England's railway transport is largely based on services originating from rail terminis in major cities, operating in all directions on tracks mostly owned by
Network Rail. The rail network in Great Britain is the oldest such network in the world. The system consists of five high-speed main lines (the
West Coast,
East Coast,
Midland,
Great Western and
Great Eastern), which radiate from London to the rest of the country, augmented by wide regional rail lines and dense commuter networks and other high-speed lines within major cities and towns.
High Speed 1 is operationally separate from the rest of the network, and is built to the same standard as the
TGV system in France.
Eurostar operates high-speed trains via the
Channel Tunnel to France,
Belgium and the
Netherlands through the
Channel Tunnel under the
English Channel, at long it's the world's longest undersea tunnel. train in
Leicestershire The world's first passenger railway running on steam was the
Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened on 27 September 1825. Just under five years later the world's first intercity railway was the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by
George Stephenson and opened by the
Prime Minister, the
Duke of Wellington on 15 September 1830. The network grew rapidly as a patchwork of literally hundreds of separate companies during the
Victorian era, which eventually was consolidated into just four by 1922, as the boom in railways ended and they began to lose money. Eventually, the entire system came under state control in 1948, under the
British Transport Commission's Railway Executive. After 1962 it came under the control of the
British Railways Board; then British Railways (later
British Rail), and the network was reduced to less than half of its original size by the infamous
Beeching cuts of the 1960s when many unprofitable branch lines were closed. Several stations have been reopened throughout England. Opened in 1863,
London Underground is the world's first underground railway. Known as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson's
rail gauge of is the
standard gauge for most of the world's
railways. Henry Maudsley's most influential invention was the
screw-cutting lathe, a machine which created uniformity in
screws and allowed for the application of
interchangeable parts (a prerequisite for
mass production): it was a revolutionary development necessary for the Industrial Revolution. In England, the infrastructure (track, stations, depots and signalling chiefly) is owned and maintained by
Network Rail. Passenger services are operated by mostly public
train-operating companies (TOCs), with private franchises awarded by the
Department for Transport. Examples include
LNER,
Avanti West Coast,
East Midlands Railway,
Hull Trains and
Lumo. Freight trains are operated by
freight operating companies, such as
DB Cargo UK, which are commercial operations unsupported by the government. Most train operating companies do not own the locomotives and coaches that they use to operate passenger services. Instead, they are required to lease these from the three
rolling stock companies. is a major terminus for the
Great Western Main Line with passenger services operated by
Great Western Railway.|leftIn Great Britain there is a of
gauge track, reduced from a historic peak of over . Of this, is electrified and is
double or multiple tracks. The maximum scheduled speed on the regular network has historically been around on the
InterCity lines. On
High Speed 1, trains are now able to reach the speeds of French
TGVs.
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a new high speed railway linking up London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland serving over 25 stations, including eight of Britain's ten largest cities and connecting around 30million. The Network North programme consists of hundreds of transport projects mostly in
Northern England and
Midlands, including new high-speed lines linking up major cities and railway improvements. To cope with increasing passenger numbers and a growing network, there is a large ongoing
programme of upgrades to the network, including
Thameslink,
Crossrail,
electrification of lines,
in-cab signalling, new
inter-city trains and new
high-speed lines. Short-distance travel that doesn't pass through London is generally referred to as
cross country travel. Most services are operated by
CrossCountry and often terminate in
South East Wales or
Scotland. Regional train services are also operated by these and train companies, and focus on the major cities, several of which have developed
commuter and urban rail networks. This includes the
London Overground and
Merseyrail. The
London Underground (commonly known as the Tube) is the oldest and one of the longest
rapid transit systems in the world. The
Office of Rail and Road is responsible for the economic and safety regulation of England's railways.
High-speed rail During the age of
steam locomotion, the railway industry in England strove to develop reliable technology for powering high-speed rail services between major cities. High-speed rail in England is provided on five upgraded railway lines running at top speeds of and one purpose-built high-speed line reaching . Trains currently travel at 125mph on the
East Coast Main Line,
Great Western Main Line,
Midland Main Line, parts of the
Cross Country Route, and the
West Coast Main Line.
High Speed 1 (HS1) line connects
London to the
Channel Tunnel, with international
Eurostar services running from
St Pancras International to cities in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands at 186mph (300km/h). HS1 line was finished on time and under budget. The line is also used by high-speed commuter services from
Kent to the capital. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project saw new bridges and tunnels built, with a combined length nearly as long as the Channel Tunnel itself, and significant archaeological research undertaken. Since 2019, construction has been ongoing on a major new purpose-built high-speed rail line,
High Speed 2 (HS2) which will link
London with major cities in the North and
the Midlands at and reduce journey times to
Scotland. Government-backed plans to provide east-west high-speed services between cities in the North of England are also in development, as part of the
Northern Powerhouse Rail project.
Rapid transit are shown in black and metro lines in red. Two cities in England have
rapid transit systems. The most well known is the
London Underground (commonly known as the Tube), the oldest rapid transit system in the world which opened 1863. It services
Greater London and some parts of the adjacent
home counties of
Buckinghamshire,
Essex, and
Hertfordshire. Another system also in London is the separate
Docklands Light Railway. Although this is more of an elevated
light metro system due to its lower passenger capacities; further, it is integrated with the London Underground in many ways. One other system, the
Tyne and Wear Metro which opened in 1980, serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside, and has many similarities to a rapid transit system including underground stations, but is sometimes considered to be
light rail.
Trams and light rail Tram systems were popular in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with the rise of the motor bus and later the car they began to be widely dismantled in the 1950s. By 1962, only
Blackpool tramway remained. However, in recent decades trams have seen an extensive revival as have light rail systems. Examples of this second generation of tram systems and light rail include: •
Docklands Light Railway in
East London •
Manchester Metrolink in
Greater Manchester •
Nottingham Express Transit in
Nottingham •
Sheffield Supertram in
Sheffield •
Tramlink in
Croydon • Tyne and Wear Metro in
Tyne and Wear •
West Midlands Metro in the
West Midlands == Cycling ==