This time the Big Four, together with London Transport, were taken under government control on 1 September 1939, two days before the outbreak of the war, and again they were run on behalf of the government by a Railway Executive Committee consisting of experienced railway managers. Private cars, buses and lorries were now commonplace and many people had become accustomed to travelling by road. Now, almost overnight, the railways regained their position as a virtual monopoly. Petrol rationing was imposed to ensure that the meagre amounts of oil getting through the German blockades were reserved for military purposes, and it was left to the railways to cope with the influx of people and freight which had previously gone by road. Trains, of course, were run on home-produced coal but the number of passenger services was curtailed in anticipation of widespread bombing, putting added pressure on those that remained. Rationing through travel permits was briefly considered but reckoned to be impractical and instead the government settled for publicity posters featuring the famous slogan ‘Is your journey really necessary?’ and the rather more prosaic and indeed confusing message ‘Give your seat to a shell’.1 This time, the railway lines and stations were one of the principal targets for enemy attack, and it was not a matter of a few airships or small aircraft dodging the barrage balloons as in the First World War.
