1.
Thames Valley
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It is generally taken to include parts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey and sometimes two boroughs of southwest London. The Thames Valley region can be compared with the longer and narrower M4 corridor, the Thames Valley is one of the wealthiest parts of the European Union, aided by a skilled workforce and its accessibility to London. Historic trades have been replaced by wealth-generating knowledge-based industries, in particular, information and communications technology, productivity was £49,000 per worker in 2006, which was £8,600 higher than the average for the wider region of south-east England. The knowledge economy provides 29% of employment, compared with the average of 17%. 20% of Thames Valley workers are employed in managerial and senior positions, the direct labour force amounts to 1 million people, but the total workforce within an hour of the Thames Valley towns is close to 3.7 million. Since 2002, the Thames Valley has been the UKs fastest growing region, averaging 3. 5% per year economic growth after inflation and its economy was valued at £32 billion in 2007. The Thames Valley is a major tourist destination in the United Kingdom for domestic, scenic landscapes include the Chiltern Hills, Ridgeway National Trail, and Windsor Great Park. Luxury spa hotels and golf resorts cater to the luxury and leisure stay market, regattas, food fairs and fun fairs in the towns mentioned above and traditional centres of population are among the attractions for a regional audience, as well as theme parks. Dorney Lake is a national venue for kayaking, canoeing and rowing. The American Community Schools, England are centred on the area, wentworth and Sunningdale Golf Clubs are also in the area. Five horse racing venues are within 20 kilometres of the river, the Thames Valley Police cover the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The force is governed by the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner, other forces cover the rest of the Thames Valley region
2.
West Midlands (region)
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The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area known as the Midlands. The city of Coventry is also located within the West Midlands county, the region is geographically diverse, from the urban central areas of the conurbation to the rural western counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire which border Wales. The region also encompasses five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Wye Valley, Shropshire hills, Cannock Chase, Malvern Hills, Warwickshire is home to the town of Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of the writer William Shakespeare. The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres in west Herefordshire on the border with Powys, Wales. The region contains five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including all of the Shropshire Hills, Malvern Hills and Cannock Chase, the Peak District national park also stretches into the northern corner of Staffordshire. Served by many lines in the areas such as the West Coast Main Line. The Welsh Marches Line and the Cotswold Line transect the region as well as the Cross Country Route, there are plans to reopen the Honeybourne Line. Numerous notable roads pass through the region, with most converging around the central conurbation, the M6 toll provides an alternative route to the M6 between Coleshill and Cannock, passing north of Sutton Coldfield and just south of Lichfield. The M40 connects the region through South East England to London, with its terminus at its junction with the M42, it passes close to Warwick. The M42 connects the M5 at Bromsgrove, passing around the south and east of Birmingham, joining the M40 and M6, passing Solihull and Castle Bromwich, to Tamworth, the M50 connects the M5 from near Tewkesbury to Ross-on-Wye in the southwest. The M54 connects Wellington in the west, passing Telford, to the M6 near Cannock, the A5 road traverses the region northwest-southeast, passing through Shrewsbury, Telford, Cannock, Tamworth and Nuneaton. As part of the planning system, the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a Regional Transport Strategy to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the Highways Agency, within the region, the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a Local Transport Plan which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006-11, in the West Midlands region, the following transport authorities have published their LTP online, Herefordshire, Shropshire U. A. The transport authority of Stoke-on-Trent U. A, Major towns and cities in the West Midlands region include, Bold indicates city status. The region is based on the former region of Mercia. The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 started the English Civil War, jane Bunford of Bartley Green until 1982 was the tallest woman ever in the world, and now the second tallest, and the tallest person ever in the UK, at 7 ft 11in
3.
Cotswolds
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The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat rare in the UK and that is quarried for the golden coloured Cotswold stone. It contains unique features derived from the use of this mineral, the well-established boundaries of the Cotswolds have expanded considerably since moving out of the cities and into the countryside gained popularity. Now the Cotswolds boundaries are roughly 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties, mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the hills give their name to the Cotswold local-government district in Gloucestershire, which administers a large part of the area. The highest point of the region is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft, there is evidence of Neolithic settlement from burial chambers on Cotswold Edge, and there are remains of Bronze and Iron Age forts. Later the Romans built villas, such as at Chedworth, settlements such as Gloucester, the area still preserves numerous large, handsome Cotswold Stone wool churches. The affluent area in the 21st century has attracted wealthy Londoners and others who own homes there or have chosen to retire to the Cotswolds. The name Cotswold is popularly attributed the meaning sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides, incorporating the term, wold, compare also the Weald from the Saxon/German word Wald meaning wood. Cod was interpreted as an Old English personal name, which may be recognised in further names, Cutsdean, Codeswellan, the spine of the Cotswolds runs southwest to northeast through six counties, particularly Gloucestershire, west Oxfordshire and south western Warwickshire. The northern and western edges of the Cotswolds are marked by steep escarpments down to the Severn valley and this feature, known as the Cotswold escarpment, or sometimes the Cotswold Edge, is a result of the uplifting of the limestone layer, exposing its broken edge. This is a cuesta, in geological terms, the dip slope is to the southeast. On the eastern boundary lies the city of Oxford and on the west is Stroud, to the southeast, the upper reaches of the Thames Valley and towns such as Lechlade, Tetbury and Fairford are often considered to mark the limit of this region. To the south the Cotswolds, with the uplift of the Cotswold Edge, reach beyond Bath. The area is characterised by small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone. This limestone is rich in fossils, particularly of fossilised sea urchins, Cotswold towns include Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Burford, Chipping Norton, Dursley, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Stroud and Winchcombe. Bath, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester and Stroud are larger urban centres that border on, or are surrounded by. The town of Chipping Campden is notable for being the home of the Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris at the end of the 19th, William Morris lived occasionally in Broadway Tower, a folly, now part of a country park. Chipping Campden also is known for the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games, Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic Jurassic limestone
4.
North Downs
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The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Westerham Heights, at the edge of the North Downs, near Bromley. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs, the North Downs Way National Trail runs along the North Downs from Farnham to Dover. Downs is from Old English dun meaning, amongst other things, the word acquired the sense of elevated rolling grassland around the fourteenth century. These hills are prefixed north to distinguish them from the morphologically similar range of hills - the South Downs - which run parallel to them. The narrow spine of the Hogs Back between Farnham and Guildford forms the western extremity of the North Downs, whilst the cliffs between Folkestone and Deal terminate the ridge in the east, there are two distinct aspects, the steep south-facing escarpment and the gentle north-facing dip slope. The southern boundary is defined by the foot of the escarpment which gives way to the flat, the northern boundary is less apparent but occurs where the chalk submerges below the more recent Paleocene deposits. The Downs are highest near the Kent-Surrey border, often reaching heights in excess of 200 m above sea level at the crest of the escarpment, the highest point is Botley Hill in Surrey at 269 metres. The County top of Kent at Betsoms Hill, with a height of 251 metres is located nearby, east of the Medway Valley the Downs become broader and flatter, extending as far as the Isle of Thanet. The ridge is intersected by the valleys of a series of rivers and these drain much of the Weald to the south, the western ones are tributaries of the Thames, they carve steep valleys through the chalk and provide natural corridor routes. Except for the valleys and wind gaps, the crest of the escarpment is almost continuous along its length. The dip slope is dissected by small dry valleys, and in the broad eastern part in Kent. Leith Hill is sometimes referred to as part of the North Downs but is located on the parallel Greensand Ridge. The Chalk Group, composed almost entirely of chalk, a kind of soft fine-grained limestone. It is formed of three parts, the Upper Chalk, which has many flints, the Middle Chalk, with flints. The chalk is most commonly exposed on slopes or as cliffs, the buried upper surface of the chalk beneath the acidic strata is often eroded into pipes, gulleys and pinnacles, sometimes visible in road cuttings and quarries. The Upper Greensand Formation, a whitish, limy sandstone, often used for building, the Upper Greensand of the North Downs is a thin bed of one or two metres thickness, and it is rarely visible at the surface. The Upper Greensand marks the edge of the Downs, being underlain by
5.
First Great Western Link
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First Great Western Link was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup that operated the Thames Trains franchise from April 2004 until March 2006. In April 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority invited First and Go-Ahead to bid for an extension to the Thames Trains franchise. On 4 November 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the franchise to First, on 12 June 2005 Heathrow Connect was introduced as a joint venture between First Great Western Link and BAA. The Stratford-upon-Avon service was transferred to Chiltern Railways in December 2004 with First Great Western Link ceasing to operate beyond Banbury, First Great Western Links fleet was maintained at Reading depot. This was part of a Strategic Rail Authority strategy to reduce the number of operating companies providing services from a single London terminal. This was expected to improve efficiency and reliability
6.
Go-Ahead Group
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The Go-Ahead Group plc is a provider of passenger transport in the UK, with over one billion journeys made on its bus and trains services each year. It is a FTSE250 Index group listed on the London Stock Exchange, early expansion saw the acquisition of certain smaller competing bus operators in North East England. Go-Ahead Northern Ltd also became a National Express sub-contractor operating services to the Midlands, North East, North West, at the same time, Go-Ahead Leisure purchased a number of pubs, which were sold in February 1996. In May 1997 the Brighton & Hove operation expanded with the acquisition of the municipal operator Brighton Transport. In September 1999 Metrobus, a large operator operating in London, Surrey, initially an unlisted public company owned 90% by management, in May 1994 Go-Ahead was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In October 1994 Go-Ahead purchased London Central during the privatisation of London Buses, in March 1995 OK Motor Services was purchased and integrated into the Go North East operation. In June 1996 a second London bus operation, London General was acquired from the management team that had purchased it when privatised, in October 1996 Go-Ahead entered the UK rail market when it commenced operating the Thames Trains franchise which it ran until March 2004. The Thames Trains franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to Victory Rail Holdings, Go-Ahead owned 65% of the shares in Victory Rail Holdings with the remaining 35% held by some ex British Rail managers and employees. Go-Ahead bought the shares it did not own in June 1998. Go-Ahead entered into a joint venture with VIA-GTI, taking a 65% stake in Govia, Govia ran the Thameslink franchise from March 1997 until March 2006. In October 1998 Go-Ahead diversified into Airport Services with the acquisition of Gatwick Handling International, in 2000 French government owned C3D made an unsuccessful takeover bid for the company. In 2000 Go-Ahead entered two joint ventures with VIA-GTI and BK Tåg to operate services in Sweden. Go-Ahead had a 39% stake in City Pendeln AB which was to operate the Citypendeln commuter rail business in Stockholm, Go-Ahead had a 29% stake in Sydvasten AB which operated rail services between Gothenburg and Malmö. Due to problems, Go-Ahead exited both ventures, Wycombe Bus Company was sold to Arriva in December 2000. Go-Ahead acquired the ground handling operations of British Midland and Midland Airport Services in March 2001 followed by Reed Aviation in August 2001, along with Go-Aheads existing Gatwick Handling International operation, all were rebranded as Aviance. In August 2001 Govia started running the South Central rail franchise, in October 2000 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority awarded Govia the South Central rail franchise with operations due to commence in May 2003 when the Connex South Central franchise expired. Govia negotiated a deal with Connex to buy out the remainder of its franchise, in May 2002 Go-Ahead diversified again, acquiring airport-focused Meteor Parking. In August 2003 the Wilts & Dorset bus business was purchased, included in the purchase of Gatwick Handling International in 1998 was a 50% shareholding in Plane Handling
7.
Train operating company
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A train operating company is a business operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993 and these operators can run services for the duration of the licence validity. The franchised operators have changed considerably since privatisation, previous franchises have been divided, merged, re-let to new operators, the term is also sometimes used to describe companies operating passenger or freight rail services over tracks that are owned by another company or a national network owner. Franchises were initially let by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising and this was in turn replaced by the Strategic Rail Authority, which has since been abolished. For England and Wales, franchising is now the responsibility of the Department for Transport in the majority of cases, in Scotland, it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government. The Rail Delivery Group provides a commonality for the TOCs and provides some centralised co-ordination and its activities include the provision of a national timetable and online journey planner facility, and the operation of the various Railcard discount schemes. Eurostar is also a member of RDG, though it is not itself a TOC, until 2005 this role was performed by the Strategic Rail Authority. Most passenger trains are owned by a number of Rolling Stock Companies and are leased to the individual TOCs. However, a handful of TOCs own and maintain some of their own rolling stock, train operating companies also operate most of the networks stations, in their role as station facility owners, in which they lease the buildings and associated land from Network Rail. Network Rail manages some major railway stations and several stations are operated by London Underground or other companies, all passenger TOCs in Great Britain are privately owned. The majority of these franchises to operate rail services on specific parts of the railway. A third, Wrexham & Shropshire, with services between London and Wrexham, no longer exists, in addition, there are operators that fall outside the purview of National Rail, which operate specific services which are recent additions to Britains railways. The main examples are Eurostar, which operates to the continent via the Channel Tunnel, and Heathrow Express, many of the train operating companies are in fact parts of larger companies which operate multiple franchises. The franchising process was implemented, with private companies taking over the shadow franchises. Two shadow franchises, Chiltern Lines and Great Western Trains were purchased by their own management teams, Great Westerns management also bought North West Regional Railways and renamed it North Western Trains. Great Western Holdings, the owner of the operator of inter-city services from London Paddington Great Western Trains was sold to FirstBus. The TOC North Western Trains was also owned by Great Western Holdings, after the takeover FirstBus was renamed FirstGroup and the TOCs renamed First Great Western and First North Western. The completion of the link to Heathrow Airport led to Heathrow Express
8.
British Rail
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British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies and lasted until the privatisation of British Rail. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, the period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the national railway network. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotion had been replaced by diesel and electric traction. Passengers replaced freight as the source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching Axe of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatisation, responsibility for track, signalling and stations was transferred to Railtrack, the British Rail double arrow logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed the arrow of indecision. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century, during World War I the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II, under the Transport Act 1947. This Act made provision for the nationalisation of the network, as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlees Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few railways to consider. Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, the London Underground – publicly owned since 1933 – was also nationalised, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government, the electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation. The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, however, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer, until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the time included the return of road haulage to the private sector. British Railways was divided into regions which were based on the areas the former Big Four operated in, later. Western Region of British Railways, former Great Western Railway lines, London Midland Region of British Railways, former London Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England
9.
Ladbroke Grove rail crash
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The Ladbroke Grove rail crash was a rail accident which occurred on 5 October 1999 at Ladbroke Grove in London, United Kingdom. With 31 people killed and more than 520 injured, this remains the worst rail accident on the Great Western Main Line. This was the major accident on the Great Western Main Line in just over two years, the first being the Southall rail crash of September 1997, a few miles west of this accident. Both crashes would have prevented by an operational Automatic Train Protection system. This severely damaged confidence in the management and regulation of safety of Britains privatised railway system. A public inquiry into the crash by Lord Cullen was held in 2000, major changes in the formal responsibilities for management and regulation of safety of UK rail transport ensued. At about 08,06 BST on 5 October 1999, a Thames Trains service to Bedwyn railway station in Wiltshire left Paddington Station, as an out-bound train, the train would have been routed onto the Down Main line at Ladbroke Grove. It should have held at a red signal at Ladbroke Grove until this could be done safely. Instead, it ran past the signal, the points settings beyond this brought it, in under 600 metres, onto the Up Main Line. At about 8,09, as it was entering that line, it collided nearly head-on, the latter train was a High Speed Train, driven by 52-year-old Brian Cooper, who was killed in the accident. It comprised eight Mark 3 coaches with a Class 43 diesel power car at each end and it was of much more substantial construction than the Turbo train, the leading car of which was totally destroyed. The drivers of both trains involved were killed, as well as 29 others, and 227 people were admitted to hospital, a further 296 people were treated at the site of the crash for minor injuries. The immediate cause of the disaster was identified as the Turbo train passing signal SN109 at which it should have been held. It was established that the signal had been showing a red aspect, since the Thames Turbo driver, 31-year-old Michael Hodder, had been killed in the accident, it was not possible to establish why he had passed the signal at danger. However, Hodder was inexperienced, having qualified as a driver only two weeks before the crash. Furthermore,5 October 1999 was a day of sunshine and at just past 8 oclock the sun would have been low and behind Hodder. Poor signal placement meant that Hodder would have seen sunlit yellow aspects of SN109 at a point where his view of the red aspect of SN109 was still obstructed. Since 1998 a campaign to have the signal SN109 properly sited had been running, Paddington approaches had been resignalled by British Rail in the early 1990s to allow bidirectional working
10.
Great Western main line
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The Great Western main line is a main line railway in Great Britain, that runs westwards from Londons Paddington station to Bristol Temple Meads. It was the route of the pre-1948 Great Western Railway which was merged into the Western Region of British Railways and is now a part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail. The line is currently being electrified and it was electrified from Paddington to Heathrow Airport in the late 1990s. Work to electrify the remainder of the started in 2011 with an initial aim to complete the work all the way to Bristol by 2016. The programme however has been deferred for six years with no end completion forecast because costs have tripled. The four sections that are delayed are, Oxford to Didcot Parkway, Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads, Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads and the Thames Valley branches to Henley and Windsor. The line was built by the Great Western Railway and engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a track line using a wider 7 ft broad gauge and was opened in stages between 1838 and 1840. The alignment was so level and straight it was nicknamed ‘Brunel’s Billiard Table’ and it was supplemented with a third rail for dual gauge operation allowing standard gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in trains to also operate on the route in stages between 1854 and 1875. The broad gauge remained in use until 1892, evidence of the original broad gauge can still be seen at many places where bridges are a wider than usual, or where tracks are ten feet apart instead of the usual six. The original dual tracks were widened to four track in places between 1877 and 1899. Further widenings of the line took place between 1903 and 1910, the railways returned to direct government control during World War II before being nationalised to form British Railways in 1948. More widening infrastructure work took place between 1931 and 1932, and the extension to south wales was quadrupled 1941, the line speed was upgraded in the 1970s to support the introduction of the InterCity 125. Under the 1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded the 1976–79 Labour government the proposal was not implemented, the route of the GWML includes dozens of listed buildings and structures, including tunnel portals, bridges and viaducts, stations, and associated hotels. Grade I listed structures on the line include London Paddington, Wharncliffe Viaduct, the 1839 Tudor gothic River Avon Bridge in Bristol, from London to Didcot, the line follows the Thames Valley, crossing the River Thames three times, including on the famous Maidenhead Railway Bridge. After Swindon, trains pass the Swindon Steam Railway Museum, from Wootton Bassett there are two different routes to Bristol, firstly via Box Tunnel and secondly via Bristol Parkway. It is also possible to run via the Wessex Main Line, beyond Bristol, some trains continue on the Bristol to Taunton Line to Weston-super-Mare or beyond. Main line and local services are provided by Great Western Railway, the stations served by trains between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads are, Slough, Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham, and Bath Spa. Local services on this route are operated by GWR and BAA under the Heathrow Connect name
11.
London Paddington station
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Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of the Great Western Railway, much of the main-line station dates from 1854 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was first served by London Underground trains in 1863, as the western terminus of the Metropolitan Railway. Today, Paddington tube station is served by the Bakerloo, Circle, District and it is also the terminus for the Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect services to and from London Heathrow Airport. It is one of 19 stations in the United Kingdom managed directly by Network Rail and it is situated in fare zone 1. The station complex is bounded at the front by Praed Street and at the rear by Bishops Bridge Road, on the west side of the station is Eastbourne Terrace, while the east side is bounded by the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal. The station is in a cutting, a fact obscured at the front by a hotel building. The surrounding area is residential, and includes the major St Marys Hospital, restaurants. Until recently there was little office accommodation in the area, however, recent redevelopment of derelict railway and canal land, marketed as Paddington Waterside, has resulted in new office complexes nearby. In addition to the Underground stations at Paddington, Lancaster Gate tube station on the Central line is a walk away to the south. A little further to the south lie the conjoined parks of Hyde Park, the National Rail station is officially named London Paddington, a name commonly used outside London but rarely by Londoners, who call it just Paddington, as on the London Underground map. Parts of the station, including the train shed, date from 1854. It is one of 19 stations managed by Network Rail, the first station was a temporary terminus for the GWR on the west side of Bishops Bridge Road, opened on 4 June 1838. The first GWR service from London to Taplow, near Maidenhead, after the main station opened in 1854, this became the site of the goods depot. It opened on 29 May 1854, the glazed roof is supported by wrought iron arches in three spans, respectively spanning 68 feet,102 feet and 70 feet. The roof is 699 feet long, and the original roof spans had two transepts connecting the three spans and it is commonly believed that these were provided by Brunel to accommodate traversers to carry coaches between the tracks within the station. However recent research, using documents and photographs, does not seem to support this belief. The Great Western Hotel was built on Praed Street in front of the station in 1851–1854 by architect Philip Charles Hardwick, the station was substantially enlarged in 1906–1915 and a fourth span of 109 feet was added on the north side, parallel to the others
12.
Greenford branch line
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The Greenford branch line is a 2 3⁄4-mile Network Rail suburban railway line in west London, England. It runs northerly from a junction with the Great Western Main Line west of West Ealing to a central bay platform at Greenford station which is also on the London Underground Central line. A triangular junction near Greenford connects to the Acton–Northolt line, the line serves mainly the suburbs of Ealing and Greenford. The passenger service is provided by Great Western Railway, trains from the branch terminate at West Ealing, except for one service each way from Paddington at the start of the day, and to Paddington at the end of the day. All services are operated with two-car Class 165 Turbo diesel trains, the Show ran from 15 June 1903 to 4 July 1903 during which period trains operated a circular service to and from Paddington via Park Royal and Ealing. Normal services started on 2 May 1904 and the links to Greenford station were put in on 1 October 1904, the loop formed by the GWML, the branch and the ANL is sometimes used for turning trains for operational reasons such as balancing wheel wear. On two Sundays in February 2010, Chiltern and Wrexham & Shropshire trains were diverted to Paddington via the line while engineering work blocked the route to Marylebone, in the 1950s the service frequently ran with two auto-trailers, one either side of the engine. During the 1960s and 70s the service was operated by a Class 121 Bubble Car two-carriage diesel railcar. As Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park and South Greenford have short platforms the length of train that can be used is two cars. In preparation for Crossrail, a new platform 5 has been constructed at West Ealing and these are statistics of passenger usage on the National Rail network along the Greenford branch line from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2011. At Greenford, London Underground Central line, At West Ealing, GWR local services and Heathrow Connect to Heathrow Airport
13.
Marlow branch line
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The Marlow branch line is a 7. 25-mile single track railway line between Maidenhead, Berkshire, Bourne End and Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. Passenger services are operated by Great Western Railway using Class 165, the line connects to the Great Western Main Line at Maidenhead station, and uses a section of the former Wycombe Railway line to High Wycombe together with the former Great Marlow Railway. The train that runs on the line is known as The Marlow Donkey although the exact derivation of the term is unclear. However, Anthony Wethered, great-grandson of the first chairman of the company, a third tradition identifies a particular locomotive. A pub in Marlow is named after it, the off-peak service is one train per hour in each direction between Maidenhead and Marlow. This is possible because Bourne End station has two platforms that may be used simultaneously, all trains from Marlow must stop and reverse at Bourne End, as the line to Marlow has a trailing connection, and the driver must change ends for the second part of the route. As a result of the position at which the Marlow branch enters Bourne End station, in 1937 Furze Platt station was added on the outskirts of Maidenhead. In July 1846, The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an Act of Parliament, the act authorised the construction of a single line from the original Great Western Railway station at Maidenhead, to High Wycombe. Construction began in 1852, and the line to High Wycombe, was finally opened on 1 August 1854. The line left the GWR main line at the site of the present Maidenhead station and this station was closed on 1 November 1871 upon the opening of the present Maidenhead station. The Wycombe Railway Company was taken over by GWR on 1 February 1867, in August 1867 the business men of Great Marlow met to discuss a connection with the GWR Wycombe branch line, at the station then called Marlow Road. The Great Marlow Railway Act was given Royal Assent on 13 July 1868 with a capital of £18,000. Only about one third of this was raised locally and the GWR supplied the remainder, the 2.75 miles line opened on 27 June 1873, and Marlow Road was renamed Bourne End in 1874 to avoid confusion. The Marlow company maintained the line and supplied the station staff,522, GWR517 Class 0-4-2 saddle tank locomotive, was affectionately known as the Marlow Donkey. No.522 was rebuilt at Swindon Works in 1884 and similar Metro 2-4-0 class locomotives remained in service until 1935 when autotrains were introduced, the GWR acquired the remainder of the capital and owned the line from 1897. In July 1962 the steam locomotive was replaced with a Diesel multiple unit, the service was gradually cut back through to 1969, by which time Marlow station had been demolished and replaced by a smaller one on the site of the former goods yard. Loudwater and Wooburn Green lost their offices, Loudwater had been reduced to a single track halt. Replacement bus services on the Bourne End to High Wycombe section are provided by Arriva Shires & Essex service 37 and 35
14.
Henley branch line
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The Henley Branch Line is a branch railway line between Twyford in Berkshire and Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It was built by the Great Western Railway in 1857, train services are provided by the present day Great Western Railway train operating company. The railway provides access to the River Thames and the Thames Path and is used during the Henley Royal Regatta. It is sometimes referred to as the Regatta Line, and was branded as such by First Great Western, at periods other than the Regatta, many of the lines users are commuters to London, and students attending the nearby Henley College. From a junction with the Great Western Main Line at Twyford railway station, the line north and goes under the A4 main road. From there, the crosses the River Thames into Oxfordshire and proceeds to Shiplake. Finally it continues to the town of Henley-on-Thames, where the line terminates, the speed limit is 50 mph along most of line, except for the Shiplake bridge, which is 30 mph for multiple units, and the approach to Twyford, which is 25 mph. This line is 4 1⁄2 miles long and is not currently electrified and this is in conjunction with the electrification of the Great Western Main Line. It was announced on 8 November 2016 that the electrification of the branch was being delayed, the current passenger train service pattern on the line provides trains at about 45 minute intervals off peak, with two up and three down through trains to and from London. The best time is 45 minutes, the first train out from Henley is at 06,06 and the last train home at 00,15. The Saturday service is hourly, as is the Sunday service with a later start, additional services are provided during Henley Regatta at the beginning of July, with longer trains. All services are operated by, using Class 165/166 Turbo diesel multiple units, upon completion of electrification, Class 387 trains will be used, while the Turbos will be displaced to other parts of the GWR network. Henley had long flourished due to its location on the River Thames, by the seventeenth century it was an established coaching stop, and it was only in the railway age that the dominance of the town was brought into question. The Great Western Railway opened its line as far as a temporary wooden terminus at Twyford on 1 July 1839. Twyford was the nearest station to Henley, but customary transport routes using the River Thames continued in use for the time being. In 1852 the possibility of incursion by competing companies was again in evidence and this risked delay while the line was resurveyed, and time was already tight to achieve deposition of a Bill in the 1853 session. Accordingly it was agreed that the intended route should be held to. The Bill for time extension was presented to Parliament and it received the Royal Assent on 4 August 1853, the line was to be a single line, although bridges and earthworks were to be constructed for later doubling
15.
Reading railway station
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Reading railway station is a major transport hub in Reading, England. On the northern edge of the centre, near the main retail and commercial areas. Reading is the ninth-busiest station in the UK outside London, Reading is one of 19 stations managed by Network Rail. The station is served by three train operating companies, Great Western Railway, CrossCountry and South West Trains, the first Reading station was opened on 30 March 1840 as the temporary western terminus of the original line of the Great Western Railway. The time taken to travel from London to Reading was reduced to one hour and five minutes, the line was extended to its intended terminus at Bristol in 1841. In 1844, the Great Western Hotel, was opened across the Forbury Road for people visiting the town and it is thought to be the oldest surviving railway hotel in the world. New routes soon joined the London to Bristol line, with the line from Reading to Newbury and Hungerford opening in 1847, in 1860, a new station building, in Bath Stone and incorporating a tower and clock, was constructed for the Great Western Railway. In 1898 the single sided station was replaced by a design with up, down. Access to the station from Broad Street was not direct, until Queen Victoria Street was built in 1903 and this provided a route through to Friar Street and Station Road. The station was originally named Reading and became Reading General on 26 September 1949 to distinguish it from the ex-South Eastern Railway station nearby, the General suffix was dropped from British Rail timetables in 1973, but some of the station nameboards still stated Reading General in 1974. From 6 September 1965, services from the former Reading Southern station were diverted into a newly constructed terminal platform in the General station. At the same time a new station car park was built on the site of the former goods yard and signal works to the north of the station. The station facilities in the 1860 station building were converted into The Three Guineas public house, the Queen reopened the station on 4 April 1989. By 2007, the station had become a bottleneck on the railway network. This was caused by limited number of through-platforms, the flat junctions immediately east and west of the station, the Great Western Main Line at Reading has two pairs of tracks – the main lines on the southern side and the relief lines on the northern side. Passenger and freight trains transferring between the Reading to Taunton Line and Reading to Basingstoke Line and the lines had to cross the Main lines. On 10 September 2008 Network Rail unveiled a £400 million regeneration and reconfiguration of the station, the plans included an underpass to allow freight and passenger trains to transit from the to the Relief lines without blocking the Main lines. This was planned to alleviate current delays, due to slow moving freight trains passing through the station
16.
Bedwyn railway station
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Bedwyn railway station is a railway station in the village of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, England. It is also, along with Pewsey, a station for the town of Marlborough which is 6 miles away. A bus from the town connects with most trains on Mondays to Saturdays, in 1900 the Stert and Westbury Railway allowed Devizes to be bypassed and Westbury became the next major station west of Bedwyn. In 1905, owing to traffic for army camps on Salisbury Plain and this line was closed in 1961. The station has facilities including a bus-type shelter on both sides and information screens. The only crossing between platforms is via the bridge over the railway. The station is served by services operated by Great Western Railway to and from London Paddington via Reading. Local trains terminate at Bedwyn, and a crossover and siding at the west of the station allow them to reverse, the station is also served by a limited number of InterCity 125s that continue to/from Exeter St Davids and Plymouth via Taunton. Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group Train times and station information for Bedwyn railway station from National Rail
17.
Oxford railway station
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Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about 0.5 miles west of the city centre, north-west of Frideswide Square and it is on the line for trains between London Paddington and Hereford via Worcester Shrub Hill. It is a point for fast and local trains to London Paddington and London Marylebone, and for local trains to Reading, Worcester. It is also on the north/south Cross Country Route from Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle via Birmingham New Street, the station is managed by Great Western Railway, and also served by CrossCountry and Chiltern Railways trains. Immediately to the north is Sheepwash Channel Railway Bridge over the Sheepwash Channel, the Great Western Railway opened to Oxford on 12 June 1844 with a terminus station in what is now Western Road, Grandpont. In 1845 the Oxford and Rugby Railway began to build its line, the junction was known as Millstream Junction, and was between the future sites of Hinksey Halt and Abingdon Road Halt, both of which were opened in 1908. The GWR took over the ORR while it was still being built, for just over two years, trains from Oxford to Banbury started at Grandpont, and had to reverse at Millstream Junction in order to continue their journey. The old station at Grandpont became a depot, but was closed completely on 26 November 1872. The site of the station was sold, as was the trackbed from Millstream Junction. Major subsequent changes were removal of the last 7 ft 0 1⁄4 in gauge tracks in 1872, the station has always been busy. In addition to current services, formerly there were others over the Wycombe Railway, Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway, through trains from the north to the Southern Railway also typically changed locomotives at Oxford. On 1 October 1951 British Railways closed Rewley Road station to passengers, south of the station immediately west of the railway tracks is Osney Cemetery, established in 1848 just before the current station site. Nearby is the site of the former Osney Abbey, in November 2009 it was announced that Oxford station would be expanded. A £10 million joint development between Network Rail and Oxfordshire County Council would create a new platform on part of the station’s long-stay car park. The new platform would allow trains to arrive and depart from the same track, currently, in busy periods trains can be kept waiting outside of the station for a platform to become available. A new covered footbridge would also be built over Botley Road to link the building with the new platform. Planning permission has been granted for the expansion to support the proposed Chiltern Railways service to London Marylebone with a launch date for the service of 12 December 2016. Meanwhile, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and Network Rail have developed a masterplan for further development of the station, Chiltern Railways has raised the possibility of developing a service between Oxford and the Cowley branch line
18.
Cotswold Line
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The Cotswold Line is an 86 1⁄2-mile railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England. 1 mile or 1.6 kilometres west of Evesham and Norton Junction Worcester Shrub Hill through Worcester Foregate Street to Henwick, Malvern Wells, and Shelwick Junction with a crossing place at Ledbury. Significant civil engineering structures on the line include Campden Tunnel, the Colwall Tunnels, Ledbury Tunnel and viaducts at Worcester and Ledbury. Network Rail completed the redoubling of 20 miles of track from just east of Charlbury to Ascott-under-Wychwood and this should improve reliability, enable non-stop operations and allow an hourly off peak service to run on the line. The Office of Rail Regulation approved the work in June 2008, in December 2008 vegetation was cleared. A six-week closure of all or part of the line between Oxford and Worcester for preparatory works took place in July and August 2009, further weekend work planned for February 2010 was postponed by Network Rail. Initial work began in autumn of 2010, with the majority of the track being relaid between December 2010 and May 2011 when the line was closed at 21.30 from Monday to Thursday. Footbridges at Charlbury and Honeybourne as well as preparation for the upgrade of six Level Crossings, the new double track section between Charlbury and Ascott re-opened on 6 June 2011, the line between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh having been closed during the previous nine days. The section between Moreton and Evesham reopened as double track on 22 August 2011 with the line closed for the two weeks. There are proposals for new stations at Withington and Chipping Campden, a long-standing proposal for a new station at Worcestershire Parkway where the line crosses the Birmingham and Bristol Railway has now substantial funding. It is anticipated that the proposal will go to the Planning stage early 2015, the plans and proposals are now available on Worcestershire County Council website and the public consultation period has begun. As of 11 December 2011, the previous off peak weekday service continues, due to constraints of the former single track, there are some two-hour gaps. These services are extensions of the half-hourly Oxford fast trains, some of the former gaps have been partly filled by three additional trains as far as Moreton-in-Marsh. During peak hours, both Oxford fast trains are extended to Worcester, giving a half-hourly service, overall, about half the trains continue to/from Great Malvern and five trains a day continue to and from Hereford. There is also a commuter service to and from Oxford in the morning and evening. The historic problem of some trains having to wait at passing loops, extending journey times, has been eliminated by the redoubling, although some still have to wait at Charlbury or Evesham. Due to short platforms, passengers alighting at stations except Shrub Hill, normally this is from the 2–5 coaches at the country end of the train. The line between Oxford and Worcester was built under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
19.
Hereford railway station
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Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, England. The station has four platforms for trains, and two additional relief lines for goods services. Accorded Secure Station status in 2004, the station has a ticket office, self-service ticket machines, a café. Automated ticket barriers have been in operation since 28 February 2006, there were originally two stations in Hereford - Barton, and Barrs Court. Barton lay to the west of the city and had built by the Newport, Abergavenny. The resolution was an agreement to create a new joint railway station to the north east of the city and this would be a joint standard gauge/broad gauge station, sponsored jointly by the standard-gauge Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway and the GWR-sponsored Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. In 1852, 2 1⁄2 years later and having used 3 1⁄4 million bricks the tunnel was completed, however, construction continued, with the massive earthworks for a cutting to enter Barrs Court started in August 1852. The plan was to open both stations between all four railways on 6 December 1853, with what was planned to be a Railway Fete. However, the first S&HR passenger service arrived at Barrs Ct. on Saturday 28 October, as the negotiations and financing of the joint station had taken so long, they arrived at an incomplete facility. Whilst completion of the station would follow shortly after, significant rebuilding would occur later in the nineteenth century, the station opened on 6 December 1853, and the name was simplified to Hereford in 1893 on the closure of Barton station to passengers. However, Barton clung onto passenger services until January 1893, the last services to use it being Midland Railway trains to Hay-on-Wye and Brecon. It would remain open as a goods station until 1979. Hereford is served by trains operated by Arriva Trains Wales, London Midland, Trains run hourly to Birmingham, Manchester, Shrewsbury and Cardiff Central two-hourly to Wrexham General, Chester and Holyhead and less frequently to Oxford, Reading and London. Sargeants of Kington Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Mitchell, Vic, Smith, Keith, train times and station information for Hereford railway station from National Rail
20.
North Downs Line
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Between Redhill and Ash the line runs roughly parallel with the North Downs. Between Reigate and Gomshall the line runs along the foot of the North Downs escarpment in the Vale of Holmesdale and it then follows the Blackwater valley as far as Sandhurst, before continuing to Reading. The line was authorised by Acts of Parliament in 1846 and 1847 and most of it was constructed by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway Company, although the company had some independent shareholders, it was closely associated with the South Eastern Railway. The original intention was for the SER to build part of the line itself, the independence of the company was only a formality to satisfy Parliament. The two companies had some common directors, a SER engineer controlled the construction of the line, as intended at outset, the line was leased to the SER in 1850, and the two companies finally merged in 1852. The companys relationship with the GWR is described as enigmatic, the GWR initially offered the company the use of its facilities at Reading station but terms could not be agreed and a separate station was built. The SER operated the line from its opening, and ran services on it from Reading to London Charing Cross via Redhill. Even today, the distances along the line between Redhill and Shalford Junction, and between Ash Junction and Reading are measured from the Charing Cross terminus of the former SER, the line is two-track throughout and is designated W6 loading gauge. Overnight engineering possessions of up to 4.5 hours are available, Reading to Wokingham is electrified and signalled under the track circuit block system from Wokingham Signal Box. Signalling headways are 3 minutes for fast services and 3.5 minutes for stopping services, the line speed is 70 mph, except for two 30 mph restrictions. This section is not electrified and the speed is 70 mph. It is currently planned to transfer the control of Wokingham Signal Box to the new Rail Operating Centre in Basingstoke in 2017/18, North Camp to Shalford Junction is controlled from Guildford. Signalling headways are 2 minutes for fast services and 3 minutes for stopping services and this section is electrified from Aldershot South Junction. The line speed is 70 mph, except for a 40 mph restriction at Ash Junction where the line sharply. Resignalling in October 1999 enabled reversible working on the line through both tunnels between Guildford and Shalford Junction. Shalford Junction to Reigate The route leaves the Portsmouth Direct Line at Shalford Junction, from here to Reigate, the line is not electrified. It is controlled by Guildford from Shalford Junction to Gomshall and by Reigate Signal Box from Gomshall to Redhill, Signalling headways are 5 minutes for fast trains and 7 minutes for stopping services. The line speed varies from 30 mph to 70 mph, the approach to Redhill is controlled by Three Bridges Signalling Centre and has a 30 mph speed restriction
21.
Bristol Temple Meads railway station
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Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for transport in the city. In addition to the services there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts. Bristols other main station, Bristol Parkway, is on the northern outskirts of the conurbation. Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840 as the terminus of the Great Western Railway from London Paddington,116 miles 31 chains from Paddington. The railway was the first one designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, soon the station was also used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox. Brunels terminus is no part of the operational station. The historical significance of the station has been noted, and most of the site is Grade I listed, the platforms are numbered 1 to 15 but passenger trains are confined to just eight tracks. Most platforms are numbered separately at each end, with odd numbers at the east end, Platform 2 is not signalled for passenger trains, and there is no platform 14. Temple Meads is managed by Network Rail and the majority of services are operated by the present-day Great Western Railway, other operators are CrossCountry and South West Trains. In the 12 months to March 2014,9.5 million entries, the name Temple Meads derives from the nearby Temple Church, which was gutted by bombing during World War II. The word meads is a derivation of mæd, an Old English variation of mædwe, meadow, as late as 1820 the site was undeveloped pasture outside the boundaries of the old city, some distance from the commercial centre. It lay between the Floating Harbour and the cattle market, which was built in 1830. The original terminus was built in 1839–41 for the Great Western Railway, the first passenger railway in Bristol, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and it was built to Brunels 7 ft broad gauge. The station was on a viaduct to raise it above the level of the Floating Harbour and River Avon, the latter being crossed via the grade I listed Avon Bridge. The station was covered by a 200-foot train shed, extended beyond the platforms by 155 feet into a storage area, Train services to Bath commenced on 31 August 1840 and were extended to Paddington on 30 June 1841 following the completion of Box Tunnel. A few weeks before the start of the services to Paddington the Bristol and Exeter Railway had opened, on 14 June 1841, its trains reversing in and out of the GWR station
22.
Great Western Railway (train operating company)
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Great Western Railway is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup. It manages 208 stations and its trains call at over 270, GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to South West England and South Wales, as well as the Night Riviera sleeper service between London and Penzance. The company began operating in February 1996 as Great Western Trains, in December 1998 it became First Great Western after FirstGroup bought out its partners shares in Great Western Holdings. In April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains were combined into the new Greater Western franchise and brought under the First Great Western brand. The company adopted its current name and a new livery in September 2015 to coincide with the start of a franchise that is due to run until April 2020. Great Western Holdings was owned by some former British Rail managers, FirstBus, in March 1998, FirstGroup bought out its partners stakes to give it 100% ownership. In December 1998, the franchise was rebranded as First Great Western, on 1 April 2004, First Great Western Link commenced operating the Thames Trains franchise. It operated local services from Paddington to Slough, Henley-on-Thames, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Newbury, Bedwyn, Worcester, Hereford, Banbury. It also operated services from Reading to Gatwick Airport, and from Reading to Basingstoke, on 1 April 2006, the Great Western, Great Western Link and Wessex Trains franchises were combined into a new Greater Western franchise. FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for new franchise. On 13 December 2005, it was announced that FirstGroup had won the franchise, originally, First planned to subdivide its services into three categories based on routes. Following feedback from staff and stakeholders, the decision was taken to re-brand, in May 2011, FirstGroup announced that it had decided not to take up the option to extend its franchise beyond the end of March 2013. FirstGroup stated that, in the light of the plan to electrify the Great Western route from London via Bristol to Cardiff. CEO Tim OToole said, We believe we are best placed to manage these projects, in March 2012 Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. The ITT ran from the end of July until October 2012, the winner would have been announced in March 2013, and taken on the franchise from 21 July 2013 until the end of July 2028. The new franchise would include the introduction of new Intercity Express Trains, capacity enhancements, the award of the franchise was again delayed in October 2012, while the Department for Transport reviewed the way rail franchises are awarded. In January 2013, the government announced that the current competition for the franchise had been terminated, a two-year franchise extension until September 2015 was agreed in October 2013, and subsequently extended until March 2019. A further extension to April 2019 was granted in March 2015, the company rebranded itself as Great Western Railway on 20 September 2015 and introduced a green livery in recognition of the former Great Western Railway
23.
Strategic Rail Authority
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The Strategic Rail Authority was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for the railway industry. Its motto was Britains railway, properly delivered and it incorporated the former Conservative governments Director of Passenger Rail Franchising. The SRA was placed on a legal basis by the Transport Act 2000. The government wanted the SRA to take a more interventionist role with Railtrack and its successor Network Rail and those powers rested with - and were jealously guarded by - the Rail Regulator, who frequently clashed with the SRA when he believed that it was over-reaching its jurisdiction. The SRA operated under directions and guidance from the Secretary of State for Transport, also in Scotland from the Scottish Minister for Transport, in Scotland the budget of the SRA was devolved to the Scottish Parliament under the terms of the Barnett Formula. On 15 July 2004 the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling MP, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Greater London Authority were given some input in their areas. The SRAs first chairman was Sir Alastair Morton, from February 1999 until October 2001 and its first chief executive was Mike Grant. Its second chairman was Richard Bowker, who served between October 2001 and September 2004 and its third chairman was David Quarmby, and third chief executive Nick Newton, from September 2004 to abolition
24.
British Rail Class 166
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The British Rail Class 166 Turbo Express is a fleet of diesel multiple units, originally specified by and built for British Rail, the then United Kingdom state owned railway operator. They were built by ABB at York Works between 1992 and 1993, the trains were designed as a faster, air conditioned variant of the Class 165 Turbo, intended for longer distance services, and, like the 165s, belong to the Networker family of trains. They were originally known as Networker Turbos to distinguish them from the electrically propelled members of that family, the class is still in service, and is extensively operated by Great Western Railway on its services out of London Paddington station. The trains, along with that operators Class 165 trains, are known as Thames Turbos. These units are a modification of the Class 165 design and they have a top speed of 90 mph, are carpeted throughout and have air-conditioning. Externally, the class 166 can be distinguished from a Class 165 by opening hoppers on every other window, until late 2013 the presence of first class at each end was another distinguishing feature. Each unit was formed of two driving motors, and an intermediate motor. The technical description of the formation is DMCO+MSO+DMSL, Class 166 units were some of the first trains in Britain to be designed for Driver Only Operation. In cases where a Guard is required they must carry out their door operation duties via a system to signal the Drivers to close doors. This requires the Guard to return to a vacant cab at each station to carry out these duties, when built, these units were operated by the Thames Line and North Downs Line subdivisions of Network SouthEast. Units are also used on the Reading to Gatwick Airport services along the North Downs Line, many services operated by the 166 were branded as Turbo Express in the timetables. Following privatisation, the passed to the Thames Trains franchise. In April 2004, operation of the Thames Trains franchise passed to the First Great Western Link, towards the end of January 2010, First Great Western announced an £8 million refresh programme to their fleet of Class 166 Turbo DMU trains. The carpets & seats were retrimmed, interiors repainted, Passenger Information Displays replaced with a GPS based system, the refresh work was carried out at Reading Depot. All 151 vehicles have now been refurbished, in late 2014, another set of refreshes to the Class 166 was started. All units have now received the refresh, unit 166204 was named in honour of Twyford station master Norman Topsom MBE who retired in November 2015
25.
Stratford-upon-Avon railway station
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Stratford-upon-Avon railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The station is operated by London Midland, train services are provided by London Midland and Chiltern Railways. Stratford-upon-Avon was once a station on the Great Western Railway main line from Birmingham Snow Hill to Cheltenham. Two railway lines terminate at Stratford, the North Warwickshire Line from Birmingham and the Leamington-Stratford Line, the first line to reach Stratford was the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway branch from Honeybourne to the south, which opened on 12 July 1859. This was soon followed by the Stratford Railways branch from Hatton from the north, both branches initially had separate termini, but they soon agreed to join the two branches and open a single station at the present site, which was opened on 24 July 1861. Both branches later came under the control of the Great Western Railway, in 1908 the GWR opened the North Warwickshire Line, which incorporated parts of the two original branch lines into a new main line from Birmingham to Cheltenham. This put Stratford on a line, and at this date, the station was expanded. Between 1873 and 1952 Stratford was also served by Stratford Old Town railway station on the Stratford-upon-Avon, a new Stratford Parkway railway station north of the town, next to the A46 road was opened on 19 May 2013. It is intended to ease congestion, as passengers from outside Stratford will no longer need to drive into the town to catch a train, rail services between Birmingham and Stratford have been increased from hourly to half-hourly in conjunction with the opening of the new parkway station. On 26 November 2015 it was announced that a footbridge and lifts had been completed. It was also announced that a new café, waiting room, the typical Monday-Friday off-peak service is as follows,2 trains per hour to Birmingham Snow Hill, one of which runs via Whitlocks End, and the other via Solihull. Three of these services daily run to/from London Marylebone on weekdays, through service was more frequent until 2015, but was cut following the introduction of the new route to Oxford Parkway and the timetable recast that followed. A steam service to Birmingham operated by Vintage Trains operates on summer Sundays, before 2004 services towards Leamington were operated jointly between Thames Trains and Central Trains, both being replaced on the route by Chiltern Railways in 2004. Thames Trains / First Great Western Link operated services to London Paddington via Ealing Broadway, Slough, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Hatton and Wilmcote. It also operated some shuttle trains between Stratford and Leamington Spa and a limited service calling at Bearley and Claverdon on weekdays, like all of Thames / Great Western Link services at the time, these services were operated using Class 165 and 166 units. Central Trains operated a service between Stratford and Leamington Spa, in conjunction with those operated by the Thames Trains. Central Trains services were operated using Class 150 units, the same as with most of its services in the area, the Shakespeare Line Promotion Group is promoting a scheme to reopen the 9 miles of line south of Stratford to Honeybourne where it would link to the Cotswold Line. There is, however, a business case for Stratford-Cotswolds link. warwickshirerailways. com
26.
Interiors
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Interiors is a 1978 drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Featured performers are Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Page received a BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. It is Allens first fully-fledged film in the drama genre, the film centers around the three daughters of Arthur, a corporate attorney, and Eve, an interior decorator. There is the oldest, Renata, a poet whose husband Frederick and she is also in a relationship with Mike, who Eve dislikes. The film also goes in and out of the past and present, Eve goes over to Mike and Joeys apartment since she has been helping them decorate. She and Mike bicker about the placement of lamps, money and she brings a vase for the foyer and throughout the film, vases seem to be Eves signature. Joey snaps at Mike not to bicker with her mother as she is a sick woman. Joey and Eve discuss her comeback and her mental health, Eve asks Joey if she thinks her father would consider a reconciliation since she is now doing so well. Joey isnt sure and Eve accuses her of being negative, Joey, frustrated, ends up telling her mother to talk to Renata then, as she is her favorite of the three. We then see Renata in therapy talking about her mother and the effects of her breakdown on the family and she says that Eve received shock therapy and was almost like a stranger when she returned from treatment. She also discusses her jealousy of her fathers favoritism towards Joey, Eve, who is clinically depressed and mentally unstable, doesnt take the news very well and says that she cant be alone as she isnt well. Renata then goes on to explain that she hasnt been able to write since the winter and how increasing thoughts about death plague her and her ideas of purpose. Later, Joey talks to Mike about how Renata gives her false hope about a reconciliation. She also tells Mike that she wants to quit her current job, Joey expresses her frustrations with her interests, like acting, photography, writing, etc. and her lack of consistency with her career choices. Renata is shopping for her mothers birthday with Frederick and she tells him that Flynn will be in town her their mothers birthday. Renata tells him not to talk down to her while he is there and he compares Flyn to his last book saying, she is the example of form. While at their mothers new apartment in the city, Flyn compliments her mother on how well she looks, Frederick and Joey also comment on how sexy Flyn has become. Eve asks if Flyn has spoken to her father and says that he visits her now, upset, Eve starts to cry and tells Flyn that she has nothing to live for anymore
27.
Cab (locomotive)
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On steam locomotives, the cab is normally located to the rear of the firebox, although steam locomotives have sometimes been constructed in a cab forward configuration. The former arrangement is now the norm in North America for all types of diesel or electric locomotives, in Europe, most modern locomotives are cab units with two cabs, one at each end. However, the locomotives powering some high speed European trains are normally cab units with one cab, on self-propelled rail vehicles, the cab may be at one or both ends. In addition to the controls, a cab will typically be fitted with windshields, rectangular side windows, crew seats, heating. By about 1850, high speed Crampton locomotives operating in Europe already had a much needed windshield giving some protection to the footplate area, some other early locomotives were even fitted with a cab as part of a rebuilding program, an example being the locomotive John Bull. In Germany, the cab was introduced by the Saxon railway director. However, until 1950 the railway directorates of the German-speaking countries continued to believe that a standing posture was essential to maximise crew vigilance and this unsatisfactory situation changed—with few exceptions—only with the construction of the German standard electric locomotives, which for the first time were equipped with crew seats. Meanwhile, the maintenance of crew vigilance became possible by technical means through the use of Sifa devices, cockpit Control car Control stand Driving Van Trailer Push–pull train This article is based upon a translation of the German-language version as at April 2010
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British Rail Class 165
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The British Rail Class 165 Turbo is a fleet of suburban diesel multiple units, originally specified by and built for the British Rail Thames and Chiltern Division of Network SouthEast. They were built by BREL York Works between 1990 and 1992, the trains were originally known as Network Turbos. An express version was built in the form of the Class 166 Turbo Express trains. Both classes are now referred to as Networkers, a name which was derived some three years later for the project that resulted in the visually similar Class 465 EMUs. The class is still in service, and is now operated by Great Western Railway on services out of London Paddington station, the fleet is wide-bodied to take advantage of the loading gauges of the former Great Western Railway and Great Central Railway on whose lines it runs. Both have a 350 horsepower Perkins 2006-TWH diesel engine on each car, Voith Turbo-transmissions, when new, the units were branded as either Thames Turbo or Chiltern Turbo between the two first class windows of the DMCL carriage. This requires the Guard to return to a vacant cab at each station to carry out these duties, examples of this include Chiltern Railways services north of Banbury or Great Western Railway services on the Cotswolds and Reading to Gatwick lines. Thirty-nine Class 165/0 Turbo trains were built in 1990-91, in two batches, for the Chiltern subdivision of Network SouthEast, numbered 165001-039, both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Initially, thirty-three units were ordered but an order was placed for a further six units. Units 165001-028 were delivered consecutively, as 2-car units, whilst units 165029-039 were delivered as 3-car units and these vehicles have a top speed of 75 mph. They are now all fitted with tripcocks for working over the London Underground lines between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill, although upon delivery this equipment was fitted to 165006-028. Automatic Train Protection is also fitted, making one of the few classes to have both these features in Britain. 165029-039 were temporarily allocated to the Thames line in 1992 and this was necessary as resignalling of Paddington station meant that Network SouthEast could no longer run locomotive-hauled trains to and from Paddington. Once sufficient Class 165/1 Turbo trains had been delivered, 165029-039 were returned to the Chiltern line, each unit was formed of two outer driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOSL+MOS+DMOS, like the Chiltern units, both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Units 165101-117 were delivered as 3-car units, followed by the 2-car units 165118-137 and they are re-geared and fitted with bogie yaw dampers to allow top speed of 90 mph, more suitable for mainline use. Each unit was formed of two driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOCL+MOS+DMOS, the remaining driving motor carriage remains as a spare vehicle
29.
Diesel multiple unit
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A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages and they may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country. Diesel-powered units may be classified by their transmission type, diesel-electric. The diesel engine may be located above the frame in a bay or under the floor. Driving controls can be at both ends, on one end, or none, DMUs are usually classified by the method of transmitting motive power to their wheels. In a diesel-mechanical multiple unit the rotating energy of the engine is transmitted via a gearbox and driveshaft directly to the wheels of the train, like a car. The transmissions can be shifted manually by the driver, as in the majority of first-generation British Rail DMUs. In a diesel-hydraulic multiple unit, a torque converter, a type of fluid coupling. Some units feature a mix of hydraulic and mechanical transmissions, usually reverting to the latter at higher operating speeds as this decreases engine RPM. In a diesel-electric multiple unit a diesel engine drives a generator or an alternator which produces electrical energy. The generated current is fed to electric traction motors on the wheels or bogies in the same way as a conventional diesel electric locomotive. In modern DEMUs, such as the Bombardier Voyager family, each car is entirely self-contained and has its own engine, generator, a train composed of DMU cars scales well, as it allows extra passenger capacity to be added at the same time as motive power. It also permits passenger capacity to be matched to demand, and for trains to be split and it is not necessary to match the power available to the size and weight of the train, as each unit is capable of moving itself. As units are added, the power available to move the train increases by the necessary amount, distribution of the propulsion among the cars also results in a system that is less vulnerable to single-point-of-failure outages. Many classes of DMU are capable of operating with faulty units still in the consist, because of the self-contained nature of diesel engines, there is no need to run overhead electric lines or electrified track, which can result in lower system construction costs. Such advantages must be weighed against the noise and vibration that may be an issue with this type of train. DMUs were first introduced to Australia in the late mid-20th century for use on branch lines that could not justify a locomotive hauled service. Today, DMUs are widely used throughout Australias southern states, Adelaide Metro uses a variety of DMUs on their suburban network, NSW TrainLink use Xplorer DMUs on services from Sydney to Canberra, Griffith, Broken Hill, Armidale and Moree
30.
Reading TMD
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Reading TMD is a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Reading, England, and operated by Great Western Railways. The depot was situated to the west of Reading station and to the north of Reading West station until 2012. This new depot opened in mid 2012 and is home to First Great Westerns fleet of Class 165 and 166 Network Turbos, as part of the construction, the preliminary equipment for electrification of the Great Western Main Line was installed. It is intended that this new depot will also be able to handle Crossrail stock once it is delivered, the old depot was subsequently demolished apart from two Great Western Railway era water towers, one of which has been donated to the West Somerset Railway. The new Reading Train Care Depot was announced as completed on 31 July 2013, 21st Century modernisation of the Great Western Main Line Reading railway station#Future Baker, S. K. Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland, webster, Neil, Greengrass, Robert, Greaves, Simon. An overhead view of the old depot
31.
FirstGroup
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FirstGroup is a British transport group, registered and operating in the United Kingdom. The company also operates services in Ireland, Canada and the United States. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, FirstGroup originated from the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom in 1986, whereby private companies purchased nationalised and municipal bus operators. In September 1986 the Somerset based services of the Bristol Omnibus Company that were rebranded in 1985 as Badgerline were purchased in a management buyout, as Badgerline Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing other formerly nationalised bus companies in England and Wales. In January 1989 Grampian Regional Transport, the bus operator in Aberdeen owned by Grampian Regional Council, was privatised in a management buyout led by its general manager Moir Lockhead. As GRT Bus Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing six former nationalised bus companies in England and Scotland, in April 1995 FirstBus was formed through the merger of the Badgerline and GRT Bus Groups, with fleets in England, Wales and Scotland. Aberdeen was selected as the headquarters, at the time of the merger, FirstBus had 5,600 buses,4,000 of which came from Badgerline. Badgerlines Trevor Smallwood became chairman of FirstBus, while GRT head Moir Lockhead became deputy chairman, FirstBus continued the policy of growth by acquisition acquiring former council owned operations and companies formerly owned by English, Welsh and Scottish nationalised operators. FirstBus went on to larger urban metropolitan operators by taking advantage of the privatisation of the PTE bus operations. FirstBus acquired GM Buses North in Manchester and Strathclyde Buses in Glasgow in 1996, Mainline in South Yorkshire and CentreWest in London in 1997, and Capital Citybus in London in 1998. The company was renamed FirstGroup in December 1997 after the company moved into railways in February 1996 with the privatisation of British Rail, through a 24. In March 1998 FirstGroup purchased the 75. 5% shares in Great Western Holdings it did not already own and rebranded the franchises First Great Western and First North Western. In September 1998 FirstGroup made its first overseas foray when New World First Bus commenced operating bus services in Hong Kong formerly operated by China Motor Bus, FirstGroup had a 26% shareholding in the joint venture. In May 2000 FirstGroup sold its shares to joint venture partner New World Development, in September 1999 FirstGroup purchased Ryder Public Transport Services, a provider of school bus transportation in the United States. In May 2000 FirstGroup began operating the London Tramlink concession under contract to Transport for London, in August 2003 FirstGroup purchased GB Railways which owned Anglia Railways and GB Railfreight and held 80% of the shares in Hull Trains. Having not been shortlisted for the Greater Anglia franchise, this gave FirstGroup another chance to bid, however it was unsuccessful and the franchise was awarded to National Express from April 2004 including the services operated by First Great Eastern. In November 2003 FirstGroup purchased a 90% shareholding in Irish coach operator Aircoach, in February 2004 FirstGroups joint venture with Keolis commenced operating the First TransPennine Express rail franchise, FirstGroup having a 55% shareholding. In April 2004 FirstGroup commenced operating the First Great Western Link franchise, in December 2004 the remainder of First North Western passed to Northern Rail, some services having already been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales and FirstTranspennine Express
32.
Rail transport in the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and previously consisted of Great Britain and the whole of Ireland. Thus, the division to discuss the history and present-day state of railways in these areas is by geographical division. United Kingdom is a member of the International Union of Railways, the UIC Country Code for United Kingdom is 70. Rail transport in Great Britain discusses rail transport on Great Britain, comprising England, Scotland, here, the vast majority of the railway system standardised on the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. Rail transport in Ireland discusses rail transport on the island of Ireland, comprising the Republic of Ireland, here a system using a broad gauge of 5 ft 3 in developed. Rail Transport in Scotland discusses rail transport in Scotland, rail Transport in England discusses rail transport in England. Rail Transport in Wales discusses rail transport in Wales, rail transport in Alderney, discusses the railway in Alderney, in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the only working railway in the Channel Islands. None of the British Overseas Territories have railways at present, although some, gibraltar is accessible by the Spanish and Moroccan rail systems. Hong Kong was the last dependent territory to have an extant rail system, similarly, for the history of rail transport, rather than the current situation, see History of rail transport in Great Britain and History of rail transport in Ireland. Enterprise - Enterprise is the name of the international joint passenger service operated between Belfast and Dublin by Northern Ireland Railways and Iarnród Éireann
33.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
34.
Network SouthEast
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Network SouthEast was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE principally operated commuter trains in the London area and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, before 1986, the sector was known as London & South Eastern. In the privatisation of British Rail on 1 April 1994 it was broken into a number of franchises. The aim was to introduce greater budgetary efficiency and managerial accountability by building a more market-focused and responsive business and it was expected that the London and South East sector would cover most of its operating costs from revenues, in contrast to heavily subsidised rural services. Day-to-day operation, staffing and timetabling continued to be delivered by the Regions -, on 10 June 1986, L&SE was relaunched as Network SouthEast, along with a new red, white and blue livery. This approach was brought about by a new director, Chris Green. Although NSE did not originally own or maintain infrastructure, it exercised control over almost all carrier core functions, NSE set its own goals and service standards in consultation with BR, and created its own management structure and oversight. BR allowed NSE to decide about scheduling, marketing, infrastructure enhancements, Network SouthEast, like each other sector, was given primary responsibility for various assets, and control resided with the primary user. Other sectors could negotiate access rights and rent facilities, using their own resources, NSE was able to exert much greater control and accountability over both its operating budget and service quality than BR could under its Regions. Relations were generally good between NSE and other sectors, although operating pressures sometimes forced staff to use equipment and assets belonging to other sectors to meet immediate needs. On 1 April 1994, Network SouthEast was officially disbanded as train services passed to various train operating units ready for privatisation through a franchising process, NSE was broken down into various sub-divisions. Soon after conception, Network SouthEast started to modernise parts of the network, the most extreme example was the Chiltern Lines. The Chiltern Line ran on two lines from London Marylebone to Aylesbury and Banbury. These lines were former GWR and GCR intercity lines to Wolverhampton, after the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, these lines became seriously run down with a lack of investment and a reduction of services. NSE realised that something needed to be done to these lines quickly, numerous plans for the lines were proposed. One serious plan was to close the line between Marylebone and South Ruislip/Harrow-on-the-Hill, and convert Marylebone into a coach station, metropolitan line trains would be extended to Aylesbury and BR services from Aylesbury would be routed to London Paddington via High Wycombe. Also the line north of Princes Risborough would close, however, this did not happen as Baker Street and London Paddington would not have been able to cope with the extra trains and passengers. What did happen was total route modernisation and this was an ambitious plan to bring the lines into the modern era of rail travel
35.
Rail transport in Great Britain
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The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world, the worlds first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825. Most of the track is managed by Network Rail, which in 2016 had a network of 15,799 kilometres of standard-gauge lines. These lines range from single to quadruple track or more, in addition, some cities have separate rail-based mass transit systems. There are also several private railways, which are primarily short tourist lines, the British railway network is connected with that of continental Europe by an undersea rail link, the Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994. The United Kingdom is a member of the International Union of Railways, the UIC Country Code for United Kingdom is 70. The UK has the 17th largest railway network in the world, in 2016, there were 1.718 billion journeys on the National Rail network, making the British network the fifth most used in the world. Unlike a number of countries, rail travel in the United Kingdom has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. This has coincided with the privatisation of British Rail, but the effect of this is disputed, the growth is partly attributed to a shift away from private motoring due to growing road congestion and increasing petrol prices, but also to the overall increase in travel due to affluence. However passenger journeys have grown much more quickly than in countries such as France. The early railways were a patchwork of local lines operated by private railway companies. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of companies remained. The entire network was brought under government control during the First World War, however, the government resisted calls for the nationalisation of the network. The Big Four were joint-stock public companies and they continued to run the system until 31 December 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 decline owing to a lack of investment and changes in transport policy. During the Second World War the companies joined together, effectively forming one company. A maintenance backlog developed during the war and the sector only had two years to deal with this after the war ended. After 1945, for practical and ideological reasons, the government decided to bring the rail service into the public sector
36.
Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain
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A limited number of urban services are privately run, but are awarded by the local authority. The system only covers the railways of Great Britain, the railways in Northern Ireland are owned and operated by the state-owned company NI Railways. The franchising system was created by the Railways Act 1993 as part of the privatisation of British Rail by the Government of John Major, prior to this, the railway system had been owned and operated by the government-owned corporation British Rail, which has since been wound up. Prime Minister John Major envisaged splitting up the railways and returning ownership to an equivalent of the Big Four railway companies that had existed before the creation of British Rail, the legislation allowed BR to bid for franchises, if the DPRF agreed, but in practice he never did. Winning bidders were decided on a pure cost basis – those who offered to pay the highest premium, or lowest subsidy, once signed, franchise agreements could only be terminated under certain conditions, namely not meeting the PSR, although fines were available as an intermediate step. The first franchise agreements to be signed were for the South West and Great Western franchises, the first passenger train service operated by a privatised franchise was the South West Trains 05. As the program progressed, all franchises had been awarded and commenced by 1 April 1997, OPRAF was initially criticised for taking too long, but answered that most of the delays were outside of their control, and were indeed caused by the government itself. Ultimately, although there were 25 franchises, the eventual buyers came from only 13 different companies, many were bus companies, with the hoped for interest from airlines and shipping groups failing to be converted into solid bids. In addition, despite several bids, due to difficulties in raising finance, National Express Group was the winner of most franchises, with five. Prism Rail came next, with four, connex, Virgin and MTL all captured two each, with the franchises they won being closely related. Stagecoach also won two, although the second was the tiny Island Line, which would eventually be merged with their main win, South West. Great Western Holdings also won two, on sides of the country - Great Western and North Western, First Group. Their March 1998 buyout of the other GWH partners increased their total to three, in the end, most of the franchises were awarded for lengths from 7 to 7 and a half years. Only seven franchises were longer - two for 10 years, and five for 15 years, only one was shorter, the 5 year award for Island Line. Since this would take time as it involved legislation, in the time it established the SRA in shadow form. Part of their brief was to ensure the railways operated as a coherent network and their goals were closely aligned with the governments wider objectives, set out in July 2000 as the ten-year plan, Transport 2010. It aimed to have these proposals agreed by Autumn 2001, and these long term plans were disrupted in 2001/2 by the impact of the Hatfield rail crash, which led to the nationalisation of Railtrack, creating Network Rail. On 1 February 2001 the position of Franchising Director was abolished by the Transport Act 2000, instead it elected for a short 2-year extension, hoping the situation would be clearer by then
37.
Arriva Trains Wales
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Arriva Trains Wales is a British train operating company operating the Wales & Borders franchise. Arriva has ran the franchise from 2003 and it is scheduled to finish running it in 2018 and it is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains, itself a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. Responsibility for the franchise lies with the devolved Welsh government, in March 2000 the UK government announced plans to create a separate Wales & Borders franchise. The services from Birmingham New Street to Chester, Aberystwyth, on 1 August 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded Arriva the new franchise. The new franchise was for fifteen years, with performance reviews every five years, the next five-yearly review period concluded on 31 March 2013. ATW operates over a length of 1691 km, with 253 DMU cars and 22 locomotive-hauled passenger carriages. The latest figures released by NR rate punctuality at 96. 1% for period 7 of the 2013/14 financial year, the MAA figure for the 366 days up to 12 October 2013 is currently at 93. 9%. The Welsh Language Act 1993 requires all public bodies to provide services to the public through the medium of Welsh as well as English. As a private company and not a body, Arriva is not legally required to provide service in Welsh. All stations in Wales where the Welsh and English names differ have both names displayed, with a few minor omissions. ATW does not display Welsh names in the English stations which it manages, such as Chester or Hereford, there are bilingual signs at Hereford, for example, warning against trespassing on the railway. Arriva Trains Wales has introduced bilingual display screens and announcements in at least 46 stations, in 2004, ATW introduced a Welsh-language telephone line. Its website was named the Best Website of The Year in the Technology Wales Awards 2004, a summary of ATW services is shown below, Route 1 services are express/stopping services between the Midlands and North/Mid Wales. Route 2 services are mainline long-distance services between South Wales and North Wales/Manchester, Route 3 services are express/stopping services along the South Wales Coast Line to Cardiff and Swansea. Route 4 services are express/stopping services along the North Wales Coast Line to Crewe, Route 5 is a network of commuter lines operating in and around Cardiff. Services along the North Wales Coast Line terminate at Holyhead and Llandudno, Llandudno services run every hour to Manchester Piccadilly via Chester and Warrington Bank Quay. Holyhead services run every hour, to Shrewsbury via Chester and Wrexham General, request stations west of Llandudno Junction are generally served by alternate trains. The Conwy Valley Line is operated by a train running between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog, with six return journeys a day
38.
C2c
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C2c is an English train operating company owned by Trenitalia. It manages 25 stations and its trains call at 28, originally trading as LTS Rail under Prism Rail ownership, it has operated the London, Tilbury & Southend and replacement Essex Thameside franchises since May 1996. It was included in the July 2000 sale of Prism Rail to National Express, in February 2017 National Express sold c2c to Trenitalia. C2c trades under the name Trenitalia c2c ltd, in May 1996, the franchise was awarded to Prism Rail by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising for 15 years. It began operating as LTS Rail on 26 May 1996, in May 2000, the business was rebranded as c2c. In July 2000, c2c was included in the sale of Prism Rail to National Express, the franchise was originally due to conclude on 26 May 2011. In December 2010, the Department for Transport granted National Express an extension until 26 May 2013 to allow it time to conduct a review of the franchising process, the Secretary of State for Transport announced the franchise would again be extended until 13 September 2014. A further delay saw this extended until 8 November 2014, since February 2012, c2c has been National Express only UK rail franchise, in 2003 it operated nine. On 9 November 2014, c2c commenced a new 15-year franchise having successfully tendered against Abellio, FirstGroup, the new franchise retains the c2c brand, albeit operated through a new legal entity, NXET Trains Limited in lieu of c2c Limited. In February 2017 National Express sold c2c to Trenitalia, the c2c name could be conceived to represent city to coast or capital to coast, reflecting the nature of the route, or commitment to customers. The c2c website stated, The name c2c doesnt mean anything specific, in a sense it can mean anything you want it to. Its uniqueness reflects the young, vibrant character of the people we serve, C2c could stand for coast to capital, or capital to coast. From our point of view, one of the most important things it stands for is commitment to customers, National Express now also referred to the c2c route as City to Coast. C2c used the slogan way2go, but now uses the Making travel simpler slogan also used by other National Express companies. All stations on the route are managed by c2c except West Ham and Stratford, the line has a speed limit of 75 mph, although the Class 357 Electrostar trains are capable of 100 mph. In the rush hour there are services, with a few services to/from London starting/terminating at Laindon. In the morning, one time service doesnt call at West Ham and Limehouse and one calls at West Ham, missing Limehouse, other than this, all trains call at West Ham. In the evening, all stop at Limehouse and very few miss out West Ham
39.
Caledonian Sleeper
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Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two services on the railway in the United Kingdom. Two services depart London each night from Sunday to Friday and travel via the West Coast Main Line to Scotland, the earlier departure divides at Edinburgh into portions for Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness. The later departure serves Edinburgh and Glasgow splitting at Carstairs, five London bound portions depart from these destinations each night, combining into two trains at Edinburgh and Carstairs. Since April 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper has been a franchise operated by Serco. Prior to this it was part of the ScotRail franchise, Sleeper trains had operated between London and Scotland since the completion of the line in the 1850s. Services operated from both London Euston via the West Coast Main Line including the Royal Highlander and London Kings Cross via the East Coast Main Line until the latter were withdrawn in May 1988. InterCity planned to remove all seating accommodation on the services from May 1992. After 12 months the Stagecoach carriages were withdrawn, on 5 March 1995, responsibility for operation of the Anglo-Scottish services passed within British Rail from InterCity West Coast to ScotRail. Eventually British Rail agreed to retain the Fort William portion, the motorail service was withdrawn in 1995. On 4 June 1996, the service was relaunched as the Caledonian Sleeper with the Night Caledonian, Night Scotsman, Night Aberdonian, Royal Highlander, on 31 March 1997, as part of the ScotRail franchise it was taken over by National Express. In March 1998, the West Coast Main Line portions which had been hauled by Virgin Trains Class 87s, were taken over by English Welsh & Scottish Class 90s. In January 2000, sitting carriages were introduced with 11 ex Virgin Trains Mark 2 carriages refurbished at Wolverton railway works with first class recliners, at the same time the Mark 3 sleeping carriages were refurbished with a purple and blue livery applied. From June 2001, Class 67s began to replace Class 47s on the Aberdeen, in June 2006, they replaced Class 37s on the Fort William portion. On 17 October 2004, the Caledonian Sleeper along with the rest of the ScotRail franchise was taken over by First ScotRail, the carriages were painted in FirstGroups corporate blue, pink and white livery as were three Class 90s. In 2012 the Scottish Government announced that as part of the reletting of the ScotRail franchise from April 2015 and it was stated that a total of £100 million would be invested in new and additional rolling stock. In June 2013, Transport Scotland announced Arriva, FirstGroup and Serco had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise, in May 2014, the franchise was awarded to Serco with a commitment to replace the Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock by 2018. Some terminus station have lounges and ticketing/customer service desks, two trains depart London Euston on six nights per week, Sunday to Friday, heading north on the West Coast Main Line
40.
Chiltern Railways
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Chiltern Railways is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Services on the Chiltern Main Line run from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford, Chiltern Railways also runs trains on the London to Aylesbury Line to Aylesbury, on the Princes Risborough to Aylesbury and Oxford to Bicester branch lines. In June 1996 M40 Trains was awarded the Chiltern Railways franchise by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising for a period of seven years with operations commencing on 21 July 1996. M40 Trains was a management buyout led by some former British Rail managers who held a combined 51% shareholding backed by John Laing plc, a restructure in March 1999 saw John Laing taking an 84% shareholding with the remaining 16% owned by the former British Rail managers. In March 2000 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced M40 Trains, in August 2000 M40 Trains was awarded a new franchise, to run for 20 years conditional on various investments being made. The new franchise started on 3 March 2002, in August 2002 John Laing acquired the remaining 16% of shares in M40 Trains it did not already own. In September 2006 John Laing was purchased by Henderson Equity Partners, in December 2004 Chiltern Railways took over operation of passenger services on the Leamington Spa to Stratford-upon-Avon branch line from First Great Western Link. In July 2007 Henderson Equity Partners put Laing Rail up for sale, Arriva and Go-Ahead both expressed an interest in acquiring Laing Rail, but by December 2007 only Deutsche Bahn of Germany and NedRail of the Netherlands remained in the bidding contest. In January 2008 Laing Rail was purchased by Deutsche Bahn and Chiltern became part of the DB Regio group, a restructure in early 2011 saw DB Regio become a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. In May 2011 Chiltern took over operating services on the Oxford to Bicester Line from First Great Western, Chiltern Railways operates regular services on five routes. The Chiltern Main Line is the route for the majority of Chiltern Railways services and is one of two mainline routes operated by the company. The route runs between the UKs major cities of London and Birmingham and also passes through the towns of High Wycombe, Banbury, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick. The fastest timetabled journey from Birmingham to London via this route is 103 minutes, in addition to the Chiltern Railways services, CrossCountry also operates regular services on the line north of Banbury, and London Midland operates regular services north of Dorridge. The London to Aylesbury Line is the mainline route operated by the company. The route links London with the town of Aylesbury via Amersham, the line runs alongside London Undergrounds Metropolitan line between Finchley Road and Harrow-on-the-Hill, with each operator running on separate tracks. Beyond Harrow-on-the-Hill, the tracks are shared between Chiltern Railways and Metropolitan line services and this is the only situation where National Rail services use non-Network Rail tracks and it uses a unique unregulated track-access agreement with London Underground. Beyond Amersham, all services are operated by Chiltern Railways only, the other three routes regularly served by the company are all branch lines. The Princes Risborough to Aylesbury Line links Princes Risborough, on the Chiltern Main Line, with Aylesbury, the Oxford to Bicester Line branches off the Chiltern Main Line just south of Bicester and links the town with Oxford
41.
CrossCountry
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CrossCountry is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the New Cross Country franchise. It is one of only two franchised train operating companies that does not operate any stations, the other being the Caledonian Sleeper, all routes call or terminate at Birmingham New Street. In June 2006 the Department for Transport announced its intention to restructure a number of franchises, some services from the Central Trains franchise were to be added. In October 2006 the Department for Transport issued the Invitation to Tender to the bidders, Arriva, First, National Express. Originally due to conclude on 31 March 2016, in March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the franchise would be extended until 9 November 2019. The company operates a number of key InterCity routes outside London including the Cross Country Route from the North East to the South West, the tender did not require retention of the services beyond Guildford after December 2008, so the services to Gatwick Airport and Brighton ceased. As a result, all CrossCountry services now completely avoid Greater London, from December 2008 a daily Nottingham to Bournemouth service was introduced. From December 2010 a number of services from Newcastle were extended from Reading to Southampton, from May 2011 a number of services were extended from Edinburgh to Glasgow to replace East Coast services. CrossCountry extended some of its Bournemouth services to Weymouth for the Sailing at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics, there were two services Monday to Saturday in each direction, with one in each direction on Sundays. These ran express to Weymouth from Bournemouth, one train also operated a Weymouth to Bournemouth return journey, calling at Wareham and Poole. Plans were included by CrossCountry to reopen a station at Kenilworth, in April 2008 it agreed with Warwickshire Council to draw up a business case. There is a proposal for a station at Worcester Parkway where the Cross Country Route route intersects the Cotswold Line, if built, it will be on two levels, with the low level served by CrossCountry, and the high level by Great Western Railway. CrossCountrys current consultation document proposes removing almost all services to the Paignton area in order to prioritise services between Exeter St Davids and Birmingham and it also plans to scrap the UKs longest direct rail service from Aberdeen to Penzance. This will mean the Penzance to Dundee Service at 09,35 will instead become the UKs longest direct rail service CrossCountry does not manage any stations, the whole station is therefore managed by the main operator of the low-level platforms, which is London Midland. Manea was only served by CrossCountry until 2013, when Greater Anglia started running 1 train every two hours at the station in addition to the CrossCountry services there, to try and create a more pleasurable travelling experience, CrossCountry has designated 4 stations as alternative changeover stations. Cheltenham Spa, Derby, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton were selected, the aim here was to make connection times shorter - with the stations selected being much smaller. This avoids having to change trains at Birmingham New Street, which is a larger and these 4 stations are marked on the CrossCountry route map, in yellow. Latest performance figures released by NR for this report a PPM of 89. 2%
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East Midlands Trains
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East Midlands Trains is a British train operating company owned by Stagecoach Group. The franchise commenced on 11 November 2007 with the amalgamation of the Midland Mainline, in June 2006 the Department for Transport announced its intention to restructure some rail franchises. Included was an East Midlands franchise combining the Midland Mainline franchise with the East Midlands services of the Central Trains franchise, in September 2006 the Department for Transport announced Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. Originally due to end in March 2015, the franchise was extended until March 2018, in March 2017, it was announced by the Department for Transport Arriva, a FirstGroup/Trenitalia joint venture and Stagecoach have been shortlisted to bid for the next franchise. East Midlands Trains initially divided its services between two sub-brands, Mainline InterCity services, and Connect urban and suburban services, which came from the Central Trains franchise. However, from April 2008, the dropped the Mainline and Connect branding in favour of London. It also has four routes for the areas in which it operates, except for the high-speed InterCity services. EMT promised better integration between London and Local services, together with increased punctuality and becoming more user-friendly, helen Southworth also raised the overcrowding issue on the same day. London Services, is the InterCity route on the Midland Main Line, the above table shows the service pattern from the December 2015 timetable change. The service pattern at the start of the franchise was of four departures from London. Sheffield peak-hour trains extended from and to Leeds, with services also extending to York. One peak-hour Derby service was extended to Burton on Trent and one to Barnsley, EMT made no significant changes until the introduction of its December 2008 timetable. From December 2008, EMT used the service pattern. There are five departures from London, two fast, one semi-fast and two stopping. A smaller number of Sheffield peak-hour trains continue to extend from and to Leeds, with services also extending to York. In addition a Nottingham service is extended to start from Lincoln, the Burton on Trent and Barnsley services ceased at the beginning of the December 2008 timetable, when Corby services began. One Corby service was extended to Melton Mowbray at the outset, from December 2009, East Midlands Trains runs two trains per hour between Sheffield and London. Corby benefited from the May 2010 timetable change, which provided an extra daily northbound service, the addition of the Derby service means that passengers now benefit from two daily northbound services, one to Derby and one to Melton Mowbray
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Govia Thameslink Railway
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Govia Thameslink Railway /ɡoʊˈvaɪ. ə ˈtɛmzlɪŋk/ is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern, GTR is a subsidiary of Govia, which is itself a joint venture between the British Go-Ahead Group and French company Keolis. The company was awarded the TSGN franchise in May 2014, under a new contract whereby the Department for Transport will pay GTR £8.9 billion over the seven years and it began operating services under the Thameslink and Great Northern brands in September 2014. Southern and Gatwick Express became part of GTR in July 2015, making it the largest rail franchise in terms of passengers, staff, the franchise has an unusual structure, it is a management contract where fare income does not go to GTR. Instead GTR is paid a fee for operating the service, and this form of franchise was chosen because of long-term engineering works anticipated around London, which would be a significant challenge to organise within the normal form of franchise. In June 2016, amongst criticism of the performance of its services, Go-Ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on the franchises, passengers had previously rated its Thameslink service as the worst in the country. Only 20% of Southern trains arrived on time in the year from April 2015 to March 2016, and there was an ongoing industrial dispute over driver-only operated trains. On 12 July 2016, after 15% of Southern services were cancelled for a period of weeks to improve service reliability, on 15 July 2016, Rail Minister Claire Perry resigned. Govia Thameslink Railway has operated Thameslink and Great Northern services since 14 September 2014, Great Northern is the name of the suburban rail services run on the southern end of Britains East Coast Main Line and associated branches. Services operate to or from London Kings Cross and Moorgate in London, destinations include Hertford North, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Peterborough, Cambridge and Kings Lynn. The Southern and Gatwick Express brands joined Govia Thameslink Railway on 26 July 2015, additionally, Southern run West London route services from Milton Keynes to South Croydon via Watford and Clapham Junction. Since 2008, Southern has operated the Gatwick Express service from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport, official website Thameslink and Great Northern website
