There are two types of TOC: most hold franchises let by the Department for Transport (DfT) through a tendering system, to operate services on certain routes for a specified duration, while a small number of open-access operators hold licences to provide supplementary services on chosen routes.
Some privately-operated franchises have been taken over by a government-owned operator of last resort, due either to failing expectations or to events on the rail system as a whole.
Its activities include the provision of a national timetable and online journey planner facility, and the operation of the various Railcard discount schemes.
The infrastructure of the railways in England, Scotland, and Wales – including tracks and signalling – is owned and operated not by the train companies but by Network Rail, which took over responsibility from Railtrack in 2002.
Most passenger trains are owned by a small number of rolling stock companies (ROSCO) and are leased to the individual TOCs.
One of these bodies, the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (Merseytravel) is responsible for one of three National Rail franchises not awarded by central government, namely the Merseyrail franchise, while certain National Rail services in North London came under the control of TfL in November 2007 as London Overground.
The sole company in Northern Ireland that operates trains is NI Railways, which is a subsidiary of Translink, the publicly owned transport corporation, which also runs the Metro buses in Belfast and Ulsterbus coaches around the country.
The cross-border service Enterprise (Belfast–Dublin) is jointly operated with Iarnród Éireann, the publicly owned national railway company of the Republic of Ireland.
Upon privatisation in 1994, the three passenger-operating sectors of British Rail (InterCity, Network SouthEast and Regional Railways) were divided, and their existing operations were let as 25 franchises: The privatisation process began when BR's passenger sectors were divided into 25 train operating units which were gradually incorporated as publicly owned subsidiaries of the British Railways Board.
They acted as shadow franchises[3] prior to being put to tender: The opening of the Channel Tunnel saw operations by Eurostar begin from London Waterloo to Paris and Brussels.
The remainder were divided between a handful of major transport operators: In Northern Ireland, NIR stopped using its own branding on the Enterprise service between Belfast and Dublin when it purchased new rolling stock in conjunction with IÉ, instead launching Enterprise as a separate brand name.
The shareholdings of M40 Trains were restructured with John Laing owning 84% of the company with the remaining 16% held by former BR managers.
MTL which operated Merseyrail Electrics and Northern Spirit and Prism Rail that operated c2c (renamed from LTS Rail earlier in the year), Valley Lines Trains, Wales & West, and West Anglia Great Northern were purchased by Arriva and National Express respectively, resulting in the latter owning nine franchises.
A policy where the majority of services (both long-distance and commuter) from each London terminal would all be operated by the same franchise was partially enacted.
Services are controlled directly by TfL, with running of the trains themselves contracted to a private company as an operating concession.
The government announced that National Express East Coast would have its franchise to operate intercity services along the ECML terminated, and that the franchise would pass into the hands of public-sector company, Directly Operated Railways, which acted as the parent for East Coast.
[9] DB Regio's operations in the UK were integrated into those of Arriva following the acquisition of the latter by Deutsche Bahn in the previous year.
In May 2018, the Government announced that Virgin Trains East Coast's contract would be terminated early due to financial difficulties.
In June 2018, the company was replaced by the government-owned operator of last resort London North Eastern Railway.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom caused passenger numbers to reduce to near zero, the UK government took emergency action to support train operating companies by assuming their financial risks.
The Office for National Statistics reclassified the companies as public non-financial corporations so borrowing and employees are counted in the public-sector.
[29] On 25 October 2021, Lumo commenced operating open-access services on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh.
[31][32][33] On 24 May 2022, TfL Rail, operated by MTR, was rebranded as Elizabeth line, following the opening of the core section between Paddington and Abbey Wood.
[37] On 3 December 2024, after the Starmer government passed legislation to re-nationalise passenger rail in Great Britain, the government announced that the South Western rail area would be taken back into public ownership following the expiry of South Western Railway's contract in May 2025.
[38] The privatisation of British Rail allowed the introduction of open-access operators, in which companies, upon payment of a fee, could purchase individual slots on the mainline.
Usually, these will see a train made up of ex BR rolling stock pulled by a hired locomotive from one of the freight companies.
This ticket also covers the cost of passage on the Wightlink catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head.
This is not a separate rail service in itself as the others are, but a collaboration between Greater Anglia, Stena Line and Nederlandse Spoorwegen to provide an integrated rail/sea/rail service between eastern England (London Liverpool Street, Cambridge, Norwich) and The Netherlands (Amsterdam Centraal) using a single ticket.
This involves two separate trains; the Belmond British Pullman departs from London Victoria and terminates at Folkestone West, where passengers transfer by coach through the Channel Tunnel to Calais; at Gare de Calais-Ville, they then join the Orient Express which then calls at various destinations including Paris, Vienna, Innsbruck, Venice and Rome.