After growing rapidly in the 19th century during the Railway Mania, the British railway system reached its height in the years immediately before the First World War, with a network of . The network had opened up major travel opportunities for the entire country that had never been possible before. However, lines were sometimes uneconomic and several Members of Parliament had direct involvement with railways, creating a conflict of interest. In 1909, Winston Churchill, then President of the Board of Trade, argued that the country's railways did not have a future without rationalisation and amalgamation. By 1914, the railways had some significant issues, such as a lack of standard rolling stock and too many duplicated routes.