliner7009]

2001JamesTV your older than network southeast

[@leonardssenkindu8445]

Awwwww 😃

[@user-do2rj4sf8j]

Why is it all pink inside.

[@leonard2005ify]

Lol, Finsbury Park station went kind of dirty and changed now

[@leonard2005ify]

That Common swine smoking the cigarette at the platform, he says how he says it if you know what I mean, lol 😂😈

[@markc8956]

This is what you guys that live in and around the major cities - here in Scotland,or south of the border in London. Us folks in the rural areas are shafted with our services because YOU want it all. Not fair and about time you learnt to give,rather than take with the trains.

[@simonp5890]

nationalisation is not the answer, but there needs to be more competition on single lines.

[@GryphLane]

Yes it is the answer.

[@thelasttimelord7550]

More competition on a single line is physically not possible Simon . Nationalisation is the way of handling stuff

[@rachel.mcgowan]

Privatisation of BR was ideological madness. There was no call to do it other than to please the Thatcherite hardliners still calling most of the shots at the time. Many loyal Tory voters were not in favour, so there was no electoral imperative at play. It likely contributed to the sheer size of the 1997 defeat.

[@davidbull7210]

@@rachel.mcgowan except that even Thatcher wouldn't have privatised the trains.

[@davidbull7210]

It is exactly the answer for a natural monopoly like the railways. Government subsidies for the privatised railways have been far in excess of what they were previously. Socialism for the free market again.