West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) is a British

municipally owned corporation A municipally owned corporation is a corporation owned by a municipality. They are typically "organisations with independent corporate status, managed by an executive board appointed primarily by local government officials, and with majority public ...

which was formed to manage rail transport policy in the

West Midlands region The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. The region consists ...

of England. It is jointly owned by a partnership of 16

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

. It should not be confused with

Transport for West Midlands Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services in the West Midlands metropolitan county in England. It is an executive body of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), with bus franch ...

(TfWM), the authority responsible for transport in the smaller

West Midlands County West Midlands is a metropolitan county in the West Midlands Region, England, with a 2021 population of 2,919,600, making it the second most populous county in England after Greater London. It was created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1 ...

Formation

Birmingham & West Mids Passenger Railway Map

WMRE was established in December 2017 as ''West Midlands Rail'', a partnership of local transport authorities. It has joint responsibility for overseeing rail services running within the region along with the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

, a central government department. In particular, it oversees the operations of the

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 ...

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

, which commenced operations on 10 December 2017. It now uses the name ''West Midlands Rail Executive''. Full members of the WMRE Executive Board are

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...

Coventry City Council Coventry City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Coventry in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors. Coventry ...

, Dudley Borough Council,

Herefordshire Council Herefordshire Council is the local government authority for the county of Herefordshire in England. It is a unitary authority, combining the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district. History The council was formed on 1 April 1998 followi ...

Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 19 ...

, Sandwell Council, Solihull Council,

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire (district), Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers ...

, Staffordshire Council,

Telford and Wrekin Council Telford and Wrekin Council is the local authority of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The district of Telford and Wrekin was grant ...

Walsall Council Walsall Council, formerly Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council was created in 1974 to administer the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Walsall. Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council was assessed by the Audit Commission in 2008 and judged to ...

Warwickshire County Council Warwickshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Warwickshire in England. Its headquarters are located at Shire Hall, Market Square, in centre of the county town of Warwick. Politically the county is ...

Wolverhampton City Council City of Wolverhampton Council is the governing body of the city of Wolverhampton, England. It was previously known as Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council (WMBC) prior to the award of city status in 2000, and also as Wolverhampton City Co ...

and

Worcestershire County Council Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. The most recent elections to it were in 2021. Worcestershire County Council has its headquarters at County Hall in Worcester, wh ...

Cheshire East Council Cheshire East Council is the local authority of the Borough of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government ...

and

Stoke-on-Trent City Council Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the local authority of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. As a unitary authority, it has the combined powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council and is administratively separate from the rest of ...

are affiliate members.

Branding

The WMRE

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

consists of a hexagon formed from the letters ''WM'' and the company name in the LL Circular typeface by

Lineto Lineto is a Swiss type foundry founded by Cornel Windlin and Stephan Müller in 1993. In 1998, Lineto launched a website to distribute their fonts digitally. In 2007, Jürg Lehni joined the venture. The most well known fonts on Lineto's catalogue ...

. This has been adopted as part of a shared branding with other

transport mode Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish between different ways of transportation or transporting people or goods. The different modes of transport are air, water, and land transport, which includes rails or railways, road and off-road t ...

s in order to created a common identity for an integrated transport system for the region. Variants of the hexgonal logo are also used by

West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro (originally named Midland Metro) is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. Opened on 30 May 1999, it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmin ...

and TfWM's West Midlands Network branding on buses, taxis and roads.

References

External links

* Companies owned by municipalities of England Public transport executives in the United Kingdom Transport in the West Midlands (region) 2015 establishments in England {{UK-transport-stub