The Transport Act, 1947 was part of the nationalisation agenda of Clement Attlee's Labour government. The act nationalised the railways, canals and road freight transport, and formed the British Transport Commission to regulate these areas from 1 January 1948 onwards. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Transport Authority took over.

Fifteen years later, under the Transport Act, 1962, Harold Macmillan's Conservative government dissolved the British Transport Commission, and created the British Railways Board to take over its railway duties from 1 January 1963.