In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking that operates passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993.
There are two types of TOC: most hold contracts (previously 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. These operators can run services for the duration of the licence validity. The franchised operators have changed considerably since privatisation: previous franchises have been divided, merged, re-let to new operators, or renamed. Some privately operated franchises have been taken over by a state-owned operator of last resort, due to failing expectations, or events on the rail system as a whole, or since 2024 the government's intention to bring passenger rail services into state ownership. , all Welsh and Scottish TOCs and the majority in England are state-owned.
The term is also sometimes used to describe companies operating passenger or freight rail services over tracks owned by another company or a national network owner.
Management Franchises were initially let by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF). This was in turn replaced by the Strategic Rail Authority, which has since been abolished. For England, franchising is now the responsibility of the Department for Transport in the majority of cases. In Scotland, it is the responsibility of Transport Scotland. In Wales, since 2017, the responsibility for the specification and procurement of the Wales & Borders franchise belongs to Transport for Wales. In two parts of England, local government agencies are responsible: in Merseyside, the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive lets the Merseyrail concession, while in London, Transport for London (TfL) oversees the new London Overground and Elizabeth line concessions.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) (formerly the Association of Train Operating Companies) provides a commonality for the TOCs and provides some centralised co-ordination. Its activities include the provision of a national timetable and online journey planner facility, and the operation of the various Railcard discount schemes. Eurostar is also a member of the RDG, though it is not itself a TOC.
Organisation For historical and geographical reasons the railway network of the United Kingdom is split into two independent systems: one in Great Britain (including the Isle of Wight) and one in Northern Ireland, which is closely linked to the railway system of the Republic of Ireland.
Great Britain In Great Britain, passenger train services are operated by a number of companies, referred to as Train Operating Companies or TOCs, normally on the basis of regional franchises awarded by the DfT Rail Group. Until 2005 this role was performed by the Strategic Rail Authority. 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. However, a handful of TOCs own and maintain some of their own rolling stock. Train operating companies also operate most of the network's railway stations, in their role as Station Facility Owners (SFO), in which they lease the buildings and associated land from Network Rail.Investment in stations: a guide for promoters and developers , Network Rail, May 2011 Network Rail manages some major railway stations and several stations are operated by London Underground or other companies.
Most passenger TOCs in Great Britain are privately owned. The majority of these hold franchises to operate rail services on specific parts of the railway and come under the auspices of the National Rail brand. In addition, companies are able to bid for paths to operate their own services, which the franchises do not operate; these operators are classed as open-access operators and are not franchise holders.
Currently in Great Britain, there are three open-access operators: Hull Trains, which runs services between and Grand Central, which operates between King's Cross and and between King's Cross and Lumo, which operates between King's Cross and / Glasgow Queen Street, as well as between Euston railway station and Stirling.
In addition, there are operators that fall outside the purview of National Rail, which operate specific services which are recent additions to Britain's railways. The main examples are Eurostar, which operates to continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel, and Heathrow Express, which runs fast services from to Heathrow Airport.
A number of metropolitan railways on the network are operated by the local franchise holder in conjunction with the passenger transport executive or other civic body responsible for administering public transport. 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 concession, while certain National Rail services in North London came under the control of TfL in November 2007 as London Overground. Two other franchises, the Scottish national franchise, currently operated by ScotRail, and the Welsh domestic franchise, operated by Transport for Wales, are awarded by the devolved governments of the two constituent nations.
The Rail Delivery Group is the coordinating body of the TOCs in Great Britain and owns the National Rail brand; it uses the former British Rail (BR) double-arrow logo and organises the common ticketing structure. Many of the TOCs are in fact parts of larger companies that operate multiple franchises.
Current operators ParentTrain operating companiesArriva UK TrainsCrossCountry (XC), Grand Central (GC)DfT Operator (Department for Transport)c2c (CC), Chiltern Railways (CH), Greater Anglia (LE), Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR), London North Eastern Railway (GR), Northern Trains (NT), Southeastern (SE), TransPennine Express (TP), South Western Railway (SW), West Midlands Trains (LM)FirstGroupAvanti West Coast (VT) (70%), First Rail London (LO), Great Western Railway (GW), Hull Trains (HT), Lumo (LD/LF), GTS Rail OperationsElizabeth line (XR)Scottish Rail Holdings (Scottish Government)Caledonian Sleeper (CS), ScotRail (SR)Serco Merseyrail Electrics 2002 (ME) (50%)Transport UK Group East Midlands Railway (EM), Merseyrail Electrics 2002 (ME) (50%)Transport for Wales (Welsh Government) Transport for Wales Rail (AW)TrenitaliaAvanti West Coast (VT) (30%)
Northern Ireland The railway network in Northern Ireland is managed differently from that of the rest of the UK. The sole company that operates trains is NI Railways, which is a subsidiary of Translink, a state-owned transport corporation, which also runs the Metro buses in Belfast and Ulsterbus coaches around the country. NIR is not a TOC under the terms of the Railways Act 1993, which applies only to Great Britain. The cross-border service Enterprise (Belfast–Dublin) is jointly operated with Iarnród Éireann, the state-owned national railway company of the Republic of Ireland.
Changes Upon privatisation in 1994, the three passenger-operating sectors of BR (InterCity, Network SouthEast and Regional Railways) were divided and their existing operations were let as 25 franchises:
19901999 1994 The privatisation process began when BR's passenger sectors were divided into 25 train operating units which were gradually incorporated as state-owned subsidiaries of the British Railways Board. They acted as shadow franchises prior to being put to tender:
InterCity
Network SouthEast
Regional Railways
The opening of the Channel Tunnel saw operations by Eurostar begin from to Paris and Brussels.
1996/97 The franchising process was implemented, with various private companies taking over the shadow franchises. Three were awarded to management buyouts. The Great Western Holdings' management also were awarded the North West Regional Railways franchise. The remainder were divided between a handful of major transport operators: +Initial franchisees and operating companies following British Rail privatisationFranchise holderTrain Operating CompanyNotesConnexConnex South Central, Connex South EasternFirstBusFirst Great Easternplus 24.5% shareholding in Great Western HoldingsGB RailwaysAnglia RailwaysGo-Ahead GroupThames TrainsGo-Ahead Group (65%), Management (35%)GoviaThameslinkGreat Western HoldingsGreat Western Trains, North Western TrainsManagement (51%), FirstBus (24.5%), 3i (24.5%)M40 TrainsM40 TrainsManagement (51%), John Laing (26%), 3i (23%)MTLMerseyrail Electrics, Regional Railways North EastNational Express GroupCentral Trains, Gatwick Express, Midland Mainline, North London Railways, ScotRail (National Express)Prism RailLTS Rail, Valley Lines, South Wales and West Railway, West Anglia Great NorthernSea ContainersGreat North Eastern RailwayStagecoach GroupIsland Line Trains, South West TrainsVirgin Rail GroupVirgin CrossCountry, Virgin West Coast
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.
1998 Great Western Holdings, which operated Great Western Trains and North West Trains, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstGroup when the 24.5% shareholder bought out its partners. The TOCs were renamed First Great Western and First North Western. Go-Ahead Group bought the remaining 35% share in Thames Trains. Virgin Group sold a 49% share in Virgin Rail Group that operated the CrossCountry and West Coast franchises to Stagecoach. The completion of the rail link to Heathrow Airport led to Heathrow Express, an open-access operator outside the franchising system, beginning its services from London Paddington to Heathrow with operating rights until 2023.
1999 The shareholdings of M40 Trains were restructured with John Laing owning 84% of the company, with the remaining 16% held by former BR managers.
20002009 2000 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. The two companies transferred to Arriva were renamed Arriva Trains Merseyside and Arriva Trains Northern. The first open-access operator using the National Rail brand, Hull Trains, commenced running its services between King's Cross and Hull Paragon Interchange.
2001 Connex, which had operated two franchises in the south-east of England, were replaced as the operator of the Network SouthCentral franchise by Govia, which began operating it under the name South Central.Connex loses rail franchise BBC News 24 October 2000 A new franchise, the Wales & Borders franchise was created by the amalgamation of Valley Lines and the majority of services in Wales and the Borders held by Wales & West. The new franchise was initially operated under the name Wales & Borders. The remainder of Wales & West's services in the west of England were renamed Wessex Trains.
2002 John Laing bought out its partners in M40 Trains.
2003