Central Trains
Central Trains was one of the original 25 train operating companies to emerge from the break-up of British Rail between 1994 and 1997. The company operated local, urban and secondary express services across central England and Mid Wales.
Created out of the Central division of Regional Railways, Central Trains passed into the private sector on 2 March 1997. The franchise was awarded to National Express Group, who maintained control of the company until its eventual demise in 2007. Central Trains employed over 2,400 staff.
The company invested significantly in rolling stock, with significant orders for new trains placed and the fleet later further grown through the acquisition of trains made surplus by other companies. Despite a reduction in the area covered during the ten years of its existence, the company grew its core fleet from fewer than 300 passenger vehicles to a total of 379- a capacity increase of over 28%. It also refurbished a number of its stations, introducing ticket gates, help points and live information boards.
Central Trains also clamped down on vandalism on its trains and fare evasion, including through a controversial poster campaign publicising the names and addresses of passengers who had been fined for not having valid tickets.
The franchise gained a reputation for poor timekeeping: its best performing period between 2000 and 2007 still saw one in six trains five minutes late or more, with punctuality dropping as low as 61% in 2003. The company also suffered from ongoing staff relations problems which led to extensive and long-lasting cancellations of Sunday services.
Following a government policy announced in 2004, Central Trains was eventually disbanded in 2007 with its services dispersed amongst other train operating companies.
Network
At its greatest extent, Central Trains operated 253 stations and provided services covering 1,534 miles of the UK's railway network, covering most of central England and Mid Wales. In its last years, the company saw 43 million passenger journeys and a total of 930 million miles travelled every year.
Services ranged from rural and local services to flagship express services originally branded as Alphaline and later developed into Central Citylink. In the West Midlands, the company also operated the extensive urban rail service known as Centro and later Network West Midlands under contract to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive.
In the late 1990s, Central Trains offered many through services between routes which had previously been shown as self-contained in public timetables. For example, where a train had previously been timetabled to work a Shrewsbury to Birmingham service followed by a Birmingham to Leicester service, the workings were combined and shown as a single direct Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Leicester service in the public timetable. This resulted in some particularly lengthy services such as those from Aberystwyth in Mid Wales to Grimsby on the opposite coast of the UK.
This gave the company the nickname "The Barmouth to Yarmouth Railway" due to the fact it operated services in Mid Wales and East Anglia (Certain services were extended from Norwich to Great Yarmouth in the summer.
The period of the franchise saw both additions to and losses from the network: services in Mid Wales were transferred away to Wales and Borders in 2001, but the company also reintroduced direct services to Stansted Airport from the north. Central Trains also inherited some Birmingham to Northampton services from Silverlink.
Performance
Considering the difficulties with which Central Trains contended, including sharing tracks with so many other operators, it did not perform too badly in its twilight months. The last figures released by the ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) rated Central Trains' performance at 84.8% for the PPM (Public Performance Measure) over the third quarter of the financial year 2007/8. This was an improvement over the same period last year, during which they achieved 82.7%. Their final MAA was 86.6%. They have always had a reputation for being poor performing with bad customer service though, and this may have been partly why they lost the franchise.
Franchise End
In October 2004, the Department for Transport unveiled plans designed to streamline rail franchises which included the abolition of the Central Trains franchise and the transfer of its services to other operators. It was announced that the franchise would end in April 2007, although there was a later extension until November 2007.
On 11 November 2007, Central Trains ceased to exist and its services transferred to three new train operating companies: London Midland, Midland Mainline and Cross Country Trains