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Have the British government as proposed by a young Gladestone, nationalise the building and running of british railways. But also allow counties to build railways within their boundaries at whatever gauge they like. So therefore, have the British railway network have two types of railways by 1914:
National Railways owned by the National government which link industrial areas and conurbations to ports and each other as well as London
County railways run by county authorities running exclusively within their counties' boundaries
National Railways would use the standard national gauge but each county would choose the gauge for their own county railways. Just to assert themselves, most counties deliberately choose to have different gauges from their neighbours. So therefore, unless you are travelling on a national railway, if crossing a boundary you may have to change trains.
How would this effect the demographics, politics and economics of the UK?