Regional Railways

Infobox Rail companies
bgcolor=FFFFFF
image_filename=150231 'King Edmund' at Cambridge.jpg
widthpx=300px
franchise=Not subject to franchising
logo_filename=
nameforarea=region
regions=East Anglia, North West, North East, Wales
secregions=East Midlands, West Midlands, Scotland, Merseyside
parent_company=British Rail
fleet=?
stations=?

Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1996, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called Provincial.

Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors. Upon formation, its costs were four times its revenue.cite book | first=David St John | last=Thomas | coauthors=Whitehouse, Patrick | year=1990 | title=BR in the Eighties | publisher= David & Charles | location=Newton Abbot | id=ISBN 0-7153-9854-7 ]

Formation

Upon sectorisation in 1982, the passenger sectors created were InterCity (principal express services) and Network SouthEast (mainly London commuter services). Provincial was responsible for all other passenger services, except in the metropolitan counties, where local services were managed by the Passenger Transport Executives.

ervices

Regional Railways inherited a diverse range of routes, comprising both express and local services. Expresses mainly ran to non-principal destinations or on less popular routes, such as Birmingham to Norwich or Liverpool to Scarborough, and were chiefly operated by older locomotives and second-hand InterCity coaches. There were also the internal Scottish Region local services and expresses, the latter including the Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull service.

Local services ran on both main lines and branch lines, and were often operated by first generation diesel multiple units dating back to the 1950s. Longer distance trains often formed of older coaches and locomotives of Class 31, Class 40 and Class 45 which were of similar vintage.

Development of new rolling stock

In the early 1980s, large numbers of DMU and locomotive-hauled coaches were found to contain asbestos. Removing this would be a considerable cost and would generate no extra revenue. This, coupled with the increasingly unreliability of old locomotives and DMUs prompted BR to look for a new generation of diesel multiple units.

The prototype Class 210s, in service on a trial basis since 1981, were considered too expensive to be put into production, so BR looked elsewhere for new designs.

Pacers

The first, "Pacers", used bus technology from the Leyland National, in classes numbered in the 14X range. Not long after introduction to service large numbers of them suffered from a number of technical problems, particularly with their gearboxes. In Cornwall it was found that their long wheelbase caused intolerable squealing noises and high tyre wear on tight curves, and they quickly had to be replaced by the old DMUs. The solution obviously lay elsewhere, although after much modification, the Pacers eventually proved themselves in traffic.

printers

. Reliability was much improved by the new trains, with depot visits being reduced from two or three times a week to fortnightly.

The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw the development of secondary express services that complemented the mainline Intercity routes. Class 155 and Class 156 Sprinters were developed to replace locomotive-hauled trains on these services; their interiors being designed with longer distance journeys in mind. In particular, key Scottish and Transpennine routes were upgraded with new Class 158 Express Sprinters, while a network of 'Alphaline' services was introduced elsewhere in the country.

By the end of the 1980s, passenger numbers had increased and costs had been reduced to two-and-a-half times revenue.

Livery

From 1986, Provincial adopted a version of the prototype Class 150 livery: "aircraft" blue over white, with a light blue stripe at waist level.cite book | first=Peter | last=Fox | year=1988 | title=Locomotives and Coaching Stock 1989 | publisher=Platform 5 | id=ISBN 0-9065-7993-7] All new units, plus a few existing ones, such as selected Class 304 EMUs, received it. Some units and coaches received the livery with ScotRail or Trans-Pennine branding.

The Class 158s, introduced in 1989, appeared in "Express" livery: dark grey window surrounds over light grey, with light and dark blue stripes at waist level. This colour scheme was also applied to some Class 156 units around privatisation.

The final vehicle to carry Regional Railways livery was a class 153, which was repainted in July 2008 into East Midlands Trains livery.

plit for Privatisation

Before privatisation, the Regional Railways sector was split into several different franchises ready for privatisation.
*Anglia Railways, later National Express East Anglia
*Central Trains and Central Citylink, later London Midland , East Midlands Trains and CrossCountry
*Merseyrail Electrics, later Merseyrail
*North West Regional Railways, later North Western Trains, later First North Western
Now part of Northern Rail
*Regional Railways Northeast, later Northern Spirit, later Arriva Trains Northern
Split into Northern Rail and **TransPennine Express
*ScotRail, later First ScotRail
*Wales and West
Later split into
**Wales and Borders, now part of Arriva Trains Wales
**Wessex Trains, now part of First Great Western

References