Upon privatisation in 1994, the three passenger-operating sectors of
British Rail (
InterCity,
Network SouthEast and
Regional Railways) were divided, and their existing operations were let as 25 franchises:
19901999 1994 The privatisation process began when BR's passenger sectors were divided into 25 train operating units which were gradually incorporated as publicly owned subsidiaries of the British Railways Board. They acted as
shadow franchises prior to being put to tender:
InterCity Network SouthEast Regional Railways The opening of the
Channel Tunnel saw operations by
Eurostar begin from
London Waterloo to
Paris and
Brussels.
1996/97 The franchising process was implemented, with various private companies taking over the shadow franchises. Three were awarded to
management buyouts. The
Great Western Holdings' management also were awarded the North West Regional Railways franchise. The remainder were divided between a handful of major transport operators: In Northern Ireland, NIR stopped using its own branding on the
Enterprise service between
Belfast and
Dublin when it purchased new rolling stock in conjunction with IÉ, instead launching
Enterprise as a separate brand name.
1998 Great Western Holdings, which operated Great Western Trains and North West Trains, became a 100%
FirstGroup subsidiary when the 24.5% shareholder bought out its partners. The TOCs were renamed
First Great Western and
First North Western.
Go-Ahead Group bought the remaining 35% share in
Thames Trains.
Virgin Group sold a 49% share in
Virgin Rail Group that operated the
CrossCountry and
West Coast franchises to
Stagecoach. The completion of the rail link to Heathrow Airport led to
Heathrow Express, an open-access operator outside the franchising system, beginning its services from
London Paddington to Heathrow with operating rights until 2023.
1999 The shareholdings of M40 Trains were restructured with John Laing owning 84% of the company with the remaining 16% held by former BR managers.
20002009 2000 MTL which operated
Merseyrail Electrics and
Northern Spirit and
Prism Rail that operated
c2c (renamed from LTS Rail earlier in the year),
Valley Lines Trains,
Wales & West, and
West Anglia Great Northern were purchased by Arriva and
National Express respectively, resulting in the latter owning nine franchises. The two companies transferred to Arriva were renamed Arriva Trains Merseyside and Arriva Trains Northern. The first
open-access operator using the National Rail brand,
Hull Trains, commenced running its services between King's Cross and
Hull.
2001 In 2001,
Connex, which had operated two franchises in the south-east of England, were replaced as the operator of the
Network SouthCentral franchise by
Govia, who began operating it under the name
South Central. Also in 2001, a new franchise, the Wales & Borders franchise was created by the amalgamation of
Valley Lines and the majority of services in Wales and the Borders held by
Wales & West. The new franchise was initially operated under the name
Wales & Borders. The remainder of Wales & West's services in the west of England were renamed
Wessex Trains.
2002 John Laing bought out its partners in M40 Trains.
2003 Connex, having already lost the
South Central franchise in 2001, was removed as franchisee of the
South Eastern franchise in 2003 on the grounds of poor financial management. It was replaced as the franchise holder by
South Eastern Trains, a company wholly owned by the
Strategic Rail Authority, which would operate the franchise until it could be tendered again. New franchise holders
Arriva Trains Wales and Merseyrail began operating.
FirstGroup purchased
GB Railways which owned the
Anglia Railways and
Hull Trains businesses.
2004 A policy where the majority of services (both long-distance and commuter) from each
London terminal would all be operated by the same franchise was partially enacted. In April 2004,
One commenced operating the
Greater Anglia franchise that combined the
Anglia Railways and
First Great Eastern franchises with the
West Anglia Great Northern services radiating out from
Liverpool Street. The remainder continuing to be operated as
WAGN. In the North of England, prior to 2004 there were two regional franchises, the
North East Regional franchise and the
North West Regional franchise. In 2004, these were altered into the TransPennine franchise, for intercity services, and the Northern franchise, for local services that were awarded to
First TransPennine Express and
Northern Rail respectively. Some North West services were transferred to the
Arriva Trains Wales franchise. In the same year,
Thames Trains was superseded by
First Great Western Link and
ScotRail (National Express) by
First ScotRail.
2005 A new operator,
Heathrow Connect, jointly run by
BAA and
First Great Western, began operating stopping services between
London Paddington and Heathrow Airport complementing the Heathrow Express.
2006 Three new integrated franchises began operating in April 2006: •
First Capital Connect, began operating the
Thameslink/Great Northern franchise, on the cross-London
Thameslink route and suburban services from London King's Cross and
London Moorgate. •
First Great Western began operating the
Greater Western franchise that combined express and local services from
London Paddington to the
West of England by amalgamating it with
First Great Western Link and
Wessex Trains. •
London & South Eastern Railway commenced operating the
Integrated Kent franchise taking over services from
London Victoria,
London Charing Cross,
London Cannon Street and
London Blackfriars to south-east London and
Kent; responsibility for high speed domestic services operated on
High Speed 1 from
London St Pancras was included in the franchise.
2007 Further integrations occurred in 2007. The first of these was the
South Western franchise; this merged the original
South West Trains franchise with the
Island Line Trains franchise on the
Isle of Wight and began operating in February 2007 under the name South West Trains, with Island Line retained as a separate brand. In November 2007, three new integrated franchises began operating: •
CrossCountry, took over from
Virgin CrossCountry and parts of
Central Trains, and operates regional inter-city services that bypass the major London terminals. •
East Midlands Trains replaced
Midland Mainline and parts of Central Trains encompassing inter-city services from London St Pancras as well as local services in the East Midlands •
London Midland began operating the West Midlands franchise replaced
Silverlink County and parts of Central Trains and operates stopping services between
London Euston and
Northampton, in addition to local services in the West Midlands In addition to these three, a further new operator,
London Overground Rail Operations, took control of the routes operated by Silverlink in London, which were combined with the extended
East London line in 2011. Services are controlled directly by TfL, with running of the trains themselves contracted to a private company as an operating concession. This is different from an ordinary franchise, as the train operator is not given control of the strategic aspects of the operation, such as pricing, timetabling and rolling stock procurement. In December 2007,
National Express East Coast took over the running of the
InterCity East Coast franchise from
GNER.
Grand Central also began operating its services between London and
Sunderland as an open-access operator.
2008 In January 2008, Laing Rail which owned M40 Trains and a 50% shareholding in London Overground Rail Operations was sold to
Deutsche Bahn, becoming part of the
DB Regio Group. In February 2008, One was re-branded by National Express as
National Express East Anglia to bring it into line with the East Coast franchise. In April 2008,
Wrexham & Shropshire began operating open-access services between
Wrexham and
London Marylebone. In June 2008, the
Gatwick Express franchise was integrated with the South Central franchise operated by
Southern.
2009 The government announced that
National Express East Coast would have its franchise to operate intercity services along the ECML terminated, and that the franchise would pass into the hands of public-sector company,
Directly Operated Railways, which acted as the parent for
East Coast.
20102019 2010 Grand Central open-access services from London to
Bradford began on 23 May 2010.
2011 DB Regio's operations in the UK were integrated into those of Arriva following the acquisition of the latter by Deutsche Bahn in the previous year. Owing to continuing losses,
Wrexham & Shropshire ceased operating on 28 January 2011.
2012 Abellio Greater Anglia began operating the
Greater Anglia franchise on 5 February 2012. In September 2012,
FirstGroup was awarded the right to operate the
West Coast franchise which provoked a backlash from incumbent Virgin Trains West Coast. As a result of the Department for Transport having provided incorrect information during the bid process, the offer was withdrawn in October 2012 and £40 million of bid costs refunded.
2014 In September 2014,
Govia Thameslink Railway took over services formerly operated by
First Capital Connect as part of the
Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern franchise and branded them as Thameslink and Great Northern. Services operated by
Southern, another Govia subsidiary, were merged into the new franchise in the following year. Hull Trains became a 100% subsidiary of FirstGroup when the 80% shareholder bought out its partners.
2015 In March 2015, a
Stagecoach and
Virgin joint venture trading as
Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the
InterCity East Coast franchise. In April 2015, the
ScotRail franchise was split with the
Caledonian Sleeper services becoming a stand-alone franchise operated by
Serco while the remaining services remained as the
Abellio ScotRail franchise. In May 2015, a number of metro routes run by
Abellio Greater Anglia from London Liverpool Street were transferred to TfL to run as a concession similar to both London Overground and Crossrail (under the name,
TfL Rail). The routes transferred were those to , , , , and .
2016 In April 2016, FirstGroup trading as
TransPennine Express commenced operating the TransPennine Express in its own right, previously having done so in a joint venture with
Keolis. On the same date,
Arriva Rail North commenced operating the Northern franchise. In November 2016,
Arriva Rail London took over the London Overground concession from
London Overground Rail Operations.
2017 In February 2017, National Express sold its subsidiary c2c to
Trenitalia. In March 2017, Abellio sold a 40% share in
Abellio Greater Anglia to
Mitsui. In August 2017, a FirstGroup/MTR joint venture trading as
South Western Railway commenced operating the
South Western franchise. In December 2017, an Abellio,
East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui joint venture trading as
West Midlands Trains commenced operating the West Midlands franchise.
2018 In May 2018, the Government announced that Virgin Trains East Coast's contract would be terminated early due to financial difficulties. In June 2018, the company was replaced by the government-owned operator of last resort
London North Eastern Railway. In May 2018,
TfL Rail took over the
Heathrow Connect services, which led to the introduction of Oyster and Contactless payment to Heathrow Airport for the first time on National Rail. In October 2018,
Transport for Wales took over the
Wales & Borders franchise from
Arriva Trains Wales.
2019 In August 2019,
East Midlands Railway took over the East Midlands franchise from
East Midlands Trains. In December 2019,
Avanti West Coast began operating the new
West Coast Partnership replacing Virgin Trains West Coast.
2020 onwards 2020 On 1 March 2020, operation of the Northern franchise transferred from Arriva Rail North to the UK government-owned
Northern Trains. Because the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom caused passenger numbers to reduce to near zero, the UK government took emergency action to support train operating companies by assuming their financial risks. The companies were not allowed to make timetable or staffing changes without government approval. The
Office for National Statistics reclassified the companies as public non-financial corporations so borrowing and employees are counted in the public-sector. They were viewed as effectively temporarily renationalised.
2021 On 7 February 2021, the day-to-day operations of the Wales & Borders franchise were transferred to the Welsh-government-owned operator of last resort,
Transport for Wales Rail, a subsidiary of
Transport for Wales. On 17 October 2021, the
South Eastern franchise was taken over from
London & South Eastern Railway by government-owned operator of last resort
Southeastern. On 25 October 2021,
Lumo commenced operating open-access services on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh.
2022 On 1 April 2022,
ScotRail, owned by
Scottish Rail Holdings for the
Scottish Government, commenced operating the ScotRail franchise. On 24 May 2022,
TfL Rail, operated by MTR, was rebranded as
Elizabeth line, following the opening of the core section between
Paddington and . In December 2022,
Grand Union, an
open-access operator, was authorised by the
Office of Rail and Road to operate trains between London Paddington and starting in December 2024.
2023 On 28 May 2023, after months of continued cancellations and service disruptions,
FirstGroup's TransPennine Express contract was not renewed.
DfT OLR Holdings's
TransPennine Express took over the service. On 25 June 2023,
Scottish Rail Holdings took over the
Caledonian Sleeper service from
Serco.
2024 in December 2024, after the
Starmer government passed legislation to re-nationalise passenger rail in Great Britain, the government announced that all operators would be taken back into public ownership, starting with three in 2025.
2025 On 25 May 2025,
First MTR South Western Trains Limited's contract expired and it was taken over by
DfT Operator, the new name for DfT OLR Holdings. The new nationalised operator is also trading as
South Western Railway. On 20 July 2025,
c2c services were taken over by the DfT Operator subsidiary
operator of the same name. On 12 October 2025
Greater Anglia services were taken over by the DfT Operator subsidiary
operator of the same name.
2026 On 1 February 2026,
West Midlands Trains services were taken over by the DfT Operator subsidiary
operator of the same name. On 3 May 2026,
First Rail London took over from
Arriva Rail London as the operator of
London Overground services. ==Railtours==