British Rail - British Rail Successor Companies - M

British Rail - M

British Rail Successor Companies

Under the process of British Rail's privatisation, operations were split into 125 companies between 1994 and 1997. The ownership and operation of the infrastructure of the railway system was taken over by Railtrack. The telecommunications infrastructure and British Rail Telecommunications was sold to Racal, which in turn was sold to Global Crossing and merged with Thales Group.

The rolling stock was transferred to three private rolling stock companies (ROSCOs), Angel Trains, Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook. Passenger services were divided into 25 operating companies, which were let on a franchise basis for a set period, whilst freight services were sold off completely. Dozens of smaller engineering and maintenance companies were also created and sold off.

British Rail's passenger services came to an end upon the franchising of ScotRail with the last service being a Caledonian Sleeper service from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London on 31 March 1997. The final service it operated was a Railfreight Distribution freight train from Dollands Moor to Wembley on 20 November 1997. The British Railways Board continued in existence as a corporation until early 2001, when it was replaced by the Strategic Rail Authority as part of the implementation of the Transport Act 2000.

The original passenger franchisees were:

Anglia Railways
Arriva Trains Merseyside
Arriva Trains Northern
Central Trains
Chiltern Railways
Connex South Central
Connex South Eastern
c2c
First Great Eastern
First Great Western
First North Western
Gatwick Express
GNER
Island Line
Midland Mainline
ScotRail
Silverlink
South West Trains
Thames Trains
Thameslink
Valley Lines
Virgin CrossCountry
Virgin Trains West Coast
WAGN
Wales & West

British Rail Future

Since privatisation, many groups have campaigned for the renationalisation of UK Rail services, most notably 'Bring Back British Rail'. Various interested parties also have views on the privatisation of British Rail.

The renationalisation of the railways of Britain continues to have popular support. Polls in 2012 and 2013 showed 70% and 66% support for renationalisation, respectively.

Due to rail franchises sometimes lasting over a decade, full renationalisation would take years unless compensation was paid to terminate contracts early.

When the infrastructure-owning company Railtrack ceased trading in 2002, the Labour government set up the not-for-dividend company Network Rail to take over the duties rather than renationalise this part of the network. However, in September 2014, Network Rail was reclassified as a central government body, adding around £34 billion to public sector net debt. This reclassification had been requested by the Office for Budget Responsibility to comply with pan-European accounting standard ESA10.

The Green party has committed to bringing the railways 'back into public ownership' and has maintained this impetus when other parties argued to maintain the status quo. In 2016, Green MP, Caroline Lucas, put forward a Bill that would have seen the rail network fall back into public ownership step by step, as franchises come up for expiry.

Under Jeremy Corbyn (2015–2020), the Labour Party pledged to gradually renationalise British Rail franchises if elected, as and when their private contracts expire, creating a "People's Railway". In a pledge during his successful leadership campaign to succeed Corbyn, Keir Starmer said that renationalising rail would remain as Labour Party policy under his leadership.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic decimating franchise revenues and making them unviable, in 2021 the government announced it would take back responsibility for the operations of passenger services through Great British Railways with service provision to be contracted to private operators.

British Rail Overview

British Rail Type: State-owned enterprise

British Rail Industry: Railway transport, logistics, shipping, and manufacturing of rolling stock

British Rail Predecessor:

Great Western Railway

London, Midland & Scottish Railway

London & North Eastern Railway

Southern Railway

British Rail Founded: 1 January 1948

British Rail Defunct: 20 November 1997

British Rail Fate: Privatised

British Rail Successor:

National Rail

Train Operating Franchises:

Railtrack

EWS

Freightliner

British Rail Headquarters: London, England

British Rail Area Served: Great Britain

British Rail Key People: Alastair Morton

(Final Chairman of the British Railways Board)

British Rail Products: Rail transport, cargo transport, services

British Rail Owner: Government of the United Kingdom

British Rail Parent:

1948–1962:

British Transport Commission

1962–1997:

British Railways Board

British Rail Divisions:

From 1948:

Eastern Region

London Midland Region

North Eastern Region

Scottish Region

Southern Region

Western Region

British Rail Research Division

Collection & Delivery

Freightliner

Motorail

Night Star Parcels

Speedlink

Rail Express Parcels

Red Star Parcels

From 1982:

InterCity

Network SouthEast

Railfreight

Railfreight Distribution

Rail Express Systems

Regional Railways

Trainload Freight

British Rail Subsidiaries:

British Rail Engineering Ltd

British Transport Hotels

European Passenger Services

Sealink

Seaspeed

Travellers Fare

Rail Holidays
Rail Vacations

Luxury Trains
Luxury Tours

International Trains
International Tours