Railways played a major role in the great period of Victorian port expansion. Earlier docks were difficult to adapt for railways, generally hemmed in by populous areas and only reached by laying rails through the street. Their small size meant that wagons had to be moved around them singly over turntables.

It took some time for dock owners to realise the changes that railways were bringing about. The new Clarence Dock, Liverpool opened in 1829, only a year before the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, had no railway nearer than the L&MR’s Wapping goods station 1 ½ miles away in the old south docks. The goods station itself relied on cartage to and from the quays until 1833 when rails were laid to the coal yard at King’s Dock, and through the streets to the timber yards at Brunswick Dock in 1835. It was 1855 before the first branch railway was opened to the expanding North Docks. The Hull & Selby Railway built a line to Hull docks from the outset in 1840, but the new Railway Dock of 1846 was too small for the largest steamers, while the Victoria Dock of 1850-2, which could accommodate them, at first lacked good rail connections.

In 1948 the British Transport Commission formed on the nationalisation of the railways. It had the following divisions:

- Railway Executive
- Hotels Executive
- Docks & Inland Waterways Executive
- Road Passenger Executive
- Road Haulage Executive
- London Transport Executive

In 1962 the British Transport Commission is abolished and its activities separated off into various public corporations.

                        - Railway Executive > British Railways Board
                        - Hotels Executive > British Transport Hotels
                        - Docks & Inland Waterways Executive is split
                                                - Docks > British Transport Docks Board
                                                - Inland Waterways > British Waterways Board
                        - Road Passenger Executive > Transport Holding Company
                        - Road Haulage Executive > British Road Services
                        - London Transport Executive > London Transport Board

The British Transport Docks Board, which had been profitable and self-financing for many years, had invested heavily in order to modernise its port facilities. With the Government determined to pass its assets to the private sector, it was renamed Associated British Ports on 1st January 1983 and the following month 49 per cent of the company was offered to the public. Thus British Transport Ports  were privatised and became Associated British Ports Holdings PLC.

However some port and docks were retained in British Rail as part of its Railway Shipping Services. BR's Shipping and International Services Division was established in 1968 and became fully operational in August the following year. Its assets embraced the considerable fleet of BR vessels and harbours. Shortly afterwards the Shipping Division joined a consortium of shipping companies owned by the French Railways, the Belgian Marine and the Dutch Zeeland Steamship Company, to be marketed as Sealink. In 1979 it became a separate but wholly-owned subsidiary of the BRB, and one of the biggest shipping companies in the world, as Sealink UK Ltd.

In 1984 Sealink was privatised and sold to British Ferries, a subsidiary of Sea Containers Ltd, an international seafreight company whose owner and President, James Sherwood, had recently purchased five of the former British Transport Hotels. This sale took place at a time when one large cross-channel ferry was valued at approximately £20 million. It was a bargain for Sea Containers who took over 37 ships of various sizes, 10 harbours and 9,390 staff of whom 2,529 were salaried.