LIST OF COMPANIES OPERATING TRAINS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
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For historical and geographical reasons the railway network of the United Kingdom is split into two independent systems: one on the island of Great Britain (including the Isle of Wight), and one in Northern Ireland, which is closely linked to the railway system of the Republic of Ireland. See main articles for more details: ''Rail transport in Great Britain'', ''Rail transport in Ireland''
Great Britain
In 'Great Britain', passenger train services are operated by a number of companies, referred to as ''Train Operating Companies'' or TOCs, normally on the basis of regional franchises awarded by the Department for Transport Rail Group, until 2005 this role was carried out by the Strategic Rail Authority. The infrastructure of the railways in England, Scotland, and Wales – including tracks, signalling, and stations – is owned and operated not by the train companies but by Network Rail, which took over responsibility from Railtrack in 2002. Most of the trains used to operate passenger services are owned by a small number of Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCOs) and are leased to the individual TOCs. However, a handful of TOCs own and maintain some of their own rolling stock.
All the passenger train operating companies in Great Britain are privately owned. The majority of these own franchises to operate rail services on specific parts of the railway and come under the auspices of National Rail. However, due to the private nature of the railways in Great Britain, companies are able to bid for "slots" (specific parts of the overall National Rail timetable) to operate their own services - these operators are classed as 'open-access operators' and are not franchise holders. Currently in Great Britain, there is one open-access operator, Hull Trains, with a second, Grand Central, due to start operating in 2007. A third company, Wrexham & Shropshire, is to start running services in 2008. In addition, there are operators that fall outside the purview of National Rail, which operate specific services which are recent additions to Britain's railways. The main examples are Eurostar, which operates via the Channel Tunnel, and Heathrow Express, which runs fast services to Heathrow Airport.
The government is in the process of amalgamating a number of franchises, to reduce the number of different operators. This process began in 2004 with the establishment of the 'Greater Eastern Franchise', consisting of all of the services into and out of London Liverpool Street station, which were taken over by 'one'. In April 2006, the 'Greater Western Franchise', under the name First Great Western, began operating services out of London Paddington and local services in the west of England, while the 'Integrated Kent Franchise', using the name Southeastern, took over services from Victoria, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Blackfriars; Southeastern will also have responsibility for high speed domestic services operated on the CTRL from St Pancras. Further amalgamations have seen an integrated 'South-Western Franchise', encompassing south-west England and the Isle of Wight begin operating in February 2007, while an 'East Midlands Franchise', a 'West Midlands Franchise' and a 'Cross-Country Franchise' will begin in November 2007. A number of metropolitan railways on the network are operated by the local franchise holder in conjunction with the Passenger Transport Executive or other civic body responsible for administering public transport. One of these bodies, the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, is responsible for the only National Rail franchise not awarded by central government, namely the Merseyrail franchise. National Rail services on the London Overground network will be controlled entirely by Transport for London starting from Novmeber 2007.
The Association of Train Operating Companies is the coordinating body of the train operating companies in Great Britain and owns the National Rail brand which uses the former British Rail double-arrow logo and organises the common ticketing structure. At first glance it may look as if a large number of companies are involved in the UK's rail system. However, many of the train operating companies are in fact parts of larger companies which operate multiple franchises. The biggest are National Express Group, First Group, Virgin Trains and Arriva.
Northern Ireland
In 'Northern Ireland', passenger services were never part of British Rail. On the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, the Ulster Transport Authority was formed to administer all public transport in the province. In 1966, the UTA was split between its road and rail operations, with Ulster Transport Railways responsible for running Northern Ireland's rail network. Northern Ireland Railways continues to have responsibility, and remains the sole government owned railway operator in the United Kingdom, as a subsidiary of the government-owned public transport holding company Translink. In addition to its services within Northern Ireland, NIR also operates Enterprise, a service from Belfast-Dublin, in conjunction with Iarnród Éireann, the state railway company of the Republic of Ireland. Iarnród Éireann also operates one Commuter-branded cross-border service per week. As with railways throughout Ireland, the track in Northern Ireland is not standard gauge (1435 mm), but is at a gauge of 5 ft 3 in (1600 mm).
Passenger operators
Current passenger operators
Arriva Trains Wales Class 158.
First Great Western Class 180 ''Adelante''.
Virgin Trains Class 390 ''Pendolino''.
It should be noted that there are also a number of separately branded services are run as part of other franchises:
★ Stansted Express - the fast rail service to Stansted Airport operated by 'one'
★ Caledonian Sleeper - the sleeper service between London and Scotland operated by First ScotRail
★ Night Riviera - the sleeper service between London and Penzance operated by First Great Western
★ Island Line - the rail service operated on the Isle of Wight by South West Trains
★ Citylink - the intercity cross country service operated by Central Trains
There are also several heritage lines and light rail systems.
Defunct operating companies
Anglia Railways Class 86.
Connex South Eastern Class 465.
Wales and Borders Class 158 "Alphaline".
A number of operating companies have ceased to exist for a number of reasons, including premature withdrawal of the franchise; the natural term of the franchise has expired; bankruptcy; or there has been a merger.
Future operators
Franchises
The following companies will commence operations from November 2007 onwards:
★ London Midland will consist of Silverlink County services plus local services in the West Midlands operated by Central Trains. The new franchise will be divided into two sub-brands:
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★ London Midland Express - intercity services from London-Birmingham and Birmingham-Liverpool/Preston
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★ London Midland City - commuter services in the West Midlands
★ East Midlands Trains will consist of current Midland Mainline services from St Pancras combined with local services in the East Midlands operated by Central Trains, and the Liverpool-Norwich service. The new franchise will be divided into two sub-brands:
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★ East Midlands Mainline - intercity services from London to Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield
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★ East Midlands Connect - local services in the East Midlands
★ CrossCountry will consist of current Virgin Cross-Country routes and current Central Trains Cardiff/Hereford - Nottingham and Birmingham - Stansted Airport routes.
★ National Express East Coast will take over from GNER to run inter-city services on the East Coast Main Line.
Open-access
★ Grand Central Railway is a new company that has proposed running services up both the ECML and WCML under two different names:
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★ Grand Central is the name given to services London and Sunderland. It has been given initial approval to run trains in 2007. Grand Central also proposed running services between London and Bradford as part of its initial access bid.
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★ Grand Union is the name that has been proposed for services running between London and Bradford along the West Coast Main Line, and for proposed semi-fast services between Bradford and Doncaster.
★ Renaissance Trains has proposed running services to several destinations under a number of brand names:
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★ Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway is a new company that has applied to run services between London and Wrexham via Shropshire. It has been given initial approval to run trains in 2007, and will start its operations in the spring of 2008.
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★ Glasgow Trains has proposed to run services between Glasgow to Blackpool, Liverpool and Nottingham.
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★ Humber Coast & City Railway are planning to run services between Cleethorpes and Lincoln to Stratford, London via Peterborough and Cambridge.
Other
★ London Overground will initially consist of the current Silverlink Metro routes in London, to be combined with the extended East London Line. Services will be controlled directly by Transport for London, with running of the trains themselves contracted to a private company as an ''operating concession''. This is different to an ordinary franchise, as the train operator will not be given control the strategic aspects of the operation, such as pricing, timetabling and rolling stock procurement.
Railtours
The privatisation of British Rail allowed the introduction of 'open-access operators', in which companies, upon payment of a fee, could purchase individual slots on the mainline. This has led to the growth in companies offering charter trains, and to the 'railtour'. Most railtour operators run services in part of the country; however, there are a handful that operate services nationwide. Usually, these will see a train made up of ex-BR rolling stock pulled by a hired locomotive from one of the freight companies. Occasionally, a preserved ex-BR locomotive that is certified to run on the mainline will be made available for such charters. Some of the major railtour companies include the following:
★ Compass Tours
★ DPS Railtours
★ Hertfordshire Rail Tours
★ Pathfinder Tours
★ Scottish Railway Preservation Society
★ Venice-Simplon Orient Express
★ Vintage Trains
Sea links
A number of coastal railway stations in the United Kingdom serve to provide connections to ferry services to a number of destinations. Most of the ferry operators in these cases set their timetable to run in conjunction with the arrivals and departures of rail services from the stations serving the ferry terminals. A handful of these even offer integrated pricing for both rail and ferry travel - because the Island Line is part of the National Rail network, passengers can purchase tickets for travel to any of the stations on the Isle of Wight from any other station in Great Britain. This ticket also covers the cost of passage on the Wightlink catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head.
International operations
There are two main international services which operate on the railways in the United Kingdom - Eurostar, which runs between London Waterloo, Paris Gare du Nord and Bruxelles Gare du Midi/Brussel Zuidstation through the Channel Tunnel, and Enterprise, which operates on the Irish network between Belfast Central and Dublin Connolly. A third service which is worth mentioning is Dutchflyer (GoLondon in the Netherlands). This is not a separate rail service in itself, as the others are, but a collaboration between 'one', Stena Line and Nederlandse Spoorwegen to provide an integrated rail/sea/rail service between eastern England (London Liverpool Street, Cambridge, Norwich) and The Netherlands (Amsterdam Centraal) using a single ticket.
A further international service is provided by Venice Simplon Orient Express. Although this is primarily a railtour operator, with special trains to various locations in the United Kingdom, it also operates the scheduled Orient Express service to destinations in Europe. This involves two separate trains; the ''British Pullman'' departs from London Victoria and terminates at Folkestone Harbour, where passengers transfer by coach through the Channel Tunnel to Calais; at Gare de Calais-Ville, they then join the ''Orient Express'' which then calls at various destinations including Paris, Vienna, Innsbruck, Venice and Rome.
Current freight operators
★ Direct Rail Services
★ English, Welsh and Scottish Railway
★ Fastline
★ Freightliner
★ FirstGBRf
★ Mendip Rail
References
★ List of Train Operating Companies on the National Rail website
★ Barry Doe's colour-coded map showing operator(s) on each route (Large PDF)
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