Regional Railways
Encyclopedia
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail
created in 1982 that existed until 1996, 3 years after privatisation
. The sector was originally called Provincial.
Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors. Upon formation, its costs were four times its revenue
.
(principal express services) and Network SouthEast
(mainly London
commuter services). Provincial was responsible for all other passenger services, except in the metropolitan counties
, where local services were managed by passenger transport executive
s.
or Liverpool to Norwich
or Liverpool
to Scarborough, and were chiefly operated by older locomotives and second-hand InterCity coaches. Later these services were operated by Sprinter units - mainly 158s on express services. There were also the internal Scottish Region local services and expresses, the latter including the Edinburgh
-Glasgow
push-pull
service.
Local services ran on both main lines and branch lines, and were often operated by first generation diesel multiple units dating back to the 1950s. Longer distance trains often formed of older coaches and locomotives of Class 31
, Class 40
and Class 45
which were of similar vintage.
(DMU) and locomotive-hauled coaches were found to contain asbestos
. Removing this would be a considerable cost and generating no extra revenue, which, coupled with the increasingly unreliabile old locomotives and DMUs prompted BR to look for a new generation of diesel multiple units.
The prototype Class 210s
, in service on a trial basis since 1981, were considered too expensive to be put into production, so BR looked elsewhere for new designs.
, used bus technology from the Leyland National
, in classes numbered in the 14X range. Not long after introduction to service large numbers of them suffered from a number of technical problems, particularly with their gearboxes. In Cornwall
it was found that their long wheelbase
caused intolerable squealing noises and high tyre wear on tight curves, and they quickly had to be replaced by the old DMUs. The solution obviously lay elsewhere, although after much modification, the Pacers eventually proved themselves in traffic.
BR ideally needed something mid-way between the Pacers and the Class 210s. In 1984/1985, two experimental DMU designs were put into service: the BREL
Class 150
and Metro-Cammell Class 151
. Both of these used hydraulic transmission
and were less bus-like than the Pacers. After trials, the Class 150 was selected for production, entering service from 1987. Reliability was much improved by the new trains, with depot visits being reduced from two or three times a week to fortnightly.
The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw the development of secondary express services that complemented the mainline Intercity
routes. Class 155
and Class 156
Sprinters were developed to replace locomotive-hauled trains on these services; their interiors being designed with longer distance journeys in mind. In particular, key Scottish and Transpennine routes were upgraded with new Class 158
Express Sprinters, while a network of 'Alphaline
' services was introduced elsewhere in the country.
By the end of the 1980s, passenger numbers had increased and costs had been reduced to two-and-a-half times revenue.
EMU
s, received it. Some units and coaches received the livery with ScotRail or Trans-Pennine branding.
The Class 158s, introduced in 1989, appeared in "Express" livery: dark grey window surrounds over light grey, with light and dark blue stripes at waist level. This colour scheme was also applied to some Class 156 units around privatisation.
The final vehicle to carry Regional Railways livery was a class 153, which was repainted in July 2008 into East Midlands Trains
livery.
British Rail
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 gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
created in 1982 that existed until 1996, 3 years after privatisation
Privatisation of British Rail
The privatisation of British Rail was set in motion when the Conservative government enacted, on 19 January 1993, the British Coal and British Rail Act 1993 . This enabled the relevant Secretary of State to issue directions to the relevant Board...
. The sector was originally called Provincial.
Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors. Upon formation, its costs were four times its revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
.
Formation
Upon sectorisation in 1982, the passenger sectors created were InterCityInterCity (British Rail)
InterCity was introduced by British Rail in 1966 as a brand-name for its long-haul express passenger services ....
(principal express services) and Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast was one of 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, although the network reached as far west as Exeter...
(mainly London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
commuter services). Provincial was responsible for all other passenger services, except in the metropolitan counties
Metropolitan county
The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million...
, where local services were managed by passenger transport executive
Passenger Transport Executive
In the United Kingdom, passenger transport executives are local government bodies which are responsible for public transport within large urban areas...
s.
Services
Regional Railways inherited a diverse range of routes, comprising both express and local services. Expresses mainly ran to non-principal destinations or on less popular routes, such as BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
or Liverpool to Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
or Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
to Scarborough, and were chiefly operated by older locomotives and second-hand InterCity coaches. Later these services were operated by Sprinter units - mainly 158s on express services. There were also the internal Scottish Region local services and expresses, the latter including the Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
-Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
push-pull
Push-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
service.
Local services ran on both main lines and branch lines, and were often operated by first generation diesel multiple units dating back to the 1950s. Longer distance trains often formed of older coaches and locomotives of Class 31
British Rail Class 31
The British Rail Class 31 diesel locomotives, also known as the Brush Type 2 and originally as Class 30, were built by Brush Traction from 1957-62.- Description :...
, Class 40
British Rail Class 40
The British Rail Class 40 is a type of British railway diesel locomotive. Built by English Electric between 1958 and 1962, and eventually numbering 200, they were for a time the pride of the British Rail early diesel fleet...
and Class 45
British Rail Class 45
The British Rail Class 45 also known as the Sulzer Type 4 diesel locomotives were built by British Rail at their Derby and Crewe Works between 1960 and 1962...
which were of similar vintage.
Development of new rolling stock
In the early 1980s, large numbers of Diesel multiple unitDiesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
(DMU) and locomotive-hauled coaches were found to contain asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
. Removing this would be a considerable cost and generating no extra revenue, which, coupled with the increasingly unreliabile old locomotives and DMUs prompted BR to look for a new generation of diesel multiple units.
British Rail Class 210
The British Rail Class 210 was a type of diesel-electric multiple unit built in the late 1970s. The class was intended to be a modern replacement for the ageing 'first generation' types in use on the Southern Region of British Railways but the prototypes built did not manage to secure production...
, in service on a trial basis since 1981, were considered too expensive to be put into production, so BR looked elsewhere for new designs.
Pacers
The first, PacersPacer (train)
Pacer is the operational name of the British Rail Classes 140, 141, 142, 143 and 144 diesel multiple unit railbuses, built between 1984 and 1987...
, used bus technology from the Leyland National
Leyland National
The Leyland National is a British single-deck bus built in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries - the National Bus Company and British Leyland. Buses were constructed at a specially built factory at the Lillyhall...
, in classes numbered in the 14X range. Not long after introduction to service large numbers of them suffered from a number of technical problems, particularly with their gearboxes. In Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
it was found that their long wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
caused intolerable squealing noises and high tyre wear on tight curves, and they quickly had to be replaced by the old DMUs. The solution obviously lay elsewhere, although after much modification, the Pacers eventually proved themselves in traffic.
Sprinters
BREL
British Rail Engineering Limited , was the railway systems engineering division of British Rail, until the design and building of trains in the UK was privatised in 1993. On 31 October 1969, the company was incorporated as British Rail Engineering Limited.-Main products:The vast majority of BREL's...
Class 150
British Rail Class 150
The British Rail Class 150 "Sprinter" diesel multiple units were built by BREL from 1984-87. A total of 137 units were built in three main subclasses, replacing many of the earlier first-generation "Heritage" DMUs.- Background :...
and Metro-Cammell Class 151
British Rail Class 151
The British Rail Class 151 was a prototype class of DMU built by Metro Cammell in the mid-1980s.Only two 3-car units were built and they were introduced into service in the spring and summer of 1985. The vehicles were aluminum bodied and each one was equipped with Cummins NT855 diesel engines with...
. Both of these used hydraulic transmission
Torque converter
In modern usage, a torque converter is generally a type of hydrodynamic fluid coupling that is used to transfer rotating power from a prime mover, such as an internal combustion engine or electric motor, to a rotating driven load...
and were less bus-like than the Pacers. After trials, the Class 150 was selected for production, entering service from 1987. Reliability was much improved by the new trains, with depot visits being reduced from two or three times a week to fortnightly.
The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw the development of secondary express services that complemented the mainline Intercity
InterCity (British Rail)
InterCity was introduced by British Rail in 1966 as a brand-name for its long-haul express passenger services ....
routes. Class 155
British Rail Class 155
The British Rail Class 155 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple unit. These DMUs were built by British Leyland at Workington between 1987 and 1988 as part of British Rail's replacement of its ageing diesel fleet which were First-Generation.- History and description :The Class 155 train is made up...
and Class 156
British Rail Class 156
The British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit train . 114 of these units were built from 1987 to 1989 by Metro-Cammell at its Washwood Heath Works in Birmingham...
Sprinters were developed to replace locomotive-hauled trains on these services; their interiors being designed with longer distance journeys in mind. In particular, key Scottish and Transpennine routes were upgraded with new Class 158
British Rail Class 158
British Rail Class 158 Express Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit train, built for British Rail between 1989 and 1992 by BREL at its Derby Works. They were built to replace many locomotive-hauled passenger trains, and allowed cascading of existing Sprinter units to replace elderly 'heritage' DMUs...
Express Sprinters, while a network of 'Alphaline
Alphaline
Alphaline was a 1990s brand used by British Rail to differentiate certain provincial express trains with enhanced passenger accommodation from general regional and middle-distance services operated by older rolling stock.-Origins:...
' services was introduced elsewhere in the country.
By the end of the 1980s, passenger numbers had increased and costs had been reduced to two-and-a-half times revenue.
Livery
From 1986, Provincial adopted a version of the prototype Class 150 livery: "aircraft" blue over white, with a light blue stripe at waist level. All new units, plus a few existing ones, such as selected Class 304British Rail Class 304
The British Rail Class 304 electric multiple units were built for suburban use on the first phases of the West Coast Main Line electrification between Crewe and Manchester/Liverpool/Rugby. Originally classed as AM4 units, they later became Class 304 under the TOPS numbering system, and could be...
EMU
Electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...
s, received it. Some units and coaches received the livery with ScotRail or Trans-Pennine branding.
The Class 158s, introduced in 1989, appeared in "Express" livery: dark grey window surrounds over light grey, with light and dark blue stripes at waist level. This colour scheme was also applied to some Class 156 units around privatisation.
The final vehicle to carry Regional Railways livery was a class 153, which was repainted in July 2008 into East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains is a British passenger train operating company. Based in Derby, it provides train services in the East Midlands, chiefly in the counties of Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, and between the East Midlands and London...
livery.
Split for privatisation
As part of the process of privatisation between 1994 and 1997, Regional Railways was split into several different shadow train operating units, which later became independent train operating companies:| Train Operating Unit | Routes |
|---|---|
| Anglia Railways Anglia Railways Anglia Railways was a British train operating company, owned by GB Railways, which between 5 January 1997 and 31 March 2004 operated mainline trains out of London Liverpool Street station and a number of local rail services in East Anglia.... |
Routes in East Anglia (combined with InterCity services in the region). |
| Cardiff Railway Company Valley Lines (train operating company) For the surviving urban rail network around Cardiff, formerly operated by this franchise but today by Arriva Trains Wales, see Valley LinesValley Lines was the trading name of the Cardiff Railway Company, the franchise which operated most of these services from privatisation in 1996 until 2001,... |
Urban 'Valley Lines' services around Cardiff, previously integrated within the South Wales and West division. |
| Central Trains Central Trains Central Trains was one of the original 25 train operating companies to emerge from the break-up of British Rail between 1994 and 1997. The company operated local, urban and secondary express services across central England and Mid Wales.-Overview:... |
Regional Railways' Central division, minus the routes transferred to Anglia Railways. Covered the English Midlands and Mid Wales. |
| Merseyrail Electrics Merseyrail Electrics Merseyrail Electrics was the franchise holder of the Merseyrail service from 19 January 1997. The company was owned by MTL, who were also awarded the Northern Spirit franchise. MTL became bankrupt in 1999, and the franchise was handed to Arriva Trains Merseyside.-Fleet:-External links:*... |
The network of electrified routes centred on Liverpool. |
| North West Regional Railways | Routes in England's North West and in north Wales. |
| Regional Railways North East Northern Spirit This article is about the railway company Northern Spirit. For the Australian football club of the same name, see Northern Spirit FC.Northern Spirit was a UK train operating company which ran local and regional train services in the north east of England during the late 1990s.-Operations:Created... |
Routes in the North East of England. |
| ScotRail ScotRail ScotRail was a brand name used for all Scottish regional and commuter rail services, including some cross-border services, from 1997 to 2004.... |
The vast majority of services within Scotland. |
| South Wales & West Railway Wales and West Wales & West was a British Train Operating Company that ran services from 1997 to 2001, and was one of the original 25 Train Operating Companies that were set up after the UK Rail Industry was privatised... |
A wide network of services centred on South Wales and the South West. |