Franchised Passenger Services

There are 20 franchised train operators in Great Britain - with the Department for Transport (DfT) being the awarding body for all except three:

• Merseyrail (Merseytravel awarded and manages the concession on behalf of Merseyside PTE)
• First ScotRail (the Scottish Executive awarded and manages the franchise)
• Arriva Trains Wales (for which the Welsh Assembly has managed the franchise since July 2006, though it was originally awarded by the DfT)

In addition, there are six Open Access operators (you can access information about them on the Non-franchised passenger services page), one of which is due to start services shortly:

• Eurostar
• Heathrow Express
• Heathrow Connect
  
• Hull Trains
• Grand Central
  
• Wrexham & Shropshire
  

Open Access operators do not have their services specified by the DfT (or Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly or Merseytravel), unlike franchised operators.

Please click on any of the links to the left to find out more about that passenger service operator.

Maps of UK Passenger Rail Services

• National Rail Network (PDF - 360 Kb)
  
• National Rail Network (schematic) (PDF - 288 Kb)
  
• National Rail Passenger Operators (November 2007) - a colour-coded map showing each operator (PDF - 217 Kb)
• London and the South East (PDF - 150 Kb)