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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now those new trains, Class 317s featured in this video have been scrapped or withdrawn from service as of July 2022.

1:25 The train looks so modern there.

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

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.

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.

Network Southest was brilliant

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

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

Chris Green was very blunt lol

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

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

This is from the day after I was born!

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

Why is it all pink inside.

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.

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

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