Regional Railways (originally Provincial) was one of three passenger sectors of British Rail. It was created in 1982 and was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors; upon formation, its costs were four times its revenue. The sector was broken up into eight franchises during the privatisation of British Rail and ceased to exist on 31 March 1997.
Formation
Upon sectorisation in 1982, three passenger sectors were created: InterCity, operating principal express services; London & South East (renamed Network SouthEast in 1986) operating commuter services in the London area, and Provincial (renamed Regional Railways in 1989) responsible for all other passenger services.
Development of new rolling stock
In the early 1980s, large numbers of first generation diesel multiple units (DMUs) and locomotive-hauled coaches were found to contain asbestos. Removing it would be a considerable cost while generating no extra revenue; coupled with the increasingly unreliable old locomotives and DMUs, this prompted BR to look for a new generation of diesel multiple units.
The prototype , in service on a trial basis since 1981, was considered too expensive to be put into production, so British Rail (BR) looked elsewhere for new designs. Both of these used hydraulic transmission and were less bus-like than the Pacers. After trials, Class 150 was selected for production, entering service from 1987. Reliability was much improved by the new units, with depot visits being reduced from two or three times a week to fortnightly. although mock-ups and prototypes were built and tested in 1990 and 1991. Forty-three 3-car units were built for inner-suburban services in and around Birmingham and Manchester, including the Cross-City Line in the Birmingham area and services to the new Manchester Airport station.
Rolling stock
{| class="wikitable" style="clear:both;"
|-
! Class !! Image !! Quantity !! Formation !! Notes
|-
! colspan="5" |Locomotive-hauled stock
|-
||||alt=|120px|| rowspan="6" | || rowspan="3" |Diesel locomotive||
|-
|| || 120px ||
|-
|| ||120px ||
|-
|Mark 1
|120px
| rowspan="3" |Coach
|
|-
|Mark 2
|120px
|
|-
|Mark 3
|120px
|
|-
! colspan="5" |Diesel multiple units
|-
||
||120px
| 35
| 2, 3 or 4 ||
|-
|| ||120x120px||3 || 3 ||
|-
|| || rowspan="2" |120px||26
| rowspan="2" | 1 ||
|-
||
|29 ||
|-
|| <br>Pacer || 120px || 96 || rowspan="2" | 2 ||60 units scrapped, 31 units preserved, 4 units converted for off-railway use
|-
|<br>Pacer|| |120px||25 ||11 units preserved, 12 units scrapped, 2 units converted to non-railway use.
|-
|| <br>Sprinter || 120px || 137 || 2 or 3 ||12 units scrapped, 1 unit preserved
|-
|| <br>Sprinter || 120px || 2 || 3 || Both scrapped
|-
|| <br>Sprinter || 120px || 70 || 1 || 12 units scrapped, 2 units converted to non-railway use, 1 unit preserved, 3 units converted to non-passenger use.
|-
|| <br>Sprinter || 120px || 1 || rowspan="3" | 2 || A converted Class 150, later converted back.
|-
|| <br>Super Sprinter ||120px || 47 ||
|-
|| <br>Super Sprinter || 120px || 114 ||
|-
|| <br>Express Sprinter || 120px || 182 || 2 or 3 ||
|-
! colspan="5" |Electric multiple units
|-
|| ||120px
| 45 ||4
| rowspan="2" | All scrapped
|-
||
||120px ||
|3 or 4
|-
|| ||120px
| 43
|3||
|}
Liveries
thumb|right|A Class 323 EMU in GMPTE livery
Initially, many vehicles carried standard British Rail blue 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. All new units, plus a few existing ones, such as selected EMUs, received it. Some units and coaches received the livery with either ScotRail or Regional Railways branding. In the North West, the light blue stripe was replaced with a mid-green one on refurbishments from 1995 to 1998.
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. Later, Alphaline would replace the Express wording; this colour scheme was also applied to some Class 156 units around privatisation. and Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) livery for Manchester-based sets.
After privatisation, many vehicles continued to carry the basic Regional Railways colour scheme, but with the addition of different branding, e.g. Central Trains.
Split for privatisation
As part of the process of privatisation between 1994 and 1997, Regional Railways was split into several different shadow train operating units, which later became independent train operating companies:
{| class="wikitable"
|----- bgcolor=#f9f9f9
! Train Operating Unit
! Routes
|-
|Anglia Railways
|Routes in East Anglia (combined with InterCity services in the region)
|-
|Valley Lines
|Urban 'Valley Lines' services around Cardiff, previously integrated within the South Wales and West divisions
|-
|Central Trains
|Regional Railways' Central division, minus the services transferred to Anglia Railways and the Oxford to Worcester service. Covered the Midlands of England and mid-Wales
|-
|Arriva Trains Merseyside
|The network of electrified routes centred on Liverpool
|-
|First North Western
|Routes in North West England and in North Wales
|-
|Arriva Trains Northern
|Routes in the North East of England.
|-
|ScotRail (National Express)
|The vast majority of services within Scotland
|-
|Wales & West
|A wide network of services centred on South Wales and South West England
|}
References
Further reading
External links
- Regional Railways Identity Management – internal branding manual, 1992