13 February 2025

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Industry Guide



Industry structure






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The structure of the railway industry


Overview: industry matrix >

The railway industry in Great Britain was nationalised in 1948 and then reprivatised in the 1990s.

Since then there have been various changes, most of which were the byproducts of evolution rather than a planned programme.

The history of the industry is agreed to have started in 1825, when the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened.

More than 100 individual companies were merged into four in 1923, when the railways were ‘grouped’.

After World War 2, the incoming Labour government nationalised the companies as British Railways in 1948. The system was renamed British Rail in 1965.

Nationalisation was then reversed between 1981 and 1997, when the Conservative government first sold British Rail’s peripheral businesses, such as ships and hotels, and then announced plans to reprivatise the rest of the industry, which was achieved between 1992 and 1997.

The passenger railway was run by franchised operators from 1996 until 2020, which also managed most of the stations, but the former franchise holders are now contractors, although some have been renationalised. The status of these operators is expected to change again when Great British Railways takes over. A small number of operators are outside this system, and are known as ‘open access’.

The infrastructure owner Network Rail took over from Railtrack in 2002 and became a state-owned company in 2014. It also manages some large stations.

Freight operators remain in the private sector, while rolling stock is leased from a number of finance houses, known within the industry as ROSCOs (Rolling stock leasing companies).

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