rail transport in Europe Rail transport in Europe is characterized by its diversity, both technical and infrastructural. Electrified railway networks operate at a plethora of different voltages AC and DC varying from 750 to 25,000 volts, and signaling systems vary from ...

, an open-access operator is a

train operating company A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating Passenger Trains, passenger trains on the Rail transport in Great Britain, railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the Privatisation ...

that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and in countries where rail services run under franchises are not subject to franchising.

By country

Austria

* RegioJet *

WESTbahn WESTbahn Management GmbH (a subsidiary of ''RAIL Holding AG'') is an open access railway company operating express train services on Austria's Western Railway (also known as Westbahn) since 11 December 2011. The French railway company SNCF has a ...

Czech Republic

* LEO Express * RegioJet

Belgium

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...

France

Trenitalia France Trenitalia France is an open-access train operator running international services between France and Italy. It was originally established under the ''Thello'' brand in October 2011. On 11 December 2011, Thello ran its first night service, having ...

* Izy

Germany

* FlixTrain * Harz-Berlin-Express *

Nightjet Nightjet (stylised as nightjet) is a brand name given by the Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB to its overnight passenger train services. ''Nightjet'' operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. The ...

Former operators

Hamburg-Köln-Express Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH (HKX) was a Cologne-based open-access train operating company providing long-distance railway passenger services in Germany. It was founded in October 2009 as a joint venture by Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) Deu ...

taken over by Flixtrain *

Locomore Locomore (identifier LOC) was a German railway company that operated in 2016-2017 a higher-speed inter-city rail open access service between four of the most populous German metropolitan areas; i.e. the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region, Rhine-Nec ...

Stuttgart-Berlin route taken over by Leo Express

Italy

* DB/ÖBB Italia *

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television) ...

(Italo)

Former operators

Arenaways Arenaways was an open-access railway operator in Italy. It began passenger operations between Milan and Turin in November 2010, competing with national monopoly operator Trenitalia. Arenaways was running the first private passenger-carrying rail s ...

Portugal

* Takargo Rail *

COMSA Rail Transport COMSA Corporación is a Spanish global group focused on infrastructure development, industrial engineering and services, whose main business historically has been railway infrastructure work. History Comsa The groups beginnings can be trac ...

Slovakia

* RegioJet (all services except those on

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

—

Komárno Komárno, ( hu, Komárom, german: Komorn, sr, Коморан, translit=Komoran), colloquially also called ''Révkomárom, Öregkomárom, Észak-Komárom'' in Hungarian language, Hungarian; is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube an ...

mainline, which are franchised)

Slovenia

* Adria transport

Spain

Ouigo España Ouigo España is an open-access operator, that operates high-speed services between Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. It is a subsidiary of SNCF, the French national railway company, and uses its trademark Ouigo. History The company was founded o ...

Iryo Iryo is a brand of Intermodalidad de Levante S.A., a private high-speed rail operator in Spain. The company is jointly owned by Trenitalia, Air Nostrum, and the infrastructure investment fund Globalvia. Trains began operating on the Madrid–Ba ...

Sweden

* FlixTrain *

MTRX MTRX is a Swedish company running open access intercity railway services between Gothenburg and Stockholm. It is a subsidiary of MTR Corporation through MTR Nordic. In July 2013, MTRX was awarded paths to operate services between Gothenburg ...

Snälltåget Snälltåget is an open access railway company in Sweden with long-distance trains along the Southern Main Line in Sweden from Malmö to Stockholm as well as sleeper trains between Stockholm and Berlin and Malmö to the ski and hiking resorts in ...

(

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of V ...

) (Malmö - Stockholm - Åre) *

TÅGAB TÅGAB (Tågåkeriet i Bergslagen AB) is a Swedish railway company with headquarters in Kristinehamn. It was started in 1994 and runs trains in both Sweden and Norway. In 1999, two locomotives (of type SJ T43 and TMY) from the company were pain ...

Former operators

* Blå Tåget *

Saga Rail Saga Rail was a short-lived open access operator in Sweden. It was founded by Mats Nyblom who had previously established Hector Rail. It commenced operations on 23 February 2018 with a twice weekly service from Stockholm to Linköping with inte ...

United Kingdom

* Grand Central *

Heathrow Express Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway and Heathrow ...

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement ...

Lumo In chemistry, HOMO and LUMO are types of molecular orbitals. The acronyms stand for ''highest occupied molecular orbital'' and ''lowest unoccupied molecular orbital'', respectively. HOMO and LUMO are sometimes collectively called the ''frontie ...

In development

Alliance Rail Holdings Alliance Rail Holdings is a railway company developing plans to operate passenger trains in the United Kingdom through its subsidiaries Great North Western Railway Company Limited (GNWR) and Grand Southern Railway (GSR). Despite various propos ...

* Go! Co-operative *

Grand Union A grand union is a rail track junction where two double-track railway or tramway lines cross at grade, often in a street intersection or crossroads. A total of sixteen railroad switches (sets of points) allow streetcars (or in rarer installati ...

Former operators

Heathrow Connect Heathrow Connect was a train service in London provided jointly by Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway (GWR), between Paddington station and Heathrow Airport. The service followed the same route as the non-stop Heathrow Express servic ...

(absorbed by

TfL Rail TfL Rail was the concession which operated commuter services on two separate railway lines in London, England and its environs whilst the Crossrail construction project linking these lines was underway. On 24 May 2022, upon the opening of th ...

May 2018) *

Wrexham & Shropshire Wrexham & Shropshire (legally ''Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway Company Limited'') was an open access operator that provided passenger rail services in the United Kingdom. Services between Wrexham and London Marylebone operated from A ...

(ceased trading January 2011)

Former proposals

First Harrogate Trains First Harrogate Trains was a proposed open access operator with ambitions to run passenger services between Harrogate and London King's Cross via York. The company proposed to run from Harrogate to London King's Cross with up to four services ...

Glasgow Trains Glasgow Trains was a proposed open access rail operator from Renaissance Trains. The proposal is to operate a twice daily direct service from Glasgow to Liverpool and Nottingham with intermediate stops at Carlisle and Preston. The concept ...

* On Route Logistics (company dissolved) * Platinum Trains * Rutland Rail (company dissolved)

References

Rail transport operators {{rail-transport-stub