- 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 National Rail Corporation was a rail operator in Australia. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC is a body which represents 26 train operating companies that provide passenger Railway services on the privatised ATOC is an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train companies of Great Britain [1] which now run the passenger services previously provided by British Railways (BR) (latterly trading as British Rail), a statutory corporation which has since been abolished. A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group The term train operating company (abbreviated to TOC is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands See also Rail transport in Great Britain, National Rail, Network Rail This article is about the defunct entity "British Railways" A Statutory Corporation is a corporation created by Statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction thus they might be ordinary companies/corporations owned by a government It thus generally does not include services 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. Wellington is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England and now forms part of the New town Shrewsbury ( /ˈʃruːzbri/ or /ˈʃroʊzbri/ is the County town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England Network Rail is a British "not for dividend" Company limited by guarantee whose principal asset is Network Rail Infrastructure Limited a company limited 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 generally coincident where passenger services are run. 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. Heathrow Express is a Train service from Heathrow Airport to Paddington in Central London operated by the Heathrow Express Operating Authority The Tyne and Wear Metro is a metro system serving stations in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside North Tyneside and Sunderland, The London Underground is a Metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire Conversely, some National Rail services run on track not part of the Network Rail network, for example on London Underground track.
Train operating companies
24 privately owned Train Operating Companies (TOCs) operate trains on the UK rail network. There are a number of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom. 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 Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC is a body which represents 26 train operating companies that provide passenger Railway services on the privatised
Design and marketing
Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain (GB). The look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual companies operating trains and stations.
However, National Rail continues to make use of British Rail's famous double-arrow logo designed by Gerald Burney of Design Research Unit (DRU); it has been incorporated to some degree into the National Rail brand, being displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and some postering. The intellectual rights to the logo remain public property, being vested in the Secretary of State responsible for railway transport. Secretary of State is a commonly used title for a Government Official.
Use of the logo has more to do with convenience than design; changing it would have made obsolete all the road signs using it to indicate railway services since 1969. Individual operators would also have had no more right than any other private company for their "advertisement" to appear on traffic signs whereas the double arrow (and/or the LU symbol or a PTE symbol if appropriate) was already a prescribed symbol for indicating a "railway station" [2]. In the United Kingdom, Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs are local government bodies which are responsible for Public transport within large urban areas
Newer stations do not always display the logo (for example, Warwick Parkway, which is served by Chiltern Railways), but in general the BR logo is still very much associated with rail travel in GB, and used in multiple contexts to denote it.
The typeface used in National Rail marketing is referred to in the National Rail Corporate Identity Style Guidelines as 'Logotype'. It is a specially designed font, which resembles bolded Comic Sans.
Although the companies which comprise ATOC technically compete against each other, the strapline which National Rail uses to accompany their logo is 'Britain's train companies working together'.
Other GB passenger rail operators
Several GB conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of the National Rail network. A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway or metro(politan system is an electric passenger railway A tram, tramcar, trolley, trolley car, or streetcar is a railborne vehicle, of lighter weight and construction than a Train 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. The London Underground is a Metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire The Docklands Light Railway (DLR is a Light rail system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of East London England. The Blackpool tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England, and is the only surviving first-generation Tramlink (initially known as Croydon Tramlink) is a Tramway system serving the South London area of United Kingdom. The Glasgow Subway is an underground metro line in Glasgow, Scotland. The Tyne and Wear Metro is a metro system serving stations in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside North Tyneside and Sunderland, Manchester Metro redirects here - for the Manchester Metroshuttle free bus routes see Metroshuttle or First Manchester Manchester Metrolink Jewellry Quarter railway station train and tram - Birmingham - 2005-10-14 Nottingham Express Transit (or in short NET) is a light-rail Tramway in the Nottingham area in England. 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. Merseyrail is the name given to the electric metro-style commuter Train network centred on Liverpool in the metropolitan county of Merseyside Valley Lines (also Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes) is the commonly-known name for the Cardiff and Valleys network of Suburban railway services within Cardiff The Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT is a public body which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating regional transport and especially the Public transport The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE is the Passenger Transport Executive for the county of West Yorkshire, England. London Overground is also part of the National Rail system. London Overground (LO is a Commuter rail service in London UK.
Two recently inaugurated passenger services, Heathrow Express and Eurostar, are also not part of the National Rail network despite some sharing of stations and routes. Heathrow Express is a Train service from Heathrow Airport to Paddington in Central London operated by the Heathrow Express Operating Authority Eurostar is a High-speed train service in Western Europe connecting London and Kent in the United Kingdom, with Paris In addition, Northern Ireland Railways was never part of British Rail, and thus is not part of the National Rail network. NI Railways also known as Northern Ireland Railways and for a brief period of time Ulster Transport Railways (UTR is the Railway operator in
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 and mostly do not operate public railway services. This list of British heritage and private railways is intended as a list of railways in Great Britain and the Channel Islands that are privately owned or
Ticketing
National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail. See also Rail transport in Great Britain, National Rail, Network Rail This article is about the defunct entity "British Railways" 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. Service The service is non-stop and runs every 15 minutes with an average journey time of 30 minutes 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. Heathrow Express is a Train service from Heathrow Airport to Paddington in Central London operated by the Heathrow Express Operating Authority The London Underground is a Metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire 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 London fare zones. The Oyster card is a form of electronic ticketing used on public transport services within the Greater London area of the United Kingdom. The acceptance of Oyster Card (pay as you go on National Rail in London, England has been limited to a restricted number of National Rail services since Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC is a body which represents 26 train operating companies that provide passenger Railway services on the privatised [3]
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. On the United Kingdom 's Public transport systems a penalty fare is a special fare charged at a higher than normal price because the purchaser did not comply with 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. The railway network of the United Kingdom is operated with the aid of a number of documents which have been sometimes termed "technical manuals" because they are more detailed than The railway network of the United Kingdom is operated with the aid of a number of documents which have been sometimes termed "technical manuals" because they are more detailed than
Timetables
Pocket timetables for individual routes are available free at many railway stations. A National Rail Timetable, over 3000 pages long, was available for purchase but the final edition was published in May 2007. An alternative is the Bradshaw Mitchell’s Rail times which is published monthly and contains every train in the UK and also contains service changes that would not normally be published on the national rail timetable. It can be ordered by phone or online at www. railtimes. biz.
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
References
- ^ National Rail - Design Guidelines - January 2006,
- ^ Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002, Schedule 7
- ^ Train operators' Oyster acceptance welcomed. The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and previously consisted of Great Britain and the whole of Ireland. Retrieved on 2008-05-03. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries adopting the baptismal name of João
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