This article is about the railway service in Great Britain from 1999 to present. For the former rail transport operator in Great Britain, see British Rail. For the Australian railway operator of the same name, see National Rail Corporation. For information about rail transport within Great Britain as a whole, see Rail transport in Great Britain.
National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail. National Rail is a brand used to promote passenger railway services, and providing some harmonisation for passengers in ticketing, while Network Rail is the organisation which owns and manages most of the fixed assets of the railway network, including tracks, stations and signals.
The two generally coincide where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic and some lines are freight only. There are some scheduled passenger services on privately managed, non-Network Rail lines, for example Chiltern Railways which runs on both Network Rail track and tracks owned by London Underground. Although the London Underground uses its own tracks in the majority of its network, it also runs on Network Rail tracks and shares tracks with National Rail services, both on its own tracks and on Network Rail tracks.
Twenty-five privately owned train operating companies were each franchised for a defined term by government in 1996–97. They operated passenger trains in Great Britain. However, franchises have ceased to exist and are being replaced by operating contracts, which do not involve significant commercial risk for the operators. The Rail Delivery Group is the trade association representing the TOCs and provides core services, including the provision of the National Rail Enquiries service. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which formerly allocated ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel, which manages travel facilities for railway staff. It does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail and Road (allocation of paths) and Network Rail (timetable production and publication). Since March 2020 all ticket revenue has been collected by the Department for Transport, which also pays the operators' costs.
Design and marketing
Following the privatisation of British Rail there was no longer a single approach to railway corporate design. The look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material was largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, railway reforms which are currently in progress will restore the pre-privatisation position, with design responsibilities for the whole network resting with the new 'guiding mind', Great British Railways.
However, National Rail continues to use BR's famous double-arrow symbol, designed by Gerald Burney of the Design Research Unit. It has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the double arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport.[1]
The double arrow symbol is also a generic symbol for a railway station across Great Britain, and is used to indicate a railway station on British traffic signs.[2]
Corporate identity
The train station sign at Wymondham, with the double arrow, the corporate identity of National Rail
The National Rail (NR) logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, (previously British Rail logo as used from 1965), and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, available on its website.[3] "In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation’s neglected railway industry".[4] The NR title is sometimes described as a "brand".[5] As it was used by British Rail, the single operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity; and it avoids the need to replace signage.
The lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. Some train operating companies continue to use the former British Rail Rail Alphabet lettering to varying degrees in station signage, although its use is no longer universal; however it remains compulsory (under Railway Group Standards) for safety signage in trackside areas and is still common (although not universal) on rolling stock.
London Overground and the Elizabeth line (formerly TfL Rail) are hybrids: Their services are operated via a concession awarded by Transport for London (TfL). They are part of National Rail as train operating companies, where tickets can be used in the same way as other operators, and shown in the National Rail timetable. However, under Transport for London, they are considered as separate networks. They are listed separately in all materials produced by TfL than National Rail, stations serving London Overground or the Elizabeth line only do not have the National Rail logo shown on either the station themselves or the tube map, and fares on these two networks are priced as TfL services, the same as London Underground, rather than National Rail services. The National Rail service status web page by TfL also does not list these two systems.
London Overground also owns some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former London Underground East London line and the extension to Barking Riverside.
Eurostar is also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of tracks and stations (along High Speed 1). Northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was limited to England, Scotland and Wales.
There are many privately owned or heritage railways in Great Britain which are not part of the National Rail network and mostly operate for heritage or pleasure purposes rather than as public transport, but some have connections to National Rail track.
Ticketing
National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail. Through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office. Most tickets are inter-available between the services of all operators on routes appropriate to the journey being made. Operators on some routes offer operator-specific tickets that are cheaper than the inter-available ones.
Through tickets involving London Underground, or to some ferry services (RailSail tickets) are also available. Oyster pay-as-you-go can be used on National Rail in Greater London from 2 January 2010.[6] These same areas can also be journeyed to using a contactless debit/credit card. Contactless also covers some areas that Oyster doesn't such as the Crossrail line to Reading, or the Thameslink station at Oakleigh Park.[7]
4 day rail rover (1994)
The most common types of tickets available include 'advance' tickets, that specify a specific route and timing between two destinations, 'off-peak' tickets, either as a single or a return, that allow a passenger to use a train at hours where the service is not busy, and 'anytime' tickets, which can be used on any train. Season tickets, which offer unlimited travel between two stations for a specified period, are also available.[8] A 'rover' travel card ticket also exists that allows unlimited travel in a set area or on services of certain operators, for a certain period of time. Rovers which allow unlimited travel for only one day are sometimes referred to as ranger tickets, and are usually available for smaller areas.[9]
Passengers without a valid ticket boarding a train at a station where ticket-buying facilities are available are required to pay the full Open Single or Return fare. On some services penalty fares apply – a ticketless passenger may be charged the greater of £20 or twice the full single fare to the next stop. Penalty Fares can be collected only by authorised Revenue Protection Inspectors, not by ordinary Guards.[10]
Pocket timetables for individual operators or routes are available free at staffed stations. The last official printed timetable with up to 3000 pages was published in 2007. Now the only complete print edition is published by Middleton Press (as of October 2016). A digital version of the full timetable is available as a pdf file without charge on the Network Rail website;[12] however, passengers are recommended to obtain their timetables from the individual train companies.
National Rail Enquiries
The National Rail website as it is now known as, its previous nomenclature was National Rail Enquiries, handles an average of 2.5 million journey planning enquiries every weekday through its website, apps and contact centre, and through information services supplied to third parties (such as open access data feeds).[13]
It is the UK's largest and most accurate travel information website, peaking at more than 10 million visitors per day, more than its nearest competitors.[14]
The National Rail website includes a journey planner, fare and live departure information. The site is designed to complement the myriad different websites of Britain's privatised rail companies, so when users have selected which tickets they wish to buy, they are redirected to the most relevant train company website, where they can buy their tickets without booking fees.
In June 2020, a real time personalised messaging service, Alert Me, was launched, providing real-time disruption and crowding information via Messenger.[17] This was followed in September 2021 by a similar service made available through WhatsApp.[18] The service was closed in June 2023 leaving only a simple SMS based messaging service in place for customers.[19] Both services were provided by a British transport technology company Zipabout.[20]
In April 2021 the National Rail website turned from colour to greyscale in a tribute to The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh whom had died. The gesture however backfired after users highlighted accessibility issues and complained they could no longer use the website.[21] However, the website was quickly reverted back to its original design the same day following customer accessibility feedback.
In July 2021 the Department of Transport published the world’s first ‘greenprint’ to decarbonise all modes of domestic transport by 2050 in the UK. It was published two months before the climate summit COP26, and planned to provide a world-leading ‘greenprint’ to cut emissions from 'seas and skies, roads and railways'.[22] The nationalrail.co.uk website also signed up to the same carbon commitment, which was referred to as 'The Green Travel Pledge' and was cited on its website and via Rail Delivery Group media.[23][24]
In June 2023 the website was completely overhauled with an entirely new frontend retaining little of the old designs but the brand logo remained. The website is quoted as saying its website is, "cleaner, more modern, and full of better information".[25]
The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest railway system in the world. The first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825, which was followed by an era of rapid expansion. Most of the track is managed by Network Rail, which in 2017 had a network of 9,824 miles (15,811 km) of standard-gauge lines, of which 3,339 miles (5,374 km) were electrified. In addition, some cities have separate metro, light rail and tram systems, among them the historic London Underground and the Glasgow Subway. There are also many private railways, some of them narrow-gauge, which are primarily short lines for tourists. The main rail network is connected with that of continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel and High Speed 1, opened in 1994 and 2007 respectively.
Nederlandse Spoorwegen is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is the busiest in the European Union, and the third busiest in the world after Switzerland and Japan.
c2c is a British train operating company owned by Trenitalia that operates the Essex Thameside railway contract. It manages 25 stations and its trains call at 28. c2c provides commuter services from its London Fenchurch Street terminus to parts of East London and south Essex along the London, Tilbury and Southend line. At weekends it also operates from London Liverpool Street.
The Rail Delivery Group Limited (RDG), previously the Association of Train Operating Companies, is the British rail industry membership body that brings together passenger and freight rail companies, Network Rail and High Speed 2. The RDG is approximately half-funded by Network Rail, the remainder of its funding being provided by the various transport groups it represents.
In the ticketing system of the British rail network, a Permit to Travel provisionally allows passengers to travel on a train when they have not purchased a ticket in advance and the ticket office of the station they are travelling from is closed, without incurring a penalty fare.
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
A train operating company (TOC) is the term used on the railway system of Great Britain for a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is a local government body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. It is an executive arm of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the city region's administrative authority. The strategies and policies of Transport for Greater Manchester are set by the GMCA and its Greater Manchester Transport Committee (GMTC). The committee is made up of 33 councillors appointed from the ten Greater Manchester boroughs, as well as the Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Aberdeen railway station is the main railway station in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the busiest railway station in Scotland north of the major cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is located on Guild Street in the city centre, next to Union Square.
Alderley Edge railway station serves the large village of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, England. The station is 13¾ miles (22 km) south of Manchester Piccadilly on the Crewe to Manchester Line.
Barry Links railway station lies south of the village of Barry, west of Carnoustie in Angus, Scotland. It is sited 8 miles 67 chains (14.2 km) from the former Dundee East station, and is on the Dundee to Aberdeen line, between Monifieth and Golf Street. The station is managed by ScotRail, who provide all the services at the station.
Pitlochry railway station is a railway station serving the town of Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is managed by ScotRail and is located on the Highland main line, 28 miles 21 chains (45.5 km) from Perth, between Dunkeld & Birnham and Blair Atholl.
In the ticketing system of the British rail network, tickets are normally issued to and from individual stations. In some instances, when there is more than one station in a town or other locality—especially where these are on different routes—it may be desirable for passengers to be able to travel to one station and back from another, or more generally to be able to choose which of the stations they wish to travel to. To accommodate this requirement, British Rail introduced a series of station groups: notional "common locations" to which tickets from stations outside that group would be issued.
There is no single 'discount railcard' available on the UK railway network. In addition to the large number and variety of short-term or localised promotional fares that have been available to passengers on the British railway network in recent decades, there are many permanent concessionary fare schemes available to passengers. Some of these take the form of Railcards, which can be purchased by people who qualify according to the conditions, and which give discounts for all journeys over a period; other concessions are available for individual journeys. In all cases, details of the type of concession will be printed on the passenger's travel ticket, to distinguish reduced-rate tickets from those sold at the standard full fare.
The Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress system is a passenger-operated self-service railway ticket issuing system developed and manufactured by the German systems development and production group Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, based in the city of Mönchengladbach. Since the first trial installations in 2003, seven train operating companies (TOCs) in Great Britain have adopted the system as their main passenger-operated ticket vending method, while four others have installed machines at certain stations on their networks. More than 1,500 machines are in place across the country, and more than 850 stations have one or more. Machines can accept cash and/or payment cards and can sell most National Rail tickets.
Avantix Mobile ("AVB") is a portable railway ticket issuing system used across the British railway network from 2001 to 2017.
The railway network of Great Britain is operated with the aid of a number of documents, which have been sometimes termed "technical manuals", because they are more detailed than the pocket-timetables which the public encounters every day. Historically, they were classified PRIVATE and not for publication, however since rail privatisation they are now more widely available, mostly in digital form, because they are produced centrally and not by the regional rail operators.
A penalty fare, standard fare, or fixed penalty notice is a special, usually higher, fare charged because a passenger using public transport did not comply with the normal ticket purchasing rules. It should not be confused with an unpaid fares notice.
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan area covering the cities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland, as well as North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and Washington.
Lumo is a British open-access operator owned by FirstGroup that operates passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne.
↑ "National Rail Enquiries – Ticket Types". National Rail Enquiries. 22 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 August 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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