Regional Railways
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| Overview | |
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| Franchise(s) | Not subject to franchising |
| Main region(s) | East Anglia, North West, North East, Wales |
| Other region(s) | East Midlands, West Midlands, Scotland, Merseyside |
| Parent company | British Rail |
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1996, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called Provincial.
Regional Railways 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.
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. In the metropolitan counties, local services were managed by the Passenger Transport Executives.
Regional Railways inherited a diverse range of routes, comprising both express and local services. Expresses mainly ran to non-principal destinations or on less popular routes, such as Birmingham or Liverpool to Norwich, or Liverpool to Scarborough, and were chiefly operated by older locomotives and second-hand InterCity coaches. Later these services were operated by Sprinter units – mainly Class 158s on express services. There were also the internal Scottish Region local services and expresses, the latter including the Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull service.
Local services ran on both main lines and branch lines, and were often operated by first generation diesel multiple units dating back to the 1950s. Longer distance trains were often formed of older coaches and locomotives of Class 31, Class 40 and Class 45 which were of similar vintage.
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