1.
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%
2.
British Rail Class 220
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The Class 220 Voyager is a class of diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit trains built in Belgium by Bombardier Transportation in 2000 and 2001. They were introduced in 2001 to replace the 30-year-old InterCity 125 and Class 47 fleets operating on the Cross Country Route, initially for Virgin Trains, all coaches are equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine of 750 hp at 1800rpm. These power a generator which supplies current to motors driving two axles per coach, with one axle per bogie powered, Voyagers have both air and rheostatic brakes. 220s and 221s can also be assisted by Dellner fitted Class 57s in the event of a failure. By use of adaptive couplings a failed 220 or 221 can also be assisted by any air braked locomotive such as a Class 37,47 or 66 or even an HST. The units can work in multiple with Class 221 units but not Class 222 units as the connections of the Class 222 units are incompatible with the Class 220. The related Class 221 Super Voyager has outside-frame bogies and hence a more conventional appearance and their route availability is very good being RA2 - in part due to the lightweight bogie design. The CrossCountry fleet was modified between February and June 2011, all Voyagers are maintained at the dedicated Central Rivers TMD near Burton-on-Trent. Units have sometimes stopped by salt water, when storm-driven waves broke over the train at Dawlish in south Devon and inundated the resistor banks. This problem was fixed by an upgrade to the control software, there were a number of exhaust fires on the Voyager class during 2005–2006 due to incorrect fitting of equipment during overhauls. Fires occurred at Starcross, Newcastle and on 19 January 2006 at Congleton, on 14 March 2008,220012, forming a service to Derby, had a roof fire at Banbury. This fire was caused by a bird getting caught under one of the hot brake resistors on the roof of the train, damage to the train was not serious and it was repaired and returned to service. Class 220s operate in four-coach sets and this is also a feature of the Class 221 and Class 222 trains. They are air-conditioned throughout, with powered doors, the coaches are fitted with power sockets for laptop computers and mobile phone charging. Toilet facilities for disabled people and storage facilities for bicycles are provided and they provide 26 seats in 2+1 formation in first class and 174 seats in 2+2 formation in standard class. The formation of a four-car Class 220 is as follows, 604## - Coach A -26 seats - First Class with disabled area, train manager office, first class catering area, 602## - Coach C -66 seats - Standard Class. 607## - Coach D -66 seats - Standard Class with large luggage area, 603## - Coach F -42 seats - Standard Class with disabled area, catering base and driving cab. There is no coach B on the four car class 220, in Virgin Trains unsuccessful franchise bid it also cited removal of the shop from 220s and 221s as a way of trying to improve seating capacity
3.
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
4.
Stagecoach Group
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Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams and express coaches. The group was founded in 1980 by current chairman Brian Souter, his sister Ann Gloag, the group is headquartered in Perth, Scotland, and operates subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Stagecoach operates around 8,100 vehicles and covers over 90 major towns and cities in the United Kingdom, Stagecoach UK Bus employs 18,000 people. In North America, Stagecoach owns the Coach USA and Coach Canada brands, previous operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Kenya, Malawi, New Zealand, Portugal and Sweden have been sold. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, anns accountant brother Brian Souter joined the firm and expanded the business into bus hire. Robin Gloag subsequently sold his shareholding in the business and ceased any involvement in 1982 with the collapse of his marriage to Ann, for a while, they offered a very personal service with Brian Souter doing the driving and Ann Gloag making up sandwiches and snacks for the passengers. Its early success allowed Stagecoach to take advantage of the privatisation of the national bus groups, several firms were purchased from the National Bus Company, Scottish Bus Group, London Buses and various city councils. The company consolidated its operations during the 1990s by purchasing ex NBC and SBG bus companies that had purchased by management. Stagecoach left the long distance coach market in 1988 when it sold its operations to National Express. It was sold to a management buyout before being purchased by Stagecoach in August 1996, in April 2000 Stagecoach sold Porterbrook to Abbey National for £773 million. In 1997 Stagecoach won the franchise to operate the Sheffield Supertram system, from the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, when Stagecoach took over the system, it was struggling, both financially and in terms of attracting passengers, but it is now an extremely popular and successful operation. Stagecoach took another turn in 1998, when it purchased Scotlands Prestwick Airport for £41 million, by the summer of 1999, the company was rumoured to have been offered some £80 million for Prestwick. They sold the airport in January 2001 to concentrate on surface transport, on 21 November 2005 Stagecoach announced the sale of its New Zealand operations to Infratil. On 14 December 2005 Stagecoach purchased Barnsley based Traction Group for £26m, Traction operated 840 buses in South and West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Angus. Traction was the largest remaining privately owned independent bus operator in the UK, in September 2005, following competition with its Megabus coach operation, Stagecoach launched a joint venture with Scottish Citylink coaches. After a competition enquiry, in October 2006 Stagecoach was instructed to sell some of the Scottish coach services, Stagecoach are also active in the rail industry, currently operating the South West Trains franchise and having a 49% stake in Virgin Rail Group. In 2007 the group won the right to take over the part of the old Central Trains franchise, in July 2007, Stagecoach commenced operating the Manchester Metrolink tram network. In January 2009, Stagecoach bought Preston Bus, a rival in the Lancashire area
5.
Birmingham New Street railway station
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Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in the city centre of Birmingham, England. It is a hub of the British railway system. The station is named after New Street, which runs parallel to the station, historically the main entrance to the station was on Stephenson Street, just off New Street. Today the station has entrances on Stephenson Street, Smallbrook Queensway, Hill Street, New Street is the seventh busiest railway station in the UK and the busiest outside London, with 39 million passenger entries and exits between April 2015 and March 2016. It is also the busiest interchange station outside London, with over 5.8 million passengers changing trains at the station annually, the original New Street station opened in 1854. At the time of its construction, the station had the largest single-span arched roof in the world, In the 1960s, the station was completely rebuilt. An enclosed station, with buildings over most of its span and passenger numbers more than twice those it was designed for, a £550m redevelopment of the station named Gateway Plus opened in September 2015. It includes a new concourse, a new facade. Around 80% of train services to Birmingham go through New Street, the other major city-centre stations in Birmingham are Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill. On the outskirts, closer to Solihull, is Birmingham International, which serves Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. Since 30 May 2016, New Street has been served by the Midland Metro tram line, the Grand Central New Street Station tram stop is located outside the stations main entrance on Stephenson Street. New Street station was built by the London and North Western Railway between 1846 and 1854, until 1885 the LNWR shared the station with the Midland Railway, whose trains also used the station. However, in 1885 the Midland Railway opened its own alongside the original station for the exclusive use of its trains. The two companies stations were separated by a roadway, Queens Drive. Traffic grew steadily, and by 1900 New Street had an average of 40 trains an hour departing and arriving, rising to 53 trains in the peak hours. The Countess of Huntingdons Connexion chapel, on the corner of Peck Lane and Dudley Street, on the formal opening day, the LNWRs Curzon Street railway station was closed to regular passenger services, and trains from the London direction started using New Street. The station was constructed by Messrs, fox, Henderson & Co. and designed by Edward Alfred Cowper of that firm, who had previously worked on the design of The Crystal Palace. When completed, it had the largest arched single-span iron and glass roof in the world, spanning a width of 212 feet and it held this title for 14 years until St Pancras station opened in 1868
6.
Virgin Trains
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Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group and Stagecoach that has operated the InterCity West Coast franchise since 9 March 1997. Virgin Trains operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. The service connects six of the UKs largest cities, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Virgin Rail Group was awarded the InterCity West Coast franchise in January 1997 after beating Sea Containers and Stagecoach with operations commencing on 9 March 1997. In October 1998 Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach, when Virgin won the franchise, Railtrack was to upgrade the West Coast Main Line to allow tilting trains to operate at 140 mph by 2005. Due to costs having blown out from £2.5 billion to £10 billion there were cutbacks to the upgrade, in May 1998 Virgin introduced new services from London Euston to Shrewsbury and Blackpool North. The former ceased in 1999, the latter in May 2003, in December 2014, a daily weekday service between London Euston and Blackpool North and a twice daily service between London Euston and Shrewsbury were reintroduced. In September 2004 a London Euston to Llandudno service was introduced ceasing in December 2008, in September 2005 Virgin introduced its first 125 mph timetable following the completion of Stage 1 of the upgrade. In December 2008 a Wrexham to London Euston service was introduced operating south in the morning with an evening return, in February 2009 an hourly London Euston to Chester service was introduced. From January 2009 Virgin Trains gradually rolled out a new Very High Frequency timetable to take advantage of the completed West Coast Main Line upgrade, there were many timetable changes from 8 December 2013. Edinburgh/Glasgow services now run to/from London and call at Sandwell & Dudley replacing the hourly Wolverhampton to Euston service, in addition most Liverpool services will additionally call at Crewe. This has resulted in the latter being serviced by four Virgin trains in each direction per hour to/from London instead of the previous two, Virgin Trains suffered poor punctuality compared with some other transport operators between 2001 and 2006, according to Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Punctuality did gradually improve until the introduction of a new timetable, following the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line, performance subsequently recovered and peaked during 2010-2011, but then fell again and reached a new low for the year ending 31 March 2013 of 83. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2008,86. 2%, financial year to 31 March 2009,80. 0%. Financial year to 31 March 2010,84. 6%, financial year to 31 March 2011,86. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2012,85. 9%, financial year to 31 March 2013,83. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2014,85. 8%, financial year to 31 March 2015,84. 7%. Latest figures published by Network Rail for the period of 2013-2014 recorded PPM of 92. 2% for the period. The PPM performance for the period is down 2.7 percentage points on the figure from the same period last year
7.
British Railways Mark 2
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The Mark 2 family of railway carriages were British Rails second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops between 1964 and 1975, other changes of design, such as the window units, were for the same reason, which had become a serious problem in Mark 1 vehicle maintenance costs. Revised painting methods were part of this, which coincided with the change of livery from maroon to the blue. The Mark 2 coach was one of the mainstays of the InterCity network, since their withdrawal from most main line duties, Mark 2 coaches have played an increasing role on private rail tours, charter trains, and on heritage railways. Since 1996, over 140 Mark 2 carriages have been exported to New Zealand, the prototype Mark 2, FK13252, was built in 1963, now preserved by the National Railway Museum and located at the Mid-Norfolk Railway. The final Mark 2 carriage was departmental 999550, in 1977, as of 20 July 2009 it is still in service with Network Rail as a Track Recording Coach. The later versions look similar to the later Mark 3 design. The Mark 3 is longer, has a large skirting between the bogies to conceal the ancillary equipment, and has a roof as opposed to the smooth roof of the Mark 2. Mark 2 carriages were used on the Manchester Pullman service from 1966 until withdrawal in 1985 and these luxuriously-appointed first class carriages had several unusual features, such as inward opening doors and some interior walnut panelling. The livery was grey with blue window surrounds, a reversal of the standard British Rail blue. A Liverpool Pullman service was operated, using the same type of carriages. As of August 2016, Mark 2 coaches are still in use on services on the UK rail network. Abellio Greater Anglia operate Direct Rail Services Mark 2s on Wherry Lines services from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft top, abellio ScotRail operate two sets of six Riviera Trains Mark 2s hauled by a Class 68 on peak hour services on the Fife Circle Line. Caledonian Sleeper use Mark 2 coaches as seated and lounge cars on its sleeper trains, Network Rail operate Mark 2s as brake force carriages on its test trains. Northern operate Direct Rail Services Mark 2s on Cumbrian Coast Line services from Preston to Carlisle with a Class 37, Riviera Trains and West Coast Railway Company both operate Mark 2s on charters, many of the formers are still painted in Anglia Railways and Virgin Trains liveries. Unlike the Mark 1, few multiple unit classes were based on the Mark 2 bodyshell, most were electric multiple units with British Railways, and which operated under AC using overhead wires. The first of these were Class AM10 in 1966 operating commuter services from London Euston, the introduction of TOPS saw these units reclassified Class 310. Northern Ireland Railways used the Mark 2 bodyshell as the basis for the 80 Class DEMU, thirteen 5 car electric multiple units were built in 1976 for Taiwan, the Taiwan Railway EMU100 series
8.
Network Rail
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Network Rail is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales. Network Rail is an arms length public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a public sector body. Britains railway system was built by companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947. Infrastructure and passenger and freight services were separated at that time, between 1994 and 2002 the infrastructure was owned and operated by Railtrack. The Hatfield train crash on 17 October 2000 was a moment in the collapse of Railtrack. The costs of modernising the West Coast Main Line were also spiralling, the purchase was completed on 3 October 2002. The SRA was abolished in November 2006, the company moved its headquarters to Kings Place,90 York Way, from 40 Melton Street, Euston, in August 2008. In October 2008, Sir Ian McAllister announced that he would not stand for re-election as chairman of Network Rail and he had held the position for six years. He noted that as Network Rail moved to a new phase in its development it was appropriate for a new chairman to lead it there, many track safety initiatives have been introduced in the time Network Rail has been responsible for this area. This ruling came into force in January 2009 for maintenance and property workers and in April 2009 for infrastructure, in 2009, allegations appeared in the media from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association concerning treatment of Network Rail employees. Former chief executive Iain Coucher was also accused of financial impropriety involving unspecified payments to his business partner Victoria Pender during his tenure at Network Rail, an internal investigation held by Network Rail in 2010, vetted by its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. An independent enquiry headed by Anthony White QC in 2011 further examined the claims, critical commentary appeared in the media concerning the knighthood awarded to John Armitt in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to engineering and construction. The reorganisation has been interpreted as a move back towards vertical integration of track, in 2016 Network Rail failed to check whether the Flying Scotsman could fit through tunnels along the Borders Route resulting in the cancellation of a trip just 24 hours before departure. Scottish Transport Minister Derek Mackay branded the affair a debacle, Network Rails attempt to electrify the West Coast Mainline has been dogged by poor planning and cost overruns, the projected cost has ballooned from by £1.2 billion to £2. It however owns a fleet of departmental stock, although it owns over 2,500 railway stations, it manages only 18 of the biggest and busiest of them, all the other stations being managed by one or other of the various train operating companies. Network Rail has a 15-year lease on Square One in Manchester with 800 staff in one of Manchesters largest refurbished office spaces, Network Rail should not be confused with National Rail. National Rail is not an organisation, but merely a brand, used to explain, the majority of Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic, some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network, conversely, a few National Rail services operate over track which is not part of the Network Rail network
9.
West Coast Main Line
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The West Coast Main Line is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, the core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow, with branches diverging to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, totalling a route mileage of 700 miles. Services from London to North Wales and Edinburgh also run via the WCML and it is one of the busiest freight routes in Europe, carrying 40% of all UK rail freight traffic. The line is the rail freight corridor linking the European mainland through London and South East England to the West Midlands. The line has been declared a strategic European route and designated a priority Trans-European Networks route, other traffic is limited to 110 mph. The route between Rugby and Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stafford was the main line until the Trent Valley Line was built in 1847. A further branch at Carstairs links Edinburgh to the WCML, providing a connection between the WCML and the East Coast Main Line. This legacy means the WCML has limitations as a main line, with lower maximum speeds than the East Coast Main Line route. The WCML was not originally conceived as a trunk route. After the completion of the successful Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, and so this is how the early stages of the WCML evolved. The first stretch of what is now the WCML was the Grand Junction Railway connecting Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham, via Crewe, Stafford, the following year the London and Birmingham Railway was completed, connecting to the capital via Coventry, Rugby and the Watford Gap. Three other sections, the North Union Railway, the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway, another important section, the North Staffordshire Railway, which opened its route in 1848 from Macclesfield to Stafford and Colwich via Stoke-on-Trent also remained independent. Poor relations between the LNWR and the NSR meant that trains did not run until 1867. The route to Scotland was marketed by the LNWR as The Premier Line, because the cross-border trains ran over the LNWR and Caledonian Railway, through trains consisted of jointly owned West Coast Joint Stock to simplify operations. The first direct London to Glasgow trains in the 1850s took 12.5 hours to complete the 400-mile journey, the final sections of what is now the WCML were put in place over the following decades by the LNWR. To expand capacity, the line between London and Rugby was widened to four tracks in the 1870s, as part of this work, a new line, the Northampton Loop was built, opening in 1881, connecting Northampton before rejoining the main line at Rugby. The route came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923 when railway companies were grouped, the LMS competed fiercely with the rival LNERs East Coast Main Line for London to Scotland traffic. As part of the 1955 modernisation plan, the line was modernised and electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974, the first stretch to be electrified was Crewe to Manchester, completed on 12 September 1960
10.
Liverpool Lime Street railway station
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Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station, and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest grand terminus mainline station still in use in the world, a large building constructed in the Renaissance Revival style fronts the station. A branch of the West Coast Main Line from London Euston terminates at the station, as well as TransPennine Express trains, the underground Lime Street Wirral Line station on the Merseyrail network is accessed via the main terminus. Lime Street is the largest and oldest railway station in Liverpool, the original terminus of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway was located at Crown Street, in Edge Hill, to the east of and outside the city centre. A new station in the city centre was needed, construction of a purpose-built station at Lime Street in the city centre began in October 1833, the land was purchased from Liverpool Corporation for £9,000. A twin track tunnel was constructed between Edge Hill and the new station before the station was built in 1832, it was used to building materials for the station. The architects were Cunningham and Holme, and John Foster Jr, the station opened to the public in August 1836, although construction was not completed until the following year. This building was designed with four gateways, two of which were intentionally nonfunctional. Due to the steep incline uphill from Lime Street to Edge Hill, locomotives were removed from the trains and the passenger carriages were taken down by gravity, with the descent controlled by brakemen in a brake van. The return journey was achieved by using a steam engine, located at Edge Hill. This system, constructed by Mather, Dixon and Company under the direction of John Grantham, within six years of opening, the rapid growth of the railways required expansion of the original station. A plan was formed to erect an iron roof similar to found at Euston station in London. However, Richard Turner and William Fairburn submitted a design for a curved roof. The work cost £15,000 and was completed in 1849 with the involvement of William Tite. Meanwhile, in 1845, the L&MR had been absorbed by its business partner, the Grand Junction Railway. A group of four columns, adjoining platform 1 and attributed to Edward Woods, by 1857, two granite columns had been erected outside the station entrance, and had become known as the Candlesticks. In 1867 further expansion was needed and included the present northern arched train shed, designed by William Baker and Francis Stevenson and with a span of 200 feet, it was the largest in the world at the time. It was also the first train shed in which iron was used throughout, a second parallel southern train shed was completed in 1879, designed by Stevenson and E. W. Ives, notably, it was of dry construction and each bay took only three days to build
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