
:''For transport in Northern Ireland, see rail transport in Ireland'' [[image:rail.diesel.wapleybridge.750pix.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Class 180 Multiple Unit of First Great Western at speed near Yate, Bristol, England. Top speed is 200 km/h (125 mph)]] The United Kingdom railway system is the oldest in the world. It consists of almost 16,536 kilometres (10,274 miles) of standard gauge track, of which 4,928 km (3,062 miles) is electrified. ==Historical overview== ''Main article'': History of rail transport in Great Britain Great feats of engineering were performed in its creation. Examples from the Victorian era are the building of the Forth Bridge (railway), or the replacement of 177 miles (285 km) of broad gauge rail with standard gauge in a single weekend from May 21, 1892. Such feats are not things of the past; recent and current examples are the building of the Channel tunnel for the link to the Continental railway systems, and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from London to the tunnel. The system was originally built as a patchwork of local rail links operated by small private railway companies. Over the course of the 19th century and early 20th century these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained (see railway mania). The entire network of was brought under government control during the world War I, and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were revealed. However, the government resisted calls for the nationalization of the network (first proposed by William Gladstone as early the 1830s). Instead, from January 1 1923 the remaining companies were Railways Act 1921 into the "big four", the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway (UK) companies. These were joint stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until December 31 1947. The growth in road transport during the 1920s and 1930s greatly reduced revenue for the rail companies. Rail companies accused the government of favouring road haulage through the subsidised construction of roads. The railways entered a slow decline owing to a lack of investment and changes in transport policy and lifestyles. There was no new construction after 1914 and a backlog of maintenance had built-up by 1939. The network was again taken under government control during the second World War. The maintenance backlog greatly increased during the war, and the private sector was unable to deal with this after the war ended. After 1945, for both practical and ideological reasons, the government decided to bring the rail service into the public sector. From the first moment of 1948, the "big four" were nationalization to form British Railways (latterly "British Rail") under the control of the British Transport Commission. Although BR was a single entity, it was divided into five regional authorities in accordance with the existing areas of operation. Though there were no initial changes to the service, usage increased and the network became profitable. Regeneration of track and stations was completed by 1954. In the same year, changes to the British Transport Commission, including the privatisation of road haulage, ended the coordination of transport in the UK. Rail revenue fell and in 1955 the network again ceased to be profitable. The mid-1950s saw the rapid introduction of diesel and electric rolling stock, however the expected transfer back from road to rail did not occur and losses began to mount. The desire for profitability led to a major reduction in the network during the mid-1960s after the Stedeford Committee, chaired by Dr Richard Beeching, reviewed the railway network (also known as the "Beeching axe"). Many branch lines, particularly in rural areas, were closed because they were deemed inefficient. The closure of stations serving rural communities removed much feeder traffic from the main line passenger services. The closure of many freight depots that had been used by larger industries such as coal and iron led to almost all freight transferring to road haulage. This neutralised any savings made by the closures, and the network began to decline again. The closures were extremely unpopular with the general public at that time, and remain so today. Although passenger services experienced a brief renaissance with the introduction of high-speed inter-city trains in the 1970s, the decline of the rail network continued. Passenger levels have fluctuated since this time, increasing during periods of economic growth and falling during recessions. The 1980s saw severe cuts in government funding and above-inflation increases in fares. The service became more cost-effective but increasingly unreliable. In the early 1990s the five geographical Regions were replaced by a Sector organisation, where passenger services were organised into Inter City, Network SouthEast, Other Provincial Services sectors, etc. This new organisation showed promise of being a more efficient organisation of the railways, but within a couple of years of its implementation the structure was fragmented by the privatisation process. Privatisation of British Rail in 1996. The track and infrastructure was devolved to a company called Railtrack, whilst ticketing and passenger and freight operations were franchised to individual private sector operators (originally 25 passenger and 4 freight operators). The government claimed that privatisation would see an improvement in passenger services: this outcome has not yet been realised, although passenger levels initially increased to the level they had been at in the late-1980s. A series of major rail accidents after privatisation — at Ladbroke Grove rail crash, Hatfield rail crash, Potters Bar rail crash, and Great Heck rail crash — caused widespread loss of confidence in the safety of rail travel. After the Hatfield crash, speed limits were drastically reduced throughout Britain and train travel was seriously disrupted for months. Railtrack came close to bankruptcy due to the enormous cost of additional safety measures and was effectively re-nationalised, when ownership of the railway system was transferred to the newly-created "not for profit" company limited by guarantee, Network Rail on October 3, 2002. Most of the private rail companies are heavily subsidised but much of the investment has not gone into regeneration or modernisation. However, the government has resisted public pressure to return the network to the public sector. ==Geography & infrastructure== Great Britain is an island roughly triangular with an acute apex. The capital, London, is in the south-east. Main railway lines radiate from London in many directions; the major lines are discussed elsewhere (''see linkbox, below''). At the end of September 2003 the first part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, a high speed link to the Channel Tunnel and on to France and Belgium, was completed, significantly adding to the rail infrastructure of the country. The rest of the link, from north Kent to St Pancras railway station in London, is planned to open in 2007. A major programme of remedial work on the West Coast Main Line is ongoing. ==Passenger services== Passenger train services in the UK are, in the main, structured on the basis of regional franchises awarded by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to List of UK Train Operating Companies. There were 26 such regional franchises up to April 2004, but the number of different operating companies is smaller as some firms including Arriva, National Express and Stagecoach have more than one franchise. In addition a number of local or specialised rail services are allocated by local government, or through other arrangements not involving the SRA. Examples include the Heathrow Express. In the 2002–3 operating year SRA franchised services provided 976 million journeys totalling 39.7 billion passenger kilometres of travel, which was an increase over 1986–7 of 32% in journeys (from 738 million) and 29% in passenger kilometres (from 30.8 billion). On the other hand, taking a longer term view the number of journeys in 2002–3 was lower than for the 1950–60 period; the passenger kilometres figure, after being a flat from 1965–1995, surpassed the 1947 figure for the first time in 1998, and continues to rise steeply. The key index used to assess passenger train performance is the ''Public Performance Measure'' which combines figures for punctuality and reliability. Performance against this metric has been expecially poor since mid-2000. From a base of 90% of trains arriving on time in 1998, the measure dipped to 75% in mid 2001, and by the end of the 2002–3 period, had only recovered to 80%. The real increase in rail fares after accounting for inflation over the 1995–2004 period was 4.7%. Average rolling stock age — thought to be an indicator of passenger comfort — fell slightly from the third quarter of 2001–2 to the third quarter of 2003–4, from 20.7 years old, to 19.3 years old. See List of UK Train Operating Companies ==Freight services== There are four main freight operating companies, the largest of which is English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS). Types of freight carried include ''intermodal'' — in essence containerised freight — and coal, metals, oil, and construction material. Freight services have been in steady decline since the 1950s, although the Department for Transport's ''Transport Ten Year Plan'' calls for an 80% increase in rail freight measured from a 2000–1 base. Statistics on freight are specified in terms of the weight of freight lifted, and the ''net tonne kilometre''. being freight weight multiplied by distance carried. 87 million tonnes of freight was lifted in the 2002–3 period, against 138 million tonnes in 1986–7, a decrease of 37%. 18.7 billion net rail kilometres of freight movement were recorded in 2002–3, against 16.6 billion in 1986–7, an increase of 13%. A symbolic loss to the UK rail freight industry was the custom of the Royal Mail, which from 2004 is discontinuing use of its 49-train fleet, and switching to road haulage after a near 170 year preference for trains. Red liveried mail trains have long been part of the tradition of the UK railways, not least because of the film ''Night Mail'', for which W. H. Auden wrote the poem of the same name. ==Leasing services== A proportion of the rolling stock of British Rail was sold off to companies that lease or hire stock to passenger and freight operators, as well as to National Rail and railway maintenance companies. Leasing is relatively commonplace in public transportation, since it enables operating companies to avoid the complication associated with raising sufficient capital to purchase assets; instead, assets are leased and paid for from ongoing revenue. There are three major leasing companies, and a number of smaller operations: ===Leasing Companies=== * Angel Trains, owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and which claims to be the biggest rolling stock company in Britain, with some 5,000 assets. [http://www.angeltrains.co.uk/ website] * HSBC Rail a lessor of domestic passenger rolling stock, owned by HSBC. * Porterbrook, owned by the Abbey National Group, which leases some 3,500 locomotives, trains and freight wagons. [http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/english/frame.html website] ===Spot-Hire Companies=== *Cotswold Rail, a spot-hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 47 locomotives. This company works closely with Anglia Railways.[http://www.cotswoldrail.com/homeset.htm website] *FM Rail (formerly Fragonset Railways), a spot-hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 31, British Rail Class 33, British Rail Class 45, British Rail Class 47, British Rail Class 56, British Rail Class 73 and British Rail Class 86 main line locomotives. [http://www.fmrail.com/ website] *GL Railease owned by GATX Capital, and Lombard, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland. *Harry Needle Railroad Company Ltd, an industrial and main line locomotive hire and overhaul company. Operates British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 37 locomotives. [http://www.hnrc.co.uk/ website] *Riviera Trains, a spot-hire company with a fleet of British Rail Class 47 locomotives. *RT Rail, a small hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives. *West Coast Railway Company, a spot-hire and railtour-operator with a stock of British Rail Class 37 and British Rail Class 47 locomotives, as well as the prototype passenger British Rail Class 57 locomotive. ==Statutory framework== UK railways are run at arm's length from the government, through two government organisations, both of which have statutory powers under various Acts of Parliament (such as the Railways Act 1993, the Competition Act 1998 and the Transport Act 2000), and both of which receive Directions and Guidance from the Secretaries of State for Transport. The two organisations share the same purpose, but have different jurisdictions; the two entered into a concordat in February 2002 to clarify demarcation and communications issues. The Strategic Rail Authority is the statutory strategic planning and coordinating body for the rail industry, and the guardian of passenger and freight interests. It determines strategy for passenger and freight train services, let and manages franchises to operators, and enforces consumer protection franchise licence conditions. Following the 2004 Rail Review, the SRA is to be wound up and its responsibilities transferred to the Government and Network Rail. The Office of Rail Regulation has as its principal functions to regulate Network Rail's stewardship of the national rail network infrastructure, and to hold train operating companies accountable to the terms of their operating licence. It replaced the Office of Rail Regulation in 2004. In addition, safety in the railway industry is regulated and enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, and the National Audit Office provides audit reports on Network Rail to the House of Commons. See also: Structure of the rail industry in the United Kingdom. ==Local metro systems== A number of towns and cities have metro systems: ==UK railway stations== Most UK railway stations date from the Victorian era and are located on the edge of town centres. Major stations are generally in large cities, with a particular concentration in London, but some important railway junction stations lie in smaller cities, for example Crewe station and Carlisle station. ==Railway Industry == ===Statutory authorities=== *Health and Safety Executive — [http://www.hse.gov.uk/railways/index.htm Website] *Office of Rail Regulation — [http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/ Website] *Strategic Rail Authority — [http://www.sra.gov.uk/ Website] *UK Notified Bodies — [http://www.riagb.org.uk/nobos.htm/ Website] ===Network rail & signalling operations=== *Railtrack (1996–2002) *Network Rail (2002—) — [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ Website] — (A "not for profit" company limited by guarantee) ===Other national entities=== *Association of Train Operating Companies — ATOC — [http://www.atoc.org/ Website] *Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen — ASLEF — [http://www.aslef.org.uk/ Website] * Institution of Railway Operators — [http://www.railwayoperators.org/ Website] *National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers — RMT — [http://www.rmt.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Freight Group — [http://www.rfg.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Passengers Council and Committees — [http://www.railpassengers.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Safety and Standards Board — RSSB — [http://www.rssb.co.uk/ Website] * The Railway Forum — [http://www.railwayforum.com/ Website] * Railway Mission — [http://www.railwaymission.org/ Website] * Railway Study Association — [http://www.railwaystudyassociation.org/ Website] *Transport Salaried Staffs' Association — TSSA — [http://www.tssa.org.uk/ Website] ===Regional entities=== ''See Passenger Transport Executive'' * Centro (West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.centro.org.uk/wwwroot/HomePage.asp Website] * GMPTE (Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.gmpte.com/ Website] * Merseytravel (Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/ Website] * Metro (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.wymetro.com/ Website] * Nexus (Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.nexus.org.uk/ Website] *SYPTE (South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.sypte.co.uk/index.htm Website] * Strathclyde Passenger Transport — [http://www.spt.co.uk/ Website] *Transport for London — TfL — [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/ Website] ===Train franchises (and operating company)=== : (excluding metro companies such as London Underground and Tyne & Wear Metro) *Arriva Trains Wales — Replaced old Wales and Borders (previously Wales and West, previously South Wales and West) and Valley Lines franchises in 2003. — [http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/ Website] *c2c — Previously LTS Rail. [http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/ Website] *Central Trains — [http://www.centraltrains.co.uk/ Website] *Chiltern Railways — [http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/ Website] *First Great Western — [http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ Website] *First Great Western Link (replaced Thames Trains April 2004) — [http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/link Website] *First ScotRail — [http://www.firstscotrail.com/ Website] *Gatwick Express — [http://www.gatwickexpress.com/ Website] *Great North Eastern Railway — GNER — [http://www.gner.co.uk/ Website] *Island Line IOW — [http://www.island-line.co.uk/ Website] *Merseyrail Electrics — [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/ Website] *Midland Mainline — [http://www.midlandmainline.com/ Website] *Northern Rail — [http://www.northernrail.org/ Website] New franchise covering old First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern urban routes. *One Railway — Replaced Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and the West Anglia route of West Anglia Great Northern franchises in April 2004. [http://www.onerailway.co.uk/ website] *Silverlink — [http://www.silverlink-trains.com/ Website] *South Eastern Trains — [http://www.setrains.co.uk/ Website], formerly operated by Connex South Eastern until November 2003. Currently the only franchise in the public sector. *South West Trains — [http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/ Website] *South Central Trains — Renamed from South Central Trains in June 2004. [http://www.southernrailway.com/ Website] *Thameslink — [http://www.thameslink.co.uk Website] *TransPennine Express — [http://www.firstgroup.com/tpexpress/ Website] *Virgin Cross-Country — [http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ Website] *Virgin West Coast — [http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ Website] *WAGN — WAGN — [http://www.wagn.co.uk/ Website] *Wessex Trains — [http://www.wessextrains.co.uk/ Website] ===Freight railway companies=== *English Welsh and Scottish Railway — EWS — [http://www.ews-railway.co.uk/ Website] *Freightliner — [http://www.freightliner.co.uk/ Website] *Direct Rail Services *GB Railfreight ===Open access operators and other non-franchised passenger operators=== *Eurostar — [http://www.eurostar.com/ Website] *Heathrow Express — [http://www.heathrowexpress.co.uk/ Website] *Hull Trains — [http://www.hulltrains.co.uk/ Website] *Northern Ireland Railways — [http://www.nirailways.co.uk/ Website] *Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) ==Early railway companies (1820s–1840s)== ** This is only the earliest of the main line openings: for a more comprehensive list of the hundreds of early railways see List of early British railway companies *South Eastern Railway *Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway (BDJR) *Grand Junction Railway (GJR) *Liverpool and Manchester Railway (LMR) *London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) *South Eastern Railway *North Midland Railway (NMR) *Midland Counties Railway (MCR) *Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&D) *Taff Vale Railway (TVR) ==Grouping (1923–1947)== Under the Railways Act 1921 the majority of the railway companies in Great Britain (and few in Northern Ireland) were grouped into four main companies, often termed the ''Big Four'': the grouping took effect from 1 January 1923. The Big Four were: *Great Western Railway (GWR) *London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) *London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) *Southern Railway (UK) (SR) For a comprehensive list see List of railway companies involved in the 1923 grouping ==Heritage and private railways== There are also a number of heritage and private railways — see List of British heritage and private railways. ==See also== *Rail transport by country *History of rail transport in Great Britain *List of funiculars in the United Kingdom *UK topics ==References== *[http://www.sra.gov.uk/publications/national_rail_trends_pubs/nrt_q3_0304/nrt_file_q3 National Rail Trends] 2003–2004 quarter three, from the Strategic Rail Authority. (Warning: Portable Document Format format) *[http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstrat/documents/page/dft_transstrat_503944.hcsp DfT Transport Ten Year Plan 2000] from the UK Government Department for Transport. *[http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/03-04/0304532.pdf Network Rail — Making a Fresh Start] — National Audit Office report, 14th May 2004. (Warning: Portable Document Format format) *[http://www.imeche.org.uk/railway/events/list_of_past_events.asp Railway industry topic guides from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers] ==External links== *[http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/maps.htm UK Railway Maps] Rail transport in Great Britain
==Country / Region Naming of all UK/GB/NI/Ire Rail & Rail History Pages== was "''Proposed move back to rail transport of Great Britain''" There has been some to-ing & fro-ing of the names of pages, and a number of users have expressed an interest, or have work affected by any changes. So this is a suggested location for a discussion & documentation of the naming of this set of pages. See also Talk:History of rail transport in Great BritainEdit & comment away. ===Proposals=== '''It's getting a little hard to follow who supports what, and exactly what the issues are. So could I invite you all to add plans to, comments on, and votes for, a range of naming plans found at: Talk:Rail transport in the United Kingdom/Alternate naming schemes''' thanks, --User:Tagishsimon 08:28, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Discussion=== User:Duncharris's 16:15, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC) message kicking off the latest rounds of the discussion: :The UK has two separate rail systems. They are not connected, they are not even the same gauge. They are not run by the same people, and they have different histories. For that reason, they should be split atleast into rail transport in Northern Ireland, though it may be possible to discuss the Irish situation by itself. Either way, the move from Great Britan to United Kingdom was wrong. User:Duncharris 16:15, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC) User:Zoney 16:31, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC), on Talk:History of rail transport in Great Britain :This should remain at History of rail transport in Great Britain - Ireland is a seperate rail system - different history. Even the gauge is different. Don't forget Ireland was all one administration when rail in the island began. User:Zoney 16:31, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) I'd suggest separate articles on History of rail transport in Great Britain and History of rail transport in Ireland (that's all Ireland), since the two histories are very different and the gauge difference is a major distinguishing feature. Treating Ireland as one makes sense since IE also runs some of the passenger services to Belfast and all the freight services in NI. User:Arwel Parry 21:01, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I would agree with this proposal. Split 'Great Britain' and 'Ireland', since we are talking about developments on the ''geographical entities'', not on the ''political'' ones. 'Great Britain' is the correct name for the largest of the British Isles. User:Morven 21:30, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) I must disagree. As this is a part of the Rail transport by country series, it is nonsensical to have it as 'Rail transport in Great Britain' as I have already pointed out there is no such a country as 'Great Britain'. Also there are many countries which have separate rail systems. For example India where several different systems on different gauges exist. And (correct me if i'm wrong) but doesn't each Australian state have a raiulway system on a different gauge (or at least used to) User:G-Man 12:01, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) : ''As this is a part of the Rail transport by country series''. Perhaps that is part of the problem? Arwel & others point that the Ireland railways are integrated, and separate from the GB railways. I'm not convinced a) that we should allow the putative Railways by Country scheme to force our hand; nor that we could not go in a GB direction without emperilling that project. -User:Tagishsimon I agree that the it makes sense to have separate history pages for Britain and Ireland. But I dont agree thet the main pages should be split into 'Great Britain' and 'Ireland', although we should point out that Northarn Ireland,s railways are separate from the main network User:G-Man 11:30, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I agree that page for British railways (current situation) should be Rail transport in the United Kingdom rather than Great Britain. But while Northern Ireland can probably be discussed in context of the British railway network on that page, Rail transport in Ireland should remain as is due to the linked nature of the rail network in 'Ireland' (the island/non-political country). :User:Zoney 13:55, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Previous Discussion=== Earlier debate under the title ''Naming' :Shouldent this be moved to Rail transport in the United Kingdom as that is which country this is talking about. There is no such a country as 'Great Britain'. Great Britain is an island not a country. User:G-Man 18:40, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ::I'd be happy with that change; I don't have a strong preference either way & am willing to be led, but I deplore the fact that we seem to use GB and UK interchangably. --User:Tagishsimon 18:44, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I moved it - there are some redirects to fix if you want to help! Thanks, User:The Trolls of Navarone 18:51, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Fitting in Northern Ireland=== Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are now covered together in the History of rail transport in Ireland, due to the common history (and until 1922, by which time most railways in Ireland had been built, common administration). There's large gaps to be filled. In fact, I've also covered the island as a whole in Rail transport in Ireland - because for all intents and purposes it's the one rail system. (Shared/common traction/rolling stock, cross-border services, same unique gauge, etc.) Also the term 'Ireland' refers to the geographical island. A seperate article could still be added at Rail transport in Northern Ireland to focus in more on the internal NI services and stations. (also situation with Translink, AKA UTA MarkII or bus company running trains). But seeing as I don't live in the North, someone else can tackle this!!! It could of course just be added to the main article. It's not really possible to have a 'solely' Republic of Ireland article, unless the trains vanish at the border, people from the Republic never use NIR services and NIR and IÉ never make joint stock purchases or share locos / rolling stock. So there's the rationale behind the current situation.
User:Zoney 11:34, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) : I agree with Zoney (who knows more about Ireland than me!). However, we must point out why Ireland is covered in one article, (''for geographical, historical and operational reasons'') i.e. not sectarianism. I think perhaps rail transport in the United Kingdom should be a small article explaining the differences. I've also altered the rail transport by country to reflect this with Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland both linking to Ireland. User:Duncharris 12:54, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC) ::Duncharris, I've simplified that (nice but a tad heavy on the PC - kinda MAKES it a sectarian issue!) to the following, which is nicely ambiguous (people from NI can choose Ireland or United Kingdom). Ideally the subject (NI railways) should be covered from both points of view - as part of British rail network (or seperate but grouped with it), or as part of an all-island network in Ireland - in each article. * Ireland: see Rail transport in Ireland * The Netherlands: see Transportation_in_the_Netherlands#Rail_transport_(heavy_rail) and other sections of that article * United Kingdom: see Rail transport in the United Kingdom ::Hope you agree that this ambiguity in the page is warranted, sufficiently NPOV and handy. ::User:Zoney 14:04, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) Yes and no. Due to the peculiar history of the United Kingdom there are several rather incoherent levels of political government, geography, etc. Although the history is slightly entwined at some points, (e.g. NCC being owned by the Midland/LMS), they are still very much separate. The main Great British system, has 16,536km of track (98% of the UK total), and the smaller system in Northern Ireland which has 357km (2% of the UK total) CIA factbook. The Republic of Ireland has 1,947km track. I propose the following: * rail transport in the United Kingdom should be a short article (2-3 paragraphs?) explaining the differences between the two main systems. I can't see how a good article can be written on this without splitting it straight away into Great Britain and Northern Ireland anyway. * rail transport in Great Britain should be the article as it is now on the island of Great Britain (which btw should include the Isle of Wight, Anglesey and Holy Island, Anglesey, as they are part of England and Wales). In this article, reference should be made to the Ireland article(s)... I'm less sure about Ireland. There is scope for one or two articles, and I think this is a separate subject to be discussed. There is however, an important distinction to make between the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland. There's also the possibility of having a hierachy with more detail lower down. The problem comes when one has to describe how they are owned and run with two different systems. Regarding history, early history is more entwined, and in particular whether one considers the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or the later United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But its probably better to deal with them as you have. As regards political correctness, Wikipedia ''has'' to be politically correct. To be honest, its not that difficult (just requiring a footnote for example), and the troubles in Northern Ireland require some tip-toeing round and being explicit when referring to geographic areas and not the geographic-political spaghetti in these waters. And G-Man, the comparison with Australia isn't valid, since Australia is geographically one entity with several gauges, whereas the UK is two separate geographical entities with two separate systems.User:Duncharris 11:27, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC) :Regards political correctness, my theory is that the situation described above is sufficiently ambiguous (i.e. have UK and 'Ireland', and cover NI differently in both, and/or link from both to seperate NI article if created by an NI enthusiast) and doesn't upset anyone enough to warrent any kind of disclaimers and such. I'm not against PC per se, its simply that sometimes it shouldn't be needed - i.e. it's used because something needs changing. In the case above, Rail transport by country was actually creating an issue, hence the need for the disclaimers! :User:Zoney 11:39, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC) With respect, I disagree. I think we need to be absolutely specific and not ambiguous as this communicates the information better. Duplicating articles isn't a good idea unless you have a summary and main article in a hierachical structure. With what you're suggesting, the hierachy isn't there. The issue of sectarianism is there, is not going to go away. Pretending there isn't an issue in itself may cause problems. As for rail transport by country, would it be better then to move it to rail transport by region? That way the trans-European networks transport routes can be described, for example. Anyway, we need a way forward... User:Duncharris 12:42, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Listing of Franchises / TOCs on this & other pages== Apologies - I put in a list of TOCs and websites, before noticing there was a link to a page on TOCs. Still, the thing probably needs better arranging ... should this page: * List by TOC * List by Franchise * Not list but link to another list? As it was, t'other list, the long winded List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom seems to have an index of Franchises, though apparantly it doesn't believe in Railfreight Companies. (And who does, come to that. But they still exist). The TOC list on this page has website links, which I think are in order. Also, I think we need pages for, and links from this page in the listing at the bottom, to all the rest of the machinery - SRA, Office of the Rail Regulator, and anything else that seems relevant. Finally, a pointer to the rail.co.uk site would probably also not go amiss. --User:Tagishsimon ==Gauge== Could somebody please ad an explanation of "standard gauge"; perhaps with reference to the guage wars and to narow guage? User:Pigsonthewing 20:13, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC) :Rather out of scope here, I think. Standard gauge should just link to the article about that; maybe we need an in-depth thing at gauge wars or something like that. As to narrow gauge, the narrow gauge article should help; since that article is international, possible future scope for a seperate article on the British narrow gauge movement, its conception, development and failure. :It is a mistake, I think, to make this page try and cover everything. It should give an overview and defer to other articles for the depth. --User:Morven 01:28, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) :: Artcile talks about Gauge already ("the replacement of 177 miles of broad gauge rail with standard gauge in a single weekend"), but with no prior context setting.User:Pigsonthewing 01:45, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) :::Then I'll be thinking about a better way to include a brief mention of the issue & referring to more complete articles. This article is rather a mess right now. --User:Morven 05:40, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) Any chance of someone doing this, please? User:Pigsonthewing 13:39, 20 May 2004 (UTC) == Birmingham Metro query == :, but underground city- centre running suggested for new lines) Why was this removed? User:MrJones 12:37, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Local Metros == I've renamed the "Underground Railways" paragraph "Local Metro systems" as only a small amount of the named systems is actually underground (except the Glasgow Underground). Much of the London Underground is actually above ground, only the Loop and Link of Liverpool's Merseyrail is underground, none of Manchester Metrolink, and not much of Tyne and Wear Metro. -- User:Arwel Parry 19:06, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Easter hack - Major Stations, and Companies== I hacked the page a bit yesterday, since it looked very messy to me; in particular I brought the history section up to the top so we start with a decent article; then dive into the various sections, many of which are pointers to other places. I'm tend to think we should be looking at getting rid of the list of Major Stations, and the list of Companies. There is a page on (I forget) Francheses, or companies ... ideally this page should be structured to list Franchises; Company running the franchise; ultimate owning company; and length of franchise ... sadly the SRA website is fairly useless and this data is not easily available from there (given that a load of franchises changed owner / were renewed at the start of April) --User:Tagishsimon 18:49, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Station names - a need for consistency== The London stations follow a format of "Place Railway Station" for an article on just a mainline station and "Place Station" for an article on a station that serves both mainline and the London Underground. Would it be worth extending the nomenclature to stations outside London for consistency? User:Timrollpickering 09:29, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I'm for consistency, and think I started to edit a couple of stations, probably prematurely (i.e. before having assayed the situation or drawn up a plan. And then my heart sank at the effort and I went off and fiddled with the UK railway station pages instead. I tend to think we should have their atricles under a canonical naming scheme, but also that we should deliberately cater, by redirects, for the other very common phrasings for stations - "London Waterloo", Edinburgh Waverly". I'm happy to join in the effort. --User:Tagishsimon :And in addition, ''the msg:LondonStations'' should be combined with ''msg:UKrailwaystations'', and the latter message taken off all London stations to avoid the current proliferation of mesages. Even though I'm guilty of that proliferation... --User:Tagishsimon ::We do however have potential problems with other cities where the station also houses local metro and tram services. Can I suggest we again follow the London precedent of "Place railway station" for railway only, "Place metro/tram station" (or whatever the local system is called) for local metro/tram systems and "Place station" for pages on combined complexes? I'd rather have agreement on this before we all go and start relocating pages. User:Timrollpickering 17:57, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) ::You have my agreement on it; I think it's probably settled. --User:Tagishsimon :* >1 mode of transport = station :*=1 mode of transport = named station (i.e. railway station, tram station, metro station, underground station, &c.) ==List of historic companies== Care to talk about it? --User:Tagishsimon. Is there any possibility we could move toward hiving off more lists to self-standing pages? Erm possibly, I dont see whats wrong with having it here mind. But I surpose that might be an idea User:G-Man 22:39, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) :It doesn't particularly perturb me, but I should point out that these are (all?) operators in Great Britain only (not all UK). Now one could include Northern Ireland historic operators (though that's hazy as most operated cross-border services) but worse still, until 1922 the 'United Kingdom' operators included of course, operators from what is now the Republic of Ireland. If including NI does one just include operators such as the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) and Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway (mostly in Donegal) - or do we include ALL pre-1922 'Irish' (and thus British/UK) operators such as the Great Southern and Western Railways, County Donegal Railways (operating from Derry). :Perhaps you can see the slight discontinuity in having a 'historic companies' section on the United Kingdom page (note that with the history page there is no problem as it is indeed Great Britain, with a seperate (all) Ireland page). Perhaps it's of no consequence and should continue to be simply the Great Britain operators. Sorry if this is just stirring it up! :User:Zoney 14:50, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) :: Further to the above: having in my possession the complete list of all railways involved (ie those that went in and those that didn't go into) the Grouping (ie the ''Railway Magazine'' of the year it occurred), I started to rewrite the lists. It is obvious that this it going to make the article very unwieldy, and I had just started to think that I might hive them off, when I saw these messages. It will be just as easy for me now to do that. User:Peter Shearan 14:05, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Other== Can't understand why the official regulator is the "Office of the Rail Regulator" - in keeping with the naming of other regulators, surely they should call it Offtrack! Would be a lot more apt... User:GRAHAMUK 12:09, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- ==Older debates== ===Are the Descriptions of British Political Parties Neutral?=== ''moved as this debate is thought to refer to content which has since been edit out of existence'' --User:Tagishsimon Is the first major paragraph (with the 'post-Thatcherite' and 'New Labour' stuff really an unbiased view of things? Also, should this really be almost the first thing a reader finds out about the railway? User:dmp Good point, its fixed now User:G-Man 00:23, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC) I don't think "Tory" or "New Labour" are particularly POV (the parties and their members use the terms often). "Post-Thacherite" isn't POV either, that I can see. I think the term NL should be kept as the new doctrine of the party ('the third way', speaking broadly) permits privatisation and does not push for re-nationalisation; highly relevant to the state of the BRS. However, the fact that JM's government was post-Thacherite seems irrelevant. On another note, it might be mentioned that some have suggested railway privatisation was a parting shot from a government that knew it would be defeated: a disaster in waiting for the next administration. I suspect that's a rather biased way of putting it, so I'd like to hear alternative views. User:MrJones 13:48, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Reorganization == Reorganised following the results of the vote in Talk:Rail transport in the United Kingdom/Alternate naming schemes in which it was decided by a majority of users to seperate these pages geographically for the British Isles, not by nation state. User:Morven 06:09, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC) ==:Category:Timeline of rail transport== A ''timeline of rail transport'' series of documents has been created, currently with little content. Please help out (not least since all but 3 "events" are US based). You know the drill: births & deaths, dates of key bits of infrastructure & acts / openings / amalgamations / closures / accidents &c. --User:Tagishsimon User_talk:Tagishsimon ==Cross-Country Route== Shouldn't the Cross-Country Route be more clearly brought out in the listings. It's only just behind the big 4/5 in importance and is a 'cinderalla route' only because it goes through 5 control areas :-) User:Linuxlad 11:31, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC) OK I've now stubbed Cross Country Route User:Linuxlad 13:27, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Railway lines in the United Kingdom == I've just noticed that the titles of some of the railway line articles are at best ambiguous and at worst positively misleading. The article West of England Main Line describes the ex-LSWR line between Waterloo and Exeter and not, as I'd always assumed, the ex-GWR line from Paddington to Penzance. Certainly the latter is how I've always used that name, and I've even linked several station and place articles to this article over the months on that assumption without noticing my error. I've googled on "West of England Main Line" and most of the first 40 matches seem to refer to the ex-GWR line, although to be fair there are also references to the ex-LSWR name and even to the ex-LMS Birminghan-Bristol line. I would have called the ex-LSWR line the "South West Main Line" or "South Western Main Line", and a google search on those does seem to confirm that name is in common usage for that line (even in a House of Commons report), although there are other usages (one in Australia, one a steam locomotive operator). We don't currently have an article South West Main Line, but we do have one called South Western Main Line which describes the route from Waterloo to Weymouth. I'm not sure what I'd call the Wweymouth line, but it is fairly clear that the LSWR always thought of the Salisbury/Exeter/North Devon/Plymouth line as 'its' main line, not the Weymouth line. My initial recation is to propose that we: *Rename South Western Main Line to Southampton and Weymouth Main Line (better names welcome) *Rename West of England Main Line to South Western Main Line *Create a new West of England Main Line article However I appreciate this is quite a radical step, so what do people think. -- User:Chris j wood 11:31, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- In response to the above: *As far as I was concerned the West of England Main Line was the London Waterloo-Exeter route. Indeed the Network SouthEast sector used the "West of England" brandname for this route (follow this [http://www.nse.org.uk/ link] for a map). So I would favour keeping the existing name. *The ex-GWR Paddington-Penzance route is convered under the Great Western Main Line article, with the Plymouth-Penzance section probably best described as the Cornish Main Line. *As for the Waterloo-Weymouth line (currently the South Western Main Line article) I am not sure what its official title is (if indeed it has one), but I have only ever heard it called the South Western Main Line. I would again favour using the existing title, but if this is not to be retained, perhaps Solent Main Line may be another alternative? User:Our Phellap 23:47, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- I can only think that South West Trains consider the Waterloo-Weymouth link as their "main line" since the map [http://www.swtrains.co.uk/stations/map/network.pdf here] (PDF) shows it as exactly that: the absolutely straight line from which all other routes are thrown off. The same timetables call the Exeter line the \"West of England\" Line, missing out the word "Main", and surely they ought to know?. Why not change it to that - if change there has to be? I should NOT like the term Solent Main Line for the SWML: it has no historical basis whatever, and in all its 168 miles the line never touches the Solent; no, it is the main line of the South West Trains, so what else can it be called? It admittedly doesn't have a title in the aforesaid timetables - it is simply called London Waterloo to Weymouth! ''Appropos'' this naming business: there is an interesting list of Named railway lines put out by National Rail [http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/named_lines.htm here]. It is interesting in that it doesn't show any of the ones we have been discussing - make of that what you will User:Peter Shearan 06:19, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC) ==Duplicate article?== Now here's a pretty mess! Here's a pretty how-de-do! (Gilbert & Sullivan, in case anyone thinks I'm going up the wall). This article is almost exactly the same in much of its content as History of rail transport in Great Britain, especially as far as the lists of ''early'', ''pre-grouping'' railways are concerned. In fact the history article is more verbose and less list-like, and does refer to this one - it also ignores much of what isn't GWR! - but it can mean that changes are not included in both. Does anyone have any comments to make? User:Peter Shearan 14:43, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Rail transport by country Transport in the United Kingdom Public transport in the United Kingdom British railway companies
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Rail transport in Great Britain
:''For transport in Northern Ireland, see rail transport in Ireland'' [[image:rail.diesel.wapleybridge.750pix.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Class 180 Multiple Unit of First Great Western at speed near Yate, Bristol, England. Top speed is 200 km/h (125 mph)]] The United Kingdom railway system is the oldest in the world. It consists of almost 16,536 kilometres (10,274 miles) of standard gauge track, of which 4,928 km (3,062 miles) is electrified. ==Historical overview== ''Main article'': History of rail transport in Great Britain Great feats of engineering were performed in its creation. Examples from the Victorian era are the building of the Forth Bridge (railway), or the replacement of 177 miles (285 km) of broad gauge rail with standard gauge in a single weekend from May 21, 1892. Such feats are not things of the past; recent and current examples are the building of the Channel tunnel for the link to the Continental railway systems, and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from London to the tunnel. The system was originally built as a patchwork of local rail links operated by small private railway companies. Over the course of the 19th century and early 20th century these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained (see railway mania). The entire network of was brought under government control during the world War I, and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were revealed. However, the government resisted calls for the nationalization of the network (first proposed by William Gladstone as early the 1830s). Instead, from January 1 1923 the remaining companies were Railways Act 1921 into the "big four", the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway (UK) companies. These were joint stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until December 31 1947. The growth in road transport during the 1920s and 1930s greatly reduced revenue for the rail companies. Rail companies accused the government of favouring road haulage through the subsidised construction of roads. The railways entered a slow decline owing to a lack of investment and changes in transport policy and lifestyles. There was no new construction after 1914 and a backlog of maintenance had built-up by 1939. The network was again taken under government control during the second World War. The maintenance backlog greatly increased during the war, and the private sector was unable to deal with this after the war ended. After 1945, for both practical and ideological reasons, the government decided to bring the rail service into the public sector. From the first moment of 1948, the "big four" were nationalization to form British Railways (latterly "British Rail") under the control of the British Transport Commission. Although BR was a single entity, it was divided into five regional authorities in accordance with the existing areas of operation. Though there were no initial changes to the service, usage increased and the network became profitable. Regeneration of track and stations was completed by 1954. In the same year, changes to the British Transport Commission, including the privatisation of road haulage, ended the coordination of transport in the UK. Rail revenue fell and in 1955 the network again ceased to be profitable. The mid-1950s saw the rapid introduction of diesel and electric rolling stock, however the expected transfer back from road to rail did not occur and losses began to mount. The desire for profitability led to a major reduction in the network during the mid-1960s after the Stedeford Committee, chaired by Dr Richard Beeching, reviewed the railway network (also known as the "Beeching axe"). Many branch lines, particularly in rural areas, were closed because they were deemed inefficient. The closure of stations serving rural communities removed much feeder traffic from the main line passenger services. The closure of many freight depots that had been used by larger industries such as coal and iron led to almost all freight transferring to road haulage. This neutralised any savings made by the closures, and the network began to decline again. The closures were extremely unpopular with the general public at that time, and remain so today. Although passenger services experienced a brief renaissance with the introduction of high-speed inter-city trains in the 1970s, the decline of the rail network continued. Passenger levels have fluctuated since this time, increasing during periods of economic growth and falling during recessions. The 1980s saw severe cuts in government funding and above-inflation increases in fares. The service became more cost-effective but increasingly unreliable. In the early 1990s the five geographical Regions were replaced by a Sector organisation, where passenger services were organised into Inter City, Network SouthEast, Other Provincial Services sectors, etc. This new organisation showed promise of being a more efficient organisation of the railways, but within a couple of years of its implementation the structure was fragmented by the privatisation process. Privatisation of British Rail in 1996. The track and infrastructure was devolved to a company called Railtrack, whilst ticketing and passenger and freight operations were franchised to individual private sector operators (originally 25 passenger and 4 freight operators). The government claimed that privatisation would see an improvement in passenger services: this outcome has not yet been realised, although passenger levels initially increased to the level they had been at in the late-1980s. A series of major rail accidents after privatisation — at Ladbroke Grove rail crash, Hatfield rail crash, Potters Bar rail crash, and Great Heck rail crash — caused widespread loss of confidence in the safety of rail travel. After the Hatfield crash, speed limits were drastically reduced throughout Britain and train travel was seriously disrupted for months. Railtrack came close to bankruptcy due to the enormous cost of additional safety measures and was effectively re-nationalised, when ownership of the railway system was transferred to the newly-created "not for profit" company limited by guarantee, Network Rail on October 3, 2002. Most of the private rail companies are heavily subsidised but much of the investment has not gone into regeneration or modernisation. However, the government has resisted public pressure to return the network to the public sector. ==Geography & infrastructure== Great Britain is an island roughly triangular with an acute apex. The capital, London, is in the south-east. Main railway lines radiate from London in many directions; the major lines are discussed elsewhere (''see linkbox, below''). At the end of September 2003 the first part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, a high speed link to the Channel Tunnel and on to France and Belgium, was completed, significantly adding to the rail infrastructure of the country. The rest of the link, from north Kent to St Pancras railway station in London, is planned to open in 2007. A major programme of remedial work on the West Coast Main Line is ongoing. ==Passenger services== Passenger train services in the UK are, in the main, structured on the basis of regional franchises awarded by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to List of UK Train Operating Companies. There were 26 such regional franchises up to April 2004, but the number of different operating companies is smaller as some firms including Arriva, National Express and Stagecoach have more than one franchise. In addition a number of local or specialised rail services are allocated by local government, or through other arrangements not involving the SRA. Examples include the Heathrow Express. In the 2002–3 operating year SRA franchised services provided 976 million journeys totalling 39.7 billion passenger kilometres of travel, which was an increase over 1986–7 of 32% in journeys (from 738 million) and 29% in passenger kilometres (from 30.8 billion). On the other hand, taking a longer term view the number of journeys in 2002–3 was lower than for the 1950–60 period; the passenger kilometres figure, after being a flat from 1965–1995, surpassed the 1947 figure for the first time in 1998, and continues to rise steeply. The key index used to assess passenger train performance is the ''Public Performance Measure'' which combines figures for punctuality and reliability. Performance against this metric has been expecially poor since mid-2000. From a base of 90% of trains arriving on time in 1998, the measure dipped to 75% in mid 2001, and by the end of the 2002–3 period, had only recovered to 80%. The real increase in rail fares after accounting for inflation over the 1995–2004 period was 4.7%. Average rolling stock age — thought to be an indicator of passenger comfort — fell slightly from the third quarter of 2001–2 to the third quarter of 2003–4, from 20.7 years old, to 19.3 years old. See List of UK Train Operating Companies ==Freight services== There are four main freight operating companies, the largest of which is English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS). Types of freight carried include ''intermodal'' — in essence containerised freight — and coal, metals, oil, and construction material. Freight services have been in steady decline since the 1950s, although the Department for Transport's ''Transport Ten Year Plan'' calls for an 80% increase in rail freight measured from a 2000–1 base. Statistics on freight are specified in terms of the weight of freight lifted, and the ''net tonne kilometre''. being freight weight multiplied by distance carried. 87 million tonnes of freight was lifted in the 2002–3 period, against 138 million tonnes in 1986–7, a decrease of 37%. 18.7 billion net rail kilometres of freight movement were recorded in 2002–3, against 16.6 billion in 1986–7, an increase of 13%. A symbolic loss to the UK rail freight industry was the custom of the Royal Mail, which from 2004 is discontinuing use of its 49-train fleet, and switching to road haulage after a near 170 year preference for trains. Red liveried mail trains have long been part of the tradition of the UK railways, not least because of the film ''Night Mail'', for which W. H. Auden wrote the poem of the same name. ==Leasing services== A proportion of the rolling stock of British Rail was sold off to companies that lease or hire stock to passenger and freight operators, as well as to National Rail and railway maintenance companies. Leasing is relatively commonplace in public transportation, since it enables operating companies to avoid the complication associated with raising sufficient capital to purchase assets; instead, assets are leased and paid for from ongoing revenue. There are three major leasing companies, and a number of smaller operations: ===Leasing Companies=== * Angel Trains, owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and which claims to be the biggest rolling stock company in Britain, with some 5,000 assets. [http://www.angeltrains.co.uk/ website] * HSBC Rail a lessor of domestic passenger rolling stock, owned by HSBC. * Porterbrook, owned by the Abbey National Group, which leases some 3,500 locomotives, trains and freight wagons. [http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/english/frame.html website] ===Spot-Hire Companies=== *Cotswold Rail, a spot-hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 47 locomotives. This company works closely with Anglia Railways.[http://www.cotswoldrail.com/homeset.htm website] *FM Rail (formerly Fragonset Railways), a spot-hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 31, British Rail Class 33, British Rail Class 45, British Rail Class 47, British Rail Class 56, British Rail Class 73 and British Rail Class 86 main line locomotives. [http://www.fmrail.com/ website] *GL Railease owned by GATX Capital, and Lombard, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland. *Harry Needle Railroad Company Ltd, an industrial and main line locomotive hire and overhaul company. Operates British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives, and British Rail Class 37 locomotives. [http://www.hnrc.co.uk/ website] *Riviera Trains, a spot-hire company with a fleet of British Rail Class 47 locomotives. *RT Rail, a small hire company with a stock of British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives. *West Coast Railway Company, a spot-hire and railtour-operator with a stock of British Rail Class 37 and British Rail Class 47 locomotives, as well as the prototype passenger British Rail Class 57 locomotive. ==Statutory framework== UK railways are run at arm's length from the government, through two government organisations, both of which have statutory powers under various Acts of Parliament (such as the Railways Act 1993, the Competition Act 1998 and the Transport Act 2000), and both of which receive Directions and Guidance from the Secretaries of State for Transport. The two organisations share the same purpose, but have different jurisdictions; the two entered into a concordat in February 2002 to clarify demarcation and communications issues. The Strategic Rail Authority is the statutory strategic planning and coordinating body for the rail industry, and the guardian of passenger and freight interests. It determines strategy for passenger and freight train services, let and manages franchises to operators, and enforces consumer protection franchise licence conditions. Following the 2004 Rail Review, the SRA is to be wound up and its responsibilities transferred to the Government and Network Rail. The Office of Rail Regulation has as its principal functions to regulate Network Rail's stewardship of the national rail network infrastructure, and to hold train operating companies accountable to the terms of their operating licence. It replaced the Office of Rail Regulation in 2004. In addition, safety in the railway industry is regulated and enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, and the National Audit Office provides audit reports on Network Rail to the House of Commons. See also: Structure of the rail industry in the United Kingdom. ==Local metro systems== A number of towns and cities have metro systems: ==UK railway stations== Most UK railway stations date from the Victorian era and are located on the edge of town centres. Major stations are generally in large cities, with a particular concentration in London, but some important railway junction stations lie in smaller cities, for example Crewe station and Carlisle station. ==Railway Industry == ===Statutory authorities=== *Health and Safety Executive — [http://www.hse.gov.uk/railways/index.htm Website] *Office of Rail Regulation — [http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/ Website] *Strategic Rail Authority — [http://www.sra.gov.uk/ Website] *UK Notified Bodies — [http://www.riagb.org.uk/nobos.htm/ Website] ===Network rail & signalling operations=== *Railtrack (1996–2002) *Network Rail (2002—) — [http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ Website] — (A "not for profit" company limited by guarantee) ===Other national entities=== *Association of Train Operating Companies — ATOC — [http://www.atoc.org/ Website] *Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen — ASLEF — [http://www.aslef.org.uk/ Website] * Institution of Railway Operators — [http://www.railwayoperators.org/ Website] *National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers — RMT — [http://www.rmt.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Freight Group — [http://www.rfg.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Passengers Council and Committees — [http://www.railpassengers.org.uk/ Website] * Rail Safety and Standards Board — RSSB — [http://www.rssb.co.uk/ Website] * The Railway Forum — [http://www.railwayforum.com/ Website] * Railway Mission — [http://www.railwaymission.org/ Website] * Railway Study Association — [http://www.railwaystudyassociation.org/ Website] *Transport Salaried Staffs' Association — TSSA — [http://www.tssa.org.uk/ Website] ===Regional entities=== ''See Passenger Transport Executive'' * Centro (West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.centro.org.uk/wwwroot/HomePage.asp Website] * GMPTE (Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.gmpte.com/ Website] * Merseytravel (Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/ Website] * Metro (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.wymetro.com/ Website] * Nexus (Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.nexus.org.uk/ Website] *SYPTE (South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive) — [http://www.sypte.co.uk/index.htm Website] * Strathclyde Passenger Transport — [http://www.spt.co.uk/ Website] *Transport for London — TfL — [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/ Website] ===Train franchises (and operating company)=== : (excluding metro companies such as London Underground and Tyne & Wear Metro) *Arriva Trains Wales — Replaced old Wales and Borders (previously Wales and West, previously South Wales and West) and Valley Lines franchises in 2003. — [http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/ Website] *c2c — Previously LTS Rail. [http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/ Website] *Central Trains — [http://www.centraltrains.co.uk/ Website] *Chiltern Railways — [http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/ Website] *First Great Western — [http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ Website] *First Great Western Link (replaced Thames Trains April 2004) — [http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/link Website] *First ScotRail — [http://www.firstscotrail.com/ Website] *Gatwick Express — [http://www.gatwickexpress.com/ Website] *Great North Eastern Railway — GNER — [http://www.gner.co.uk/ Website] *Island Line IOW — [http://www.island-line.co.uk/ Website] *Merseyrail Electrics — [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/ Website] *Midland Mainline — [http://www.midlandmainline.com/ Website] *Northern Rail — [http://www.northernrail.org/ Website] New franchise covering old First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern urban routes. *One Railway — Replaced Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and the West Anglia route of West Anglia Great Northern franchises in April 2004. [http://www.onerailway.co.uk/ website] *Silverlink — [http://www.silverlink-trains.com/ Website] *South Eastern Trains — [http://www.setrains.co.uk/ Website], formerly operated by Connex South Eastern until November 2003. Currently the only franchise in the public sector. *South West Trains — [http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/ Website] *South Central Trains — Renamed from South Central Trains in June 2004. [http://www.southernrailway.com/ Website] *Thameslink — [http://www.thameslink.co.uk Website] *TransPennine Express — [http://www.firstgroup.com/tpexpress/ Website] *Virgin Cross-Country — [http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ Website] *Virgin West Coast — [http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ Website] *WAGN — WAGN — [http://www.wagn.co.uk/ Website] *Wessex Trains — [http://www.wessextrains.co.uk/ Website] ===Freight railway companies=== *English Welsh and Scottish Railway — EWS — [http://www.ews-railway.co.uk/ Website] *Freightliner — [http://www.freightliner.co.uk/ Website] *Direct Rail Services *GB Railfreight ===Open access operators and other non-franchised passenger operators=== *Eurostar — [http://www.eurostar.com/ Website] *Heathrow Express — [http://www.heathrowexpress.co.uk/ Website] *Hull Trains — [http://www.hulltrains.co.uk/ Website] *Northern Ireland Railways — [http://www.nirailways.co.uk/ Website] *Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) ==Early railway companies (1820s–1840s)== ** This is only the earliest of the main line openings: for a more comprehensive list of the hundreds of early railways see List of early British railway companies *South Eastern Railway *Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway (BDJR) *Grand Junction Railway (GJR) *Liverpool and Manchester Railway (LMR) *London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) *South Eastern Railway *North Midland Railway (NMR) *Midland Counties Railway (MCR) *Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&D) *Taff Vale Railway (TVR) ==Grouping (1923–1947)== Under the Railways Act 1921 the majority of the railway companies in Great Britain (and few in Northern Ireland) were grouped into four main companies, often termed the ''Big Four'': the grouping took effect from 1 January 1923. The Big Four were: *Great Western Railway (GWR) *London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) *London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) *Southern Railway (UK) (SR) For a comprehensive list see List of railway companies involved in the 1923 grouping ==Heritage and private railways== There are also a number of heritage and private railways — see List of British heritage and private railways. ==See also== *Rail transport by country *History of rail transport in Great Britain *List of funiculars in the United Kingdom *UK topics ==References== *[http://www.sra.gov.uk/publications/national_rail_trends_pubs/nrt_q3_0304/nrt_file_q3 National Rail Trends] 2003–2004 quarter three, from the Strategic Rail Authority. (Warning: Portable Document Format format) *[http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstrat/documents/page/dft_transstrat_503944.hcsp DfT Transport Ten Year Plan 2000] from the UK Government Department for Transport. *[http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/03-04/0304532.pdf Network Rail — Making a Fresh Start] — National Audit Office report, 14th May 2004. (Warning: Portable Document Format format) *[http://www.imeche.org.uk/railway/events/list_of_past_events.asp Railway industry topic guides from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers] ==External links== *[http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/maps.htm UK Railway Maps] Rail transport in Great Britain
Rail transport in Great Britain
==Country / Region Naming of all UK/GB/NI/Ire Rail & Rail History Pages== was "''Proposed move back to rail transport of Great Britain''" There has been some to-ing & fro-ing of the names of pages, and a number of users have expressed an interest, or have work affected by any changes. So this is a suggested location for a discussion & documentation of the naming of this set of pages. See also Talk:History of rail transport in Great BritainEdit & comment away. ===Proposals=== '''It's getting a little hard to follow who supports what, and exactly what the issues are. So could I invite you all to add plans to, comments on, and votes for, a range of naming plans found at: Talk:Rail transport in the United Kingdom/Alternate naming schemes''' thanks, --User:Tagishsimon 08:28, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Discussion=== User:Duncharris's 16:15, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC) message kicking off the latest rounds of the discussion: :The UK has two separate rail systems. They are not connected, they are not even the same gauge. They are not run by the same people, and they have different histories. For that reason, they should be split atleast into rail transport in Northern Ireland, though it may be possible to discuss the Irish situation by itself. Either way, the move from Great Britan to United Kingdom was wrong. User:Duncharris 16:15, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC) User:Zoney 16:31, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC), on Talk:History of rail transport in Great Britain :This should remain at History of rail transport in Great Britain - Ireland is a seperate rail system - different history. Even the gauge is different. Don't forget Ireland was all one administration when rail in the island began. User:Zoney 16:31, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) I'd suggest separate articles on History of rail transport in Great Britain and History of rail transport in Ireland (that's all Ireland), since the two histories are very different and the gauge difference is a major distinguishing feature. Treating Ireland as one makes sense since IE also runs some of the passenger services to Belfast and all the freight services in NI. User:Arwel Parry 21:01, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I would agree with this proposal. Split 'Great Britain' and 'Ireland', since we are talking about developments on the ''geographical entities'', not on the ''political'' ones. 'Great Britain' is the correct name for the largest of the British Isles. User:Morven 21:30, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) I must disagree. As this is a part of the Rail transport by country series, it is nonsensical to have it as 'Rail transport in Great Britain' as I have already pointed out there is no such a country as 'Great Britain'. Also there are many countries which have separate rail systems. For example India where several different systems on different gauges exist. And (correct me if i'm wrong) but doesn't each Australian state have a raiulway system on a different gauge (or at least used to) User:G-Man 12:01, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) : ''As this is a part of the Rail transport by country series''. Perhaps that is part of the problem? Arwel & others point that the Ireland railways are integrated, and separate from the GB railways. I'm not convinced a) that we should allow the putative Railways by Country scheme to force our hand; nor that we could not go in a GB direction without emperilling that project. -User:Tagishsimon I agree that the it makes sense to have separate history pages for Britain and Ireland. But I dont agree thet the main pages should be split into 'Great Britain' and 'Ireland', although we should point out that Northarn Ireland,s railways are separate from the main network User:G-Man 11:30, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I agree that page for British railways (current situation) should be Rail transport in the United Kingdom rather than Great Britain. But while Northern Ireland can probably be discussed in context of the British railway network on that page, Rail transport in Ireland should remain as is due to the linked nature of the rail network in 'Ireland' (the island/non-political country). :User:Zoney 13:55, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Previous Discussion=== Earlier debate under the title ''Naming' :Shouldent this be moved to Rail transport in the United Kingdom as that is which country this is talking about. There is no such a country as 'Great Britain'. Great Britain is an island not a country. User:G-Man 18:40, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ::I'd be happy with that change; I don't have a strong preference either way & am willing to be led, but I deplore the fact that we seem to use GB and UK interchangably. --User:Tagishsimon 18:44, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I moved it - there are some redirects to fix if you want to help! Thanks, User:The Trolls of Navarone 18:51, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ===Fitting in Northern Ireland=== Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are now covered together in the History of rail transport in Ireland, due to the common history (and until 1922, by which time most railways in Ireland had been built, common administration). There's large gaps to be filled. In fact, I've also covered the island as a whole in Rail transport in Ireland - because for all intents and purposes it's the one rail system. (Shared/common traction/rolling stock, cross-border services, same unique gauge, etc.) Also the term 'Ireland' refers to the geographical island. A seperate article could still be added at Rail transport in Northern Ireland to focus in more on the internal NI services and stations. (also situation with Translink, AKA UTA MarkII or bus company running trains). But seeing as I don't live in the North, someone else can tackle this!!! It could of course just be added to the main article. It's not really possible to have a 'solely' Republic of Ireland article, unless the trains vanish at the border, people from the Republic never use NIR services and NIR and IÉ never make joint stock purchases or share locos / rolling stock. So there's the rationale behind the current situation.
User:Zoney 11:34, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) : I agree with Zoney (who knows more about Ireland than me!). However, we must point out why Ireland is covered in one article, (''for geographical, historical and operational reasons'') i.e. not sectarianism. I think perhaps rail transport in the United Kingdom should be a small article explaining the differences. I've also altered the rail transport by country to reflect this with Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland both linking to Ireland. User:Duncharris 12:54, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC) ::Duncharris, I've simplified that (nice but a tad heavy on the PC - kinda MAKES it a sectarian issue!) to the following, which is nicely ambiguous (people from NI can choose Ireland or United Kingdom). Ideally the subject (NI railways) should be covered from both points of view - as part of British rail network (or seperate but grouped with it), or as part of an all-island network in Ireland - in each article. * Ireland: see Rail transport in Ireland * The Netherlands: see Transportation_in_the_Netherlands#Rail_transport_(heavy_rail) and other sections of that article * United Kingdom: see Rail transport in the United Kingdom ::Hope you agree that this ambiguity in the page is warranted, sufficiently NPOV and handy. ::User:Zoney 14:04, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) Yes and no. Due to the peculiar history of the United Kingdom there are several rather incoherent levels of political government, geography, etc. Although the history is slightly entwined at some points, (e.g. NCC being owned by the Midland/LMS), they are still very much separate. The main Great British system, has 16,536km of track (98% of the UK total), and the smaller system in Northern Ireland which has 357km (2% of the UK total) CIA factbook. The Republic of Ireland has 1,947km track. I propose the following: * rail transport in the United Kingdom should be a short article (2-3 paragraphs?) explaining the differences between the two main systems. I can't see how a good article can be written on this without splitting it straight away into Great Britain and Northern Ireland anyway. * rail transport in Great Britain should be the article as it is now on the island of Great Britain (which btw should include the Isle of Wight, Anglesey and Holy Island, Anglesey, as they are part of England and Wales). In this article, reference should be made to the Ireland article(s)... I'm less sure about Ireland. There is scope for one or two articles, and I think this is a separate subject to be discussed. There is however, an important distinction to make between the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland. There's also the possibility of having a hierachy with more detail lower down. The problem comes when one has to describe how they are owned and run with two different systems. Regarding history, early history is more entwined, and in particular whether one considers the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or the later United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But its probably better to deal with them as you have. As regards political correctness, Wikipedia ''has'' to be politically correct. To be honest, its not that difficult (just requiring a footnote for example), and the troubles in Northern Ireland require some tip-toeing round and being explicit when referring to geographic areas and not the geographic-political spaghetti in these waters. And G-Man, the comparison with Australia isn't valid, since Australia is geographically one entity with several gauges, whereas the UK is two separate geographical entities with two separate systems.User:Duncharris 11:27, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC) :Regards political correctness, my theory is that the situation described above is sufficiently ambiguous (i.e. have UK and 'Ireland', and cover NI differently in both, and/or link from both to seperate NI article if created by an NI enthusiast) and doesn't upset anyone enough to warrent any kind of disclaimers and such. I'm not against PC per se, its simply that sometimes it shouldn't be needed - i.e. it's used because something needs changing. In the case above, Rail transport by country was actually creating an issue, hence the need for the disclaimers! :User:Zoney 11:39, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC) With respect, I disagree. I think we need to be absolutely specific and not ambiguous as this communicates the information better. Duplicating articles isn't a good idea unless you have a summary and main article in a hierachical structure. With what you're suggesting, the hierachy isn't there. The issue of sectarianism is there, is not going to go away. Pretending there isn't an issue in itself may cause problems. As for rail transport by country, would it be better then to move it to rail transport by region? That way the trans-European networks transport routes can be described, for example. Anyway, we need a way forward... User:Duncharris 12:42, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Listing of Franchises / TOCs on this & other pages== Apologies - I put in a list of TOCs and websites, before noticing there was a link to a page on TOCs. Still, the thing probably needs better arranging ... should this page: * List by TOC * List by Franchise * Not list but link to another list? As it was, t'other list, the long winded List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom seems to have an index of Franchises, though apparantly it doesn't believe in Railfreight Companies. (And who does, come to that. But they still exist). The TOC list on this page has website links, which I think are in order. Also, I think we need pages for, and links from this page in the listing at the bottom, to all the rest of the machinery - SRA, Office of the Rail Regulator, and anything else that seems relevant. Finally, a pointer to the rail.co.uk site would probably also not go amiss. --User:Tagishsimon ==Gauge== Could somebody please ad an explanation of "standard gauge"; perhaps with reference to the guage wars and to narow guage? User:Pigsonthewing 20:13, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC) :Rather out of scope here, I think. Standard gauge should just link to the article about that; maybe we need an in-depth thing at gauge wars or something like that. As to narrow gauge, the narrow gauge article should help; since that article is international, possible future scope for a seperate article on the British narrow gauge movement, its conception, development and failure. :It is a mistake, I think, to make this page try and cover everything. It should give an overview and defer to other articles for the depth. --User:Morven 01:28, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) :: Artcile talks about Gauge already ("the replacement of 177 miles of broad gauge rail with standard gauge in a single weekend"), but with no prior context setting.User:Pigsonthewing 01:45, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) :::Then I'll be thinking about a better way to include a brief mention of the issue & referring to more complete articles. This article is rather a mess right now. --User:Morven 05:40, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) Any chance of someone doing this, please? User:Pigsonthewing 13:39, 20 May 2004 (UTC) == Birmingham Metro query == :, but underground city- centre running suggested for new lines) Why was this removed? User:MrJones 12:37, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Local Metros == I've renamed the "Underground Railways" paragraph "Local Metro systems" as only a small amount of the named systems is actually underground (except the Glasgow Underground). Much of the London Underground is actually above ground, only the Loop and Link of Liverpool's Merseyrail is underground, none of Manchester Metrolink, and not much of Tyne and Wear Metro. -- User:Arwel Parry 19:06, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Easter hack - Major Stations, and Companies== I hacked the page a bit yesterday, since it looked very messy to me; in particular I brought the history section up to the top so we start with a decent article; then dive into the various sections, many of which are pointers to other places. I'm tend to think we should be looking at getting rid of the list of Major Stations, and the list of Companies. There is a page on (I forget) Francheses, or companies ... ideally this page should be structured to list Franchises; Company running the franchise; ultimate owning company; and length of franchise ... sadly the SRA website is fairly useless and this data is not easily available from there (given that a load of franchises changed owner / were renewed at the start of April) --User:Tagishsimon 18:49, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Station names - a need for consistency== The London stations follow a format of "Place Railway Station" for an article on just a mainline station and "Place Station" for an article on a station that serves both mainline and the London Underground. Would it be worth extending the nomenclature to stations outside London for consistency? User:Timrollpickering 09:29, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I'm for consistency, and think I started to edit a couple of stations, probably prematurely (i.e. before having assayed the situation or drawn up a plan. And then my heart sank at the effort and I went off and fiddled with the UK railway station pages instead. I tend to think we should have their atricles under a canonical naming scheme, but also that we should deliberately cater, by redirects, for the other very common phrasings for stations - "London Waterloo", Edinburgh Waverly". I'm happy to join in the effort. --User:Tagishsimon :And in addition, ''the msg:LondonStations'' should be combined with ''msg:UKrailwaystations'', and the latter message taken off all London stations to avoid the current proliferation of mesages. Even though I'm guilty of that proliferation... --User:Tagishsimon ::We do however have potential problems with other cities where the station also houses local metro and tram services. Can I suggest we again follow the London precedent of "Place railway station" for railway only, "Place metro/tram station" (or whatever the local system is called) for local metro/tram systems and "Place station" for pages on combined complexes? I'd rather have agreement on this before we all go and start relocating pages. User:Timrollpickering 17:57, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) ::You have my agreement on it; I think it's probably settled. --User:Tagishsimon :* >1 mode of transport = station :*=1 mode of transport = named station (i.e. railway station, tram station, metro station, underground station, &c.) ==List of historic companies== Care to talk about it? --User:Tagishsimon. Is there any possibility we could move toward hiving off more lists to self-standing pages? Erm possibly, I dont see whats wrong with having it here mind. But I surpose that might be an idea User:G-Man 22:39, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) :It doesn't particularly perturb me, but I should point out that these are (all?) operators in Great Britain only (not all UK). Now one could include Northern Ireland historic operators (though that's hazy as most operated cross-border services) but worse still, until 1922 the 'United Kingdom' operators included of course, operators from what is now the Republic of Ireland. If including NI does one just include operators such as the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) and Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway (mostly in Donegal) - or do we include ALL pre-1922 'Irish' (and thus British/UK) operators such as the Great Southern and Western Railways, County Donegal Railways (operating from Derry). :Perhaps you can see the slight discontinuity in having a 'historic companies' section on the United Kingdom page (note that with the history page there is no problem as it is indeed Great Britain, with a seperate (all) Ireland page). Perhaps it's of no consequence and should continue to be simply the Great Britain operators. Sorry if this is just stirring it up! :User:Zoney 14:50, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) :: Further to the above: having in my possession the complete list of all railways involved (ie those that went in and those that didn't go into) the Grouping (ie the ''Railway Magazine'' of the year it occurred), I started to rewrite the lists. It is obvious that this it going to make the article very unwieldy, and I had just started to think that I might hive them off, when I saw these messages. It will be just as easy for me now to do that. User:Peter Shearan 14:05, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Other== Can't understand why the official regulator is the "Office of the Rail Regulator" - in keeping with the naming of other regulators, surely they should call it Offtrack! Would be a lot more apt... User:GRAHAMUK 12:09, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- ==Older debates== ===Are the Descriptions of British Political Parties Neutral?=== ''moved as this debate is thought to refer to content which has since been edit out of existence'' --User:Tagishsimon Is the first major paragraph (with the 'post-Thatcherite' and 'New Labour' stuff really an unbiased view of things? Also, should this really be almost the first thing a reader finds out about the railway? User:dmp Good point, its fixed now User:G-Man 00:23, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC) I don't think "Tory" or "New Labour" are particularly POV (the parties and their members use the terms often). "Post-Thacherite" isn't POV either, that I can see. I think the term NL should be kept as the new doctrine of the party ('the third way', speaking broadly) permits privatisation and does not push for re-nationalisation; highly relevant to the state of the BRS. However, the fact that JM's government was post-Thacherite seems irrelevant. On another note, it might be mentioned that some have suggested railway privatisation was a parting shot from a government that knew it would be defeated: a disaster in waiting for the next administration. I suspect that's a rather biased way of putting it, so I'd like to hear alternative views. User:MrJones 13:48, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Reorganization == Reorganised following the results of the vote in Talk:Rail transport in the United Kingdom/Alternate naming schemes in which it was decided by a majority of users to seperate these pages geographically for the British Isles, not by nation state. User:Morven 06:09, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC) ==:Category:Timeline of rail transport== A ''timeline of rail transport'' series of documents has been created, currently with little content. Please help out (not least since all but 3 "events" are US based). You know the drill: births & deaths, dates of key bits of infrastructure & acts / openings / amalgamations / closures / accidents &c. --User:Tagishsimon User_talk:Tagishsimon ==Cross-Country Route== Shouldn't the Cross-Country Route be more clearly brought out in the listings. It's only just behind the big 4/5 in importance and is a 'cinderalla route' only because it goes through 5 control areas :-) User:Linuxlad 11:31, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC) OK I've now stubbed Cross Country Route User:Linuxlad 13:27, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Railway lines in the United Kingdom == I've just noticed that the titles of some of the railway line articles are at best ambiguous and at worst positively misleading. The article West of England Main Line describes the ex-LSWR line between Waterloo and Exeter and not, as I'd always assumed, the ex-GWR line from Paddington to Penzance. Certainly the latter is how I've always used that name, and I've even linked several station and place articles to this article over the months on that assumption without noticing my error. I've googled on "West of England Main Line" and most of the first 40 matches seem to refer to the ex-GWR line, although to be fair there are also references to the ex-LSWR name and even to the ex-LMS Birminghan-Bristol line. I would have called the ex-LSWR line the "South West Main Line" or "South Western Main Line", and a google search on those does seem to confirm that name is in common usage for that line (even in a House of Commons report), although there are other usages (one in Australia, one a steam locomotive operator). We don't currently have an article South West Main Line, but we do have one called South Western Main Line which describes the route from Waterloo to Weymouth. I'm not sure what I'd call the Wweymouth line, but it is fairly clear that the LSWR always thought of the Salisbury/Exeter/North Devon/Plymouth line as 'its' main line, not the Weymouth line. My initial recation is to propose that we: *Rename South Western Main Line to Southampton and Weymouth Main Line (better names welcome) *Rename West of England Main Line to South Western Main Line *Create a new West of England Main Line article However I appreciate this is quite a radical step, so what do people think. -- User:Chris j wood 11:31, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- In response to the above: *As far as I was concerned the West of England Main Line was the London Waterloo-Exeter route. Indeed the Network SouthEast sector used the "West of England" brandname for this route (follow this [http://www.nse.org.uk/ link] for a map). So I would favour keeping the existing name. *The ex-GWR Paddington-Penzance route is convered under the Great Western Main Line article, with the Plymouth-Penzance section probably best described as the Cornish Main Line. *As for the Waterloo-Weymouth line (currently the South Western Main Line article) I am not sure what its official title is (if indeed it has one), but I have only ever heard it called the South Western Main Line. I would again favour using the existing title, but if this is not to be retained, perhaps Solent Main Line may be another alternative? User:Our Phellap 23:47, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- I can only think that South West Trains consider the Waterloo-Weymouth link as their "main line" since the map [http://www.swtrains.co.uk/stations/map/network.pdf here] (PDF) shows it as exactly that: the absolutely straight line from which all other routes are thrown off. The same timetables call the Exeter line the \"West of England\" Line, missing out the word "Main", and surely they ought to know?. Why not change it to that - if change there has to be? I should NOT like the term Solent Main Line for the SWML: it has no historical basis whatever, and in all its 168 miles the line never touches the Solent; no, it is the main line of the South West Trains, so what else can it be called? It admittedly doesn't have a title in the aforesaid timetables - it is simply called London Waterloo to Weymouth! ''Appropos'' this naming business: there is an interesting list of Named railway lines put out by National Rail [http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/named_lines.htm here]. It is interesting in that it doesn't show any of the ones we have been discussing - make of that what you will User:Peter Shearan 06:19, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC) ==Duplicate article?== Now here's a pretty mess! Here's a pretty how-de-do! (Gilbert & Sullivan, in case anyone thinks I'm going up the wall). This article is almost exactly the same in much of its content as History of rail transport in Great Britain, especially as far as the lists of ''early'', ''pre-grouping'' railways are concerned. In fact the history article is more verbose and less list-like, and does refer to this one - it also ignores much of what isn't GWR! - but it can mean that changes are not included in both. Does anyone have any comments to make? User:Peter Shearan 14:43, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Rail transport in Great Britain
Rail transport by country Transport in the United Kingdom Public transport in the United Kingdom British railway companies
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