The LNER never made a profit, a fact partly accounted for by having inherited the huge debts incurred by the Great Central Railway in building its extension to London.
[1] A commission was set up under the chairmanship of Sir Ernest Lemon to consider the post-war planning and reconstruction of the railways, with representatives of the Big Four and the London Passenger Transport Board.
At in excess of 180 track miles, the M&GN was the largest jointly operated network in Great Britain, and extended from Peterborough to the East Anglian coast.
One joint operation, the Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company, which Irish independence had rendered international, survives to this day.
The railways relinquished the majority stakes they had already acquired but also bought substantial minority shareholdings in other companies in the combine groups.
[3] Where there was a local monopoly of rail services the agreements were bilateral but where inter-penetrating lines were common, there were two railway companies with minority shareholdings, for example, Devon General and Thames Valley Traction (both GWR/SR), Crosville and Midland Red (both GWR/LMS), and Eastern Counties, Eastern National, East Midland Motor Services, Hebble Motor Services, Lincolnshire Road Car, Trent Motor Traction, West Yorkshire Road Car, Yorkshire Traction and Yorkshire Woollen District Transport (all LMS/LNER).
[3] In October 1933, the railways jointly purchased the Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd., owners of Pickfords, and Carter Paterson.
[1] Thomas Cook & Son having come into Belgian ownership, its impounded shares were sold by the British Custodian of Enemy Property to the Big Four.