The railway network of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 is operated with the aid of a number of documents, which have been sometimes termed "technical manuals", because they are more detailed than the pocket-timetables which the public encounters every day. Historically, they were classified PRIVATE and not for publication, however since rail privatisation they are now more widely available, mostly in digital form, because they are produced centrally and not by the regional rail operators.

Documents of relevance to the customer

and distributed by National Rail Enquiries:

• The National Rail Conditions of Carriage
  National Rail Conditions of Carriage
  The National Rail Conditions of Carriage are a contractual document, setting out the consumer's rights and responsibilities when travelling on the National Rail network. When a train ticket is purchased, a contract is established...
  
  , which set out the customer's rights and responsibilities when travelling on the National Rail network http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/nrcc/. Every ticket purchased is a contract, and this document is the terms of that contract. It is produced by the Rail Settlement Plan
  Rail Settlement Plan
  Rail Settlement Plan is a division of the Association of Train Operating Companies in the United Kingdom. It provides a wide range of common services to the UK's franchised passenger rail operators and third party providers of information and retail services.The company was established on the...
  
  , part of the ATOC
  ATOC
  ATOC may refer to:* Acoustic thermometry* Amgen Tour of California* Association of Train Operating Companies...
  
  .
• National Fares Manual, which contains all available fares on the network, primarily of use for tracking cheaper ticket combinations. This is now published by TSO (formerly The Stationery Office) as a CD-ROM, rather than as a set of printed manuals. http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp?FO=1241783
• The Rail Links Manual. As separate to the above, for combined rail and bus/ferry fares. http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/manuals.html#rlm

and produced by the ATOC

Association of Train Operating Companies

The Association of Train Operating Companies is a body which represents 24 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services on the privatised British railway system. It owns the National Rail brand. The Association is an unincorporated association owned by its members...

:

ATOC is a body which represents 26 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services

• The National Routeing Guide
  National Routeing Guide
  The National Routeing Guide is a document, the definitive resource on the validity of rail tickets for the purpose of rail travel in England, Wales, and Scotland . As stated by the Rail Regulator, "[it] sets out passengers' rights to use the network flexibly"...
  
  , which defines which tickets are valid on which routeshttp://www.atoc.org/rsp/Routeing_Guide/. It is noted as being a particularly complex document to negotiate, one blogger stating I can only look at the NRG for about 10 minutes without going insane"

and produced by Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

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Network Rail owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure

• The National Rail Timetable. This was available to the public in printed form until May 2007, and is now available from Network Rail in PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
   format only. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx

and produced by The Stationery Office

The Stationery Office

The Stationery Office is a British publishing company that was created in 1996 when the publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. TSO is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, select committee reports, Hansard, and the London,...

 with permission from Network Rail:

• UK Rail Timetable, published from December 2007. This timetable is named "UK" but only covers the National Rail Network of Great Britain and not Northern Ireland. New editions are normally published every Spring and Autumn. http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp?Action=Book&ProductId=0117020737

Documents which relate solely to the operation of the network

Also by Network Rail

• Train Planning Ruleshttp://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/Rules%20Of%20The%20Route/Roprhome.pdf. Used by those who plan the logistics of operating the network

Documents produced by the ORR (formerly the Rail Regulator)

Office of Rail Regulation

The Office of Rail Regulation is a statutory board which is the combined economic and safety regulatory authority for Great Britain's railway network. It was established on 5 July 2004 by the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, replacing the Rail Regulator...

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• Railway Safety Principles and Guidance ("The Blue Book"). http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1096

Documents produced by the Rail Safety and Standards Board

Rail Safety and Standards Board

The Rail Safety and Standards Board is an independent not-for-profit company, which was established in 2003, upon the recommendation of the public inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove rail crash...

:http://www.rssb.co.uk/whoarewe.asp

• British Railway Rule Book http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/Rule_Book/Forms/Live_Documents.aspx. Full details of operating practices.

• Railway Group Standards and Network Rail Line Standards http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/rail/main.html. Primarily of use for design.

• ORR also produce a document Guidance on Infrastructure http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/rspg-part2a-infrstrct.pdf

• There are also the railway by-laws, which exist under the Transport Act 2000. http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/legislation/regs/.

External links

• Railway Bylaws on the Department for Transport website