Citation

Lloyd P. J. Transp. Hist. 2019; 40(1): 123-140.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0022526618818398

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article uses a range of primary and secondary sources to analyse the work of the Irish Railway Commission 1836-39 and its challenge to the predominantly laissez-faire approach to railway development in Britain. The commission produced a model for developing railways with the state and public interest at its heart, and it advocated railways as a system that was planned to deliver specific political and economic objectives. It thereby threatened railway interests in Britain and mobilised senior political advocates of laissez-faire to defeat the commission. Nonetheless, its work was a substantial contribution to understanding Ireland and the weaknesses of nineteenth-century railway regulation that deserves a more prominent place in the history of the relationship between technology and politics.

Language: en