Transrail was a trainload rail freight operator based in St Blazey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, UK with a large operating area including Scotland, Wales and the west of England. It was formed in 1994 from part of British Rail's

Trainload Freight Trainload Freight was the sector of British Rail responsible for trainload freight services. The division was subdivided into four sub-sectors; coal, petroleum, metals and construction. It was formed in 1988 from the trainload operations of Br ...

division, as part of the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

Mainline Freight Mainline Freight was a trainload rail freight operator based in Islington, London, England with operations extending to Yorkshire in the north and Somerset in the west. It was formed from part of British Rail's Trainload Freight division as pa ...

Loadhaul Loadhaul Ltd. was a railfreight operator based in the north-east of the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1994, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, and acquired in 1996 by a consortium headed by Wisconsin Central, then merged into a ne ...

and Transrail were purchased by a consortium led by Wisconsin Central in 1996 and amalgamated into a new company, English Welsh & Scottish.

History

Transrail was created in 1994 along with

and

as part of the broadly regional split of British Rail's

operations. Transrail had the largest operating area of the three companies, operating in Scotland, Wales and the entire west of England (South West, West Midlands, and North West). The three companies were created with the aim of promoting competition between the businesses. It was initially and briefly named "Trainload Freight West Limited" before being re-branded in July 1994. Transrail had the largest inherited operating area of the three post-

companies, but the least amount of traffic. The company initiated a long-distance wagonload train service branded 'Enterprise', later operated by EWS as the 'EWS Enterprise' service. All three former

companies were acquired in February 1996 by North-South Railways, a company formed by a consortium led by US railroad company Wisconsin Central, for a combined total of £225.15 million (approximately US$349 million). The three companies and

Rail Express Systems Rail Express Systems (RES) was a sector of British Rail. This sector was responsible for transport of mail and parcels, including the travelling post office trains, as well as taking over charter operations from InterCity and haulage of the Roy ...

were merged to form English Welsh & Scottish (EWS).

Fleet

37674 'Saint Blaise Church 1445-1995' at Westbury

Locomotives operated included classes 08, 31, 37, 47, 56 and 60.

Livery

The company's livery was based on the previous

two-tone grey livery, with the addition of a blue and red "T" logo and Transrail branding. There were also a few Class 37's and Class 56's that carried the blue and red "T" logo with Transrail branding on the Civil Engineers Yellow and Grey "Dutch" livery.

References

Bibliography

External links

DB Cargo UK Rail freight companies in the United Kingdom Privatisation of British Rail {{UK-rail-transport-stub