Portal:UK Railways

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The UK Railways Portal

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The United Kingdom has two major rail networks, the British mainland railway network, a standard gauge network, and the Northern Ireland network, a 1.6m gauge network (which, together with the Republic of Ireland network forms a single, unified network in Ireland).

The British mainland railway network consists of almost 10,300 miles of track and serves around 2,500 stations. The railway infrastructure is owned and operated by Network Rail while passenger services and all but 17 stations are operated by a total of 26 privately owned train operating companies (Network Rail directly operate the remaining 17 principal stations). The Irish network is naturally much smaller, with just 300 miles of track in Northern Ireland and around 1,400 miles of track in the Republic of Ireland, less than half of the original total of 3,600 miles of track. There is also a 1,200 mile private narrow gauge railway used for transporting peat by Bord na Móna, a company of the Irish government.

In 2005/2006 there were over 1 billion passenger journeys in mainland Britain, the largest number since 1959 and in this period Network Rail will have spent approximately £5.1 billion on the routine maintenance and upgrading of the network. Network Rail continues to spend the equivalent of £14 million every day on maintenance and upgrading of the network.

In Ireland, the rail network has arguably suffered from much more serious under investment than its mainland counterpart and passenger numbers are often negligible on some routes, however the two railway companies on the island have recently spent considerable sums upgrading track and rolling stock.

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The Class 175 ‘Coradia’ is a model of diesel multiple unit passenger train used in the United Kingdom. They were built from 1999–2001 by Alstom at Washwood Heath in Birmingham. They were originally built for First North Western, but since then franchise reorganisations have meant the fleet has been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales who sub-hire some to First TransPennine Express.
Archive | British Rail Class 175

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Two Eurostar BR Cl.373s at Waterloo International.

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Did you know...

...Most of the Thomas The Tank Engine characters are based on genuine British Rail locomotives. Thomas is based on the London, Brighton and South Coast railways E2 0-6-0 locomotive?
...The tiny Scottish village of Tyndrum has two railway stations, the closest pair of stations on the network?
...There are three stations where the train operator responsible for the management of the station has no services calling at that station?
...There are a total of 262 million journey and fare combinations on the British railway network?

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Trains News

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February 23 - A Virgin Trains service from London's Euston Station to Glasgow Central station derails at Grayrigg, near Kendal, Cumbria, killing one person and injuring dozens more. Nine of the Pendolino tilting train's carriages left the tracks and rolled onto their sides, with some sliding down an embankment.