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List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Due to historical and geographical influences the railway network of the United Kingdom is split into two independent systems: one on the island of Great Britain and 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
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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. The actual trains used to operate the passenger service are owned by a small number of Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCOs) and are leased to the individual TOCs.
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 and Marylebone Railway, is also bidding to run open-access services. 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 will see an integrated south-west franchise (south-west England and the Isle of Wight), an East Midlands franchise, a West Midlands franchise and a Cross-Country franchise. 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. A second such franchise, London Overground, will be awarded by Transport for London to start in 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.
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 (1435mm), but is at a gauge of 5ft 3in (1600 mm).
- Arriva Trains Wales (Welsh: Trenau Arriva Cymru)
- c2c[1]
- Central Trains[2]
- Chiltern Railways
- Enterprise[3]
- Eurostar
- First Capital Connect
- First Great Western
- First ScotRail
- Gatwick Express
- Grand Central[4]
- GNER
- Heathrow Connect
- Heathrow Express
- Hull Trains
- Merseyrail
- Midland Mainline[5]
- Northern Rail
- Northern Ireland Railways[6]
- 'one'
- Silverlink[7]
- Southern
- Southeastern
- South West Trains
- TransPennine Express
- Virgin Trains CrossCountry[8]
- Virgin Trains West Coast
- ^ Formerly known as LTS Rail
- ^ To be dissolved and split between Silverlink, Virgin CrossCountry and Midland Mainline in 2007
- ^ Operated by Iarnród Éireann and Northern Ireland Railways on the Irish railway network
- ^ Will operate services from Sunderland to London King's Cross from 2007
- ^ To be amalgamated with some of Central Trains to form East Midland
- ^ Operates on the Irish railway network
- ^ To be split; Silverlink County to be amalgamated with some of Central Trains to form West Midland; Silverlink Metro to be transferred to TfL as part of London Overground
- ^ To be amalgamated with some of Central Trains to form Cross Country
It should be noted that there are also a number of separately branded operators that 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
There are also several heritage lines and light rail systems.
- Arriva
- Arriva Trains Wales (Welsh: Trenau Arriva Cymru)
- BAA
- BAA & First Group
- First Group
- First Group & Keolis
- Fraser Eagle Group
- GoVia - Go-Ahead Group & VIA-GTI (French public transport operator).
- Laing Rail
- Eurostar (U.K.) Ltd., SNCF[10] & NMBS/SNCB[11]
- Iarnród Éireann[12] & Northern Ireland Railways
- National Express Group
- Serco Group & NedRailways
- Sea Containers Ltd
- Great North Eastern Railway (GNER)
- Stagecoach Holdings
- Translink
- Virgin Group
- Virgin Trains CrossCountry
- Virgin Trains West Coast
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.
The companies to operate the following franchises has not been confirmed. Some may be taken on by existing companies.
- West Midlands will consist of Silverlink County services plus local services operated by Central Trains.
- East Midlands 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.
- Cross Country will consist of current Virgin CrossCountry routes and current Central Trains Cardiff/Hereford - Nottingham and Birmingham - Stansted Airport routes.
- London Overground will initially consist of the current Silverlink Metro routes in London, to be combined with the extended East London Line.
- East Coast franchise will see a new franchise holder taking over from GNER to run inter-city services on the East Coast Main Line.
- Grand Central Railway is a new company that has proposed running services up both the ECML and WCML under two different names:
- Grand Central is the name given to services London and Sunderland. It has been given intial approval to run trains in 2007. Grand Central also proposed running services between London and Bradford as part of its initial access bid.
- 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.
- Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway is a new company that has applied to run services between London and Wrexham via Shropshire. It has applied to start in 2007.
- Glasgow Trains has proposed to run services between Glasgow to Blackpool, Liverpool and Nottingham.
- Humber Coast & City Railway are planning to run services between Cleethorpes and Lincoln to Stratford, London via Peterborough and Cambridge.
The privatisation of British Rail allowed the introduction of open-access railways, 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
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.
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.