Arriva Trains Merseyside was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Merseyrail Electrics franchise from January 1997 until July 2003, when the Merseyrail railway franchise was transformed into the local Merseyrail concession, owned by the Merseyrail Passenger Transport Executive (Merseytravel).
The British Rail Class 89 is a prototype electric locomotive. Only one was built, in 1986, by British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works. It was used on test-trains on both the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines. The locomotive was fitted with advanced power control systems and developed more than 6,000 bhp. After being withdrawn in 1992, it was returned to service in 1996, before being again withdrawn in 2000. As of January 2021, it is in the final stages of an overhaul that will return it to the main line.
Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the network went as far west as Exeter and also covered the inner East of England. Before 1986, the sector was originally known as London & South Eastern.
British Rail was the brand image of the nationalised railway owner and operator in Great Britain, the British Railways Board, used from 1965 until its breakup and sell-off from 1993 onwards.
Railfreight Distribution was a sub-sector of British Rail, created by the division in 1987 of British Rail's previous Railfreight sector. It was responsible for non-trainload freight operations, as well as Freightliner and Intermodal services. In its early years, the division was occasionally referred to as Speedlink Distribution. It was later responsible for freight operations through the Channel Tunnel.
The British Rail Class 508 (4PER) was a type of electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited, at Holgate Road carriage works, York, in 1979 and 1980. They were a variant of British Rail's standard 1972 design for suburban EMUs, eventually encompassing 755 vehicles and five classes (313/314/315/507/508). They mostly worked on the Merseyrail network from 1982 until withdrawal on 16 January 2024.
First North Western was a train operating company in England owned by FirstGroup that operated the North West Regional Railways franchise from March 1997 until December 2004.
The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part because of the failure of other early designs in the same power range to provide reliable locomotives.
Horwich Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Horwich and suburb of Middlebrook in Greater Manchester, England. The station is 16+1⁄4 miles (26.2 km) north west of Manchester Piccadilly on the Manchester to Preston line. The station is close to Junction 6 of the M61 motorway which adds to its convenience as a park and ride railway station. It has digital information displays.
Brunswick railway station serves the Toxteth district of Liverpool, England, on the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network. The station serves the nearby district of Dingle and is situated on a short section of track between two tunnels, between the now in-filled Toxteth and Harrington Docks. The station also serves businesses on the Brunswick Dock estate, which gives it name to the station. The residential area of Grafton Street is reached by steps or ramp from the southbound platform.
The Canada Dock Branch is a 4-mile 59 chain long railway line in Liverpool, England. The line's route is from the large Edge Hill rail junction in the east of Liverpool to Seaforth Dock to the north. The line was originally built by the London and North Western Railway terminating at Canada Dock, with a later branch extension added to Alexandra Dock and links onto the MDHC railway lines. The line is not electrified.
Conway Park railway station is situated in the centre of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It lies on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network.
British Rail Class 503 passenger trains were 65 mph (105 km/h) electric multiple units. They were introduced in two batches: the first were in 1938, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), with a further batch in 1956 by the then nationalised British Railways (BR). When introduced by the LMS, they were known officially as Class AM3. They were designed for, and operated on, the Wirral & Mersey lines from Liverpool to West Kirby, New Brighton and Rock Ferry. There were few places on their network of closely-spaced stations to attain their maximum speed, except for the open section between Moreton and Meols. All but one set were withdrawn and scrapped by 1985. The final set was used on special Merseyrail services until 1988; it was preserved and kept at the Electric Railway Museum near Coventry, until it moved on to the Locomotive Storage Ltd warehouse at Margate.
Wadsley Bridge railway station was a station in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England on the Great Central Railway's core route between Manchester and Sheffield.
Welham Green railway station serves the village of Welham Green in Hertfordshire, England. It is 15 miles 50 chains (25.1 km) measured from King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line.
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.
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.
Meadowbank Stadium railway station was opened on 14 June 1986 by British Rail next to Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh to allow spectators to travel to the 1986 Commonwealth Games that were being held at the stadium. A shuttle service ran from Edinburgh Waverley: at most times this consisted of a single train running at 20–30 minute intervals, but at times of high demand a second train was used and frequencies were higher. These operated from platforms 20 and 21 at Edinburgh Waverley, and a temporary ticket office nearby was the only outlet at which tickets could be bought. Special pre-printed Edmondson tickets were issued at a flat fare of £0.50.
ScotRail was the trading name providing a distinctive brand for the British Rail network in Scotland, first adopted on 22 September 1983, under manager Chris Green, British Railways Scottish Region. ScotRail was the final brand of British Rail passenger services to operate prior to the privatisation of British Rail, with the ScotRail franchise being signed over to National Express on 31 March 1997.
In Britain and Ireland, a SailRail ticket allows travel with a combination of train and ferry. The brand, which was in existence by 2005, is principally associated with rail tickets between National Rail stations in Great Britain and stations in Ireland, including ferry travel on one of three routes across the Irish Sea.
