- For the Australian railway operator of the same name, see National Rail Corporation
National Rail is a brand name of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). The brand and ATOC are jointly owned by the passenger train companies of Great Britain, which were formed out of British Rail (BR), the now-defunct state-owned rail operator. The term is usually used to distinguish these services from rail passenger services in Great Britain that do not have a BR background. This distinction is important, because National Rail services share a ticketing structure and ticket inter-availability that do not necessarily extend to other services.
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National Rail and Network Rail
National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail. National Rail is a brand used to promote passenger railway services, while Network Rail is the organisation owning and managing the fixed assets (tracks, signals etc.) of the railway network. The two networks are similar but not identical. Most Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic and some lines are freight only. Some scheduled passenger services running on Network Rail lines, for example Heathrow Express, the Tyne and Wear Metro and small parts of the London Underground, are not part of the National Rail network. Conversely, some National Rail services run on track not part of the Network Rail network, for example on London Underground track.
Train operating companies
National Rail trains are operated by 24 privately owned Train Operating Companies (TOCs). The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) provides a common voice for the TOCs and some degree of central coordination: the provision, for example, of a national timetable, journey planner, and enquiry service. The double-arrow logo of the former BR is part of the National Rail brand.
Other UK passenger rail operators
Several UK cities have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of the National Rail network. These include the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Blackpool Tramway, Croydon Tramlink, Glasgow Subway, Tyne and Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink, Sheffield Supertram, Midland Metro and Nottingham Express Transit. On the other hand, the largely self-contained Merseyrail system is part of the National Rail network, and local rail schemes around Cardiff, Glasgow and West Yorkshire consist entirely of National Rail services. London Overground is also part of the National Rail system. BR sold its Northern Ireland assets (the former LMS(NCC) lines) to the devolved Northern Ireland government in 1949, who formed the Ulster Transport Authority through the nationalistion of other rail operators in Northern Ireland. The UTA also operated bus services in the Province, and was broken up in 1966 forming Northern Ireland's current rail operator Northern Ireland Railways (NIR). As a consequence NIR is not part of the National Rail network. Two recently inaugurated railway services, Heathrow Express and Eurostar, are also not part of the National Rail network. There are a significant number of privately owned or heritage railways, listed in the list of British heritage and private railways, which are not part of the National Rail network.
Ticketing
National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail. Through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office. Most tickets are inter-available between the services of all operators on routes appropriate to the journey being made. A notable exception is for journeys between London and Gatwick Airport, for which, as of March 2006, three operators issue different tickets valid on their own services only. There is also a London-Gatwick ticket that is valid on all operators except Gatwick Express. Operators on some other routes offer operator-specific tickets that are cheaper than the inter-available ones. Through tickets involving the services of Heathrow Express and London Underground are also available. Oyster pay as you go can only be used on a limited number of National Rail services in Greater London, although ATOC has made a commitment to eventually accept the ticketing product on all routes within the travelcard scheme. Citation: See http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3326.aspx http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3328.aspx (Chiltern Railways) http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3333.aspx (c2c) Passengers without a valid ticket boarding a train at a station where ticket-buying facilities are available are required to pay the full Open Single or Return fare. On some services penalty fares apply - a ticketless passenger may be charged the greater of £20 or twice the full single fare to the next stop. Penalty Fares can be collected only by authorised Revenue Protection Inspectors, not by ordinary Guards. National Rail distributes a number of the technical manuals on which travel on the UK railways is based, such as the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, via their website.
Timetables
Pocket timetables for individual routes are available free at many railway stations. A National Rail Timetable, over 3000 pages long, is available for purchase but the final edition was published in May 2007. An alternative is the OAG Rail guide (ISSN 1365 6112) which is available for purchase. An online version of the timetable and journey planner is accessible via National Rail's website which includes the facility to book tickets online. The website also provide realtime information about running of services in selected routes.
See also
External links
- National Rail website
- List of train operating companies from National Rail website, retrieved 6 March 2006.
- Collection of Google Earth locations of National Rail stations (Requires Google Earth software) from the Google Earth Community forum. ***LINK BROKEN***
