Editing Transport in the United Kingdom (section)

=== Great Britain ===
[[File:800006_London_Paddington.jpg|thumb|[[Great Western Railway (train operating company)|Great Western Railway]] Hitachi class at [[London Paddington station|London Paddington Station]]]]
{{main|Rail transport in Great Britain}}
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 Main Line|West Coast]], [[East Coast Main Line|East Coast]], [[Midland Main Line|Midland]], [[Great Western Main Line|Great Western]] and [[Great Eastern Main Line|Great Eastern]]), which radiate from London and other major cities to the rest of the country, augmented by regional rail lines and dense commuter networks within cities and other high-speed lines. [[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.

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 [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|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 and lines have since been reopened in England and [[Rail transport in Wales|Wales]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Restoring Your Railway Fund |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62d6c9e6d3bf7f28583b0179/restoring-your-railway-programme-update.pdf |journal=GOV.UK |via=DFT}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Restoring Your Railway Fund |url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2023-0014/ |website=House of Commons|date=3 October 2025 |last1=Page |first1=Marguerite |last2=Tyers |first2=Roger }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Moore |first=Catherine |date=2022-06-21 |title=Nine more abandoned rail schemes win cash for restoration |url=https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/nine-more-abandoned-rail-schemes-win-cash-for-restoration-21-06-2022/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |magazine=New Civil Engineer |language=en}}</ref>

In 1994 and 1995, British Rail was split into infrastructure, maintenance, rolling stock, passenger and freight companies, which were [[Privatisation of British Rail|privatised]] from 1996 to 1997. The privatisation has delivered very mixed results, with healthy passenger growth, mass refurbishment of infrastructure, investment in new rolling stock, and safety improvements being offset by concerns over network capacity and the overall cost to the taxpayer, which has increased due to growth in passenger numbers. While the price of anytime and off-peak tickets has increased, the price of Advance tickets has dramatically decreased in real terms: the average Advance ticket in 1995 cost £9.14 (in 2014 prices) compared to £5.17 in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://raildeliverygroup.com/what-we-do/publications.html?task=file.download&id=263|title=How do fares here compare with the rest of Europe?|website=Raildeliverygroup.com|access-date=6 October 2015|archive-date=7 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007091206/http://raildeliverygroup.com/what-we-do/publications.html?task=file.download&id=263|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |title= Have train fares gone up or down since British Rail? |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21056703|website=BBC |access-date=2 August 2015 |date=22 January 2013}}</ref>

In Great Britain, the infrastructure (track, stations, depots and signalling chiefly) is owned and maintained by [[Network Rail]], a body of the [[Department for Transport]]. Passenger services are operated by mostly public [[train operating company|train-operating companies]] (TOCs), with private franchises awarded by the [[Department for Transport]] (in England), [[Transport Scotland]], and [[Transport for Wales]]. Examples include [[Avanti West Coast]], [[Great Western Railway (train operating company)|Great Western Railway]] and [[East Midlands Railway]]. Some other passenger TOCs make use of [[Open-access operator|open-access contracts]] or [[Concession (contract)|concessionary contracts]] for their operations, such as [[Hull Trains]] or [[Merseyrail]], respectively. Freight trains are operated by [[freight operating company|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 company|rolling stock companies]] (ROSCOs), with train maintenance carried out by companies such as [[Bombardier Transportation|Bombardier]] and [[Alstom]].

Rail passenger revenue in 2018/19 increased in real terms year-on-year. In 2018/19, there was £18.1bn of public expenditure on railways, an increase of 12%.<ref name=":03"/> There were 1.8 billion rail passenger journeys in England. Light rail and tram travel also continued to grow, to the highest level (0.3 million journeys) since comparable records began in 1983.<ref name=":03"/>

In Great Britain there are {{convert|10274|mi}} of {{RailGauge|sg}} [[Standard gauge|gauge]] track, reduced from a historic peak of over {{convert|30000|mi}}. Of this, {{convert|3062|mi}} is electrified and {{convert|7823|mi}} is [[Double track|double]] or multiple tracks. The maximum scheduled speed on the regular network has historically been around {{convert|125|mph|km/h}} on the [[InterCity (British Rail)|InterCity]] lines. On [[High Speed 1]], trains are now able to reach the speeds of French [[TGV]]s. [[High Speed 2]], under construction, is a wide high-speed line connecting London with [[Birmingham Curzon Street railway station|Birmingham Curzon Street]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is HS2 |url=https://www.hs2.org.uk/what-is-hs2/ |website=HS2 Ltd}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Network North |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/network-north |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref> To cope with increasing passenger numbers, there is a large ongoing [[History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date#Timeline of improvements|programme of upgrades]] to the network, including [[Thameslink Programme|Thameslink]], [[Crossrail]], [[Railway electrification in Great Britain|electrification of lines]], [[European Rail Traffic Management System in Great Britain|in-cab signalling]], new [[Intercity Express Programme|inter-city trains]] and [[High Speed 2|high-speed lines]]. [[Great British Railways]] is a planned [[State ownership|state-owned]] [[public body]] that will oversee [[rail transport in Great Britain]]. The [[Office of Rail and Road]] is responsible for the economic and safety regulation of the UK's railways.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Home page {{!}} Office of Rail and Road|url=https://www.orr.gov.uk/home|access-date=2021-10-05|website=www.orr.gov.uk|language=en}}</ref>