Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

9.6 Most of the Acts now proposed for repeal were enacted in the period 1860 to
1895. By 1860 the principal arteries of the railway network in England and Wales
had been completed but there was a need to link outlying rural areas with the
network. Branch lines and extension railways were commonly planned to meet
this need. Many such railway projects proved uneconomic. Each of the Acts now
proposed for repeal in this Group has been examined to ensure that none
supports (a) any operating railway or (b) any disused railway that could be
restored to use.
9.7 It is clear that none of the railway projects envisaged by these Acts resulted in the
completion of any railway. Indeed many were abandoned without any land being
purchased or track laid. Accordingly the Acts now proposed for repeal in this
Group have been obsolete for more than a century.
9.8 The railway system grew during a period of intense competition between different
railway promoters. Many railway projects failed. Indeed the passage of the
special Act authorising a railway construction was often the only permanent
reminder that any such project had ever been envisaged. Until 1850 the only way
a railway company could legally abandon its construction project, escape its
contractual obligations, secure the release of its Parliamentary deposit and
secure its own dissolution was to promote another Act of Parliament sanctioning
this. Many such Acts were passed during the 19 th and early 20 th centuries for this
very purpose. Their sole objectives in each case were to authorise the
abandonment of the railway construction proposals, provide for payment of
compensation and recovery of Parliamentary deposit moneys, and to secure the
dissolution of the railway company. Having achieved this objective the Acts
became obsolete. Many are now proposed for repeal in this present repeals
exercise.
9.9 The Abandonment of Railways Act 1850 (“the 1850 Act”) 2 provided an alternative
and cheaper abandonment procedure. The 1850 Act enabled a railway company
wishing to abandon its project to apply to the Railway Commissioners (later the
Board of Trade 3 ) for the issue of a warrant authorising the abandonment of the
project and, in cases where the whole railway was to be abandoned, the
dissolution of the company itself. 4 The 1850 Act originally applied only to projects
authorised before 1850. It was later extended to any railway project sanctioned
by Act passed before 1867. 5
9.10 This alternative method for abandoning a railway project did not result in the
repeal of the legislation passed to authorise the project in the first place. So the
original special Act (together with any subsequent amending legislation)
remained on the statute book. Many of these special Acts, though long obsolete,
are still sitting on the statute book. These too are now proposed for repeal in the
present repeals exercise.
2 13 & 14 Vict. c.83.
3 Railway Regulation Act 1851 s 1. Later still, abandonment applications were handled by
the Minister of Transport (whose office and Ministry was established by the Ministry of
Transport Act 1919).
4 A company could apply for a warrant authorising abandonment only with the consent of
three-fifths of the shareholders: Abandonment of Railways Act 1850, s 1.
5 Railway Companies Act 1867, s 31.
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