Railway Codes and other data

A (hopefully) comprehensive listing

Additional information is always gratefully received, whether entirely new records (particularly historical records), or information to fill in gaps or correct errors, via the contact link under the Miscellaneous entry in the navigation bar above.  Thank you.


NEW FEATURE!  BR privatisation details

 

The British railway is, for a variety of reasons, awash with acronyms and codes of various kinds. This web site sets out to explain some of these related to the infrastructure and to operational issues. Not included in this site are abbreviations of company names, or information about trains themselves: this information is available elsewhere, and the editor's main interest lies in infrastructure.

Taking Aspley Guise as an example, the codes BBM and MD140 apply to the route on which Aspley Guise station sits, and APG, 138000, ASPLEYG, and 62051 (ASPLY GSE) apply to the station itself.  All of these codes mean different things, and are used in different ways.  This site helps to explain these codes.

Also on this site are lists of pseudo-legal data.  The first is a list of British railway services introduced under special legislation.  This legislation allows operators to consider certain services as "experimental", and withdraw them if considered necessary without going through full closure procedures.  The second is a list of licences and licence exemptions issued by the Office of the Rail Regulator.  There is a list of routes designated as community rail partnerships, and finally a table of franchises with associated dates.

Information about other assets such as signal box prefix codes, electrification mast codes, stations, depots and tunnel lengths is also available here.

For more information about day to day changes with Britain's railway infrastructure, please refer to the infrastructure section of the Railway Observer.

Most of the information contained in this site has taken many hours and letters to different companies to compile: it is hoped that you, the reader, will find it helpful to shed light on some of the codes found in railway documents.  The records contained in this site are as complete as possible.  If you are able to add to the data, please contact the editor.

Please feel free to quote this site.  However, please credit it as your source.  Feel free to add a link on your website to here.

The use of a reliable host and dedicated domain name is courtesy of a generous supporter, to whom the editor is indebted.

Wanted

Railway uniform neck ties, specifically:

  1. GB Railfreight (not FirstGroup variety)
  2. Grand Central (orange variety)
  3. Southeastern High Speed
  4. new GWR (gold or silver variety)
  5. DB Cargo
  6. Greater Anglia (all varieties)
  7. NXEA
  8. c2c
  9. Heathrow Express (any variety)
  10. DRS
  11. Freightliner
  12. latest Merseyrail
  13. Manchester Metrolink
  14. Govia Thameslink Railway
  15. latest Scotrail
  16. Caledonian Sleeper
  17. Virgin Trains East Coast
  18. LNER
  19. West Midlands Railway
  20. London Northwestern Railway
  21. East Midlands Railway
  22. Virgin Trains (bold 'zig zag' variety)
  23. Aventi West Coast

Reasonable costs paid: please contact the editor if you can help.  Thank you.

Additionally, the editor has two uniform ties that are unidentified, shown here.  Do you know which organisation issued them?

These pages are used by (in alphabetical order):

Now over 100 corporate users! (Links open in new window)
  1. Advenza Freight (former freight forwarder)
  2. Aecom (consultancy formerly known as Scott Wilson and URS)
  3. AGH Engineering (electrical and mechanical consultants)
  4. Alphatek Hyperformance Coatings (rail coatings)
  5. Amey (infrastructure services/consultancy)
  6. Arriva Trains Wales (passenger train operating company)
  7. Arup (consultancy)
  8. Aspin Foundations (earthworks contractor)
  9. Association of Community Rail Partnerships (government/pressure association)
  10. Atkins (consultancy)
  11. Babcock Rail (infrastructure services)
  12. Balfour Beatty Rail Projects (infrastructure services)
  13. Barry Doe (independent consultant)
  14. Blue Tree Acoustics (energy and acoustic consultant)
  15. Bob Wilkes Railways (railway operating consultants)
  16. course tutor at Bromley Adult Education Centre (education establishment)
  17. Buckingham Group (infrastructure contractor)
  18. Carillion (infrastructure contractor)
  19. Ch2MHill (consultancy formerly known as Halcrow)
  20. Chiltern Railways (passenger train operating company)
  21. Coffey (ground engineering/geotechnical)
  22. Cogitare (infrastructure optimisation consultancy)
  23. Cornerstone Information Systems (travel industry IT solutions)
  24. Costain (infrastructure contractor)
  25. Cotswold Rail (former charter train and freight train operator)
  26. Credo (strategy consultant)
  27. Crossrail (infrastructure operator)
  28. Cubic Transportation Systems (consultancy formerly known as Serco Integrated Transport)
  29. Datasys (software solutions consultant, now part of Tracsis)
  30. Delta Rail (consultant)
  31. Department for Transport (government department)
  32. East Midlands Trains (passenger train operating company)
  33. Emmanuel Richard Consultants (yield management consultancy)
  34. Faithful+Gould (construction project and cost management consultancy)
  35. FENS Information Limited (information services)
  36. Filter Worldwide (IT solutions)
  37. Fone Alarm Installations (customer information and monitoring)
  38. Galliford Try (infrastructure contractor)
  39. Graffica (HERMES simulation software)
  40. Govia Thameslink Railway (passenger train operating company)
  41. Great Western Railway (passenger train operating company)
  42. Haigh Rail (infrastructure contractor)
  43. HRS Services (environmental services)
  44. High Speed 2 (infrastructure owner)
  45. Hyder Consulting (consultant)
  46. Infotec (customer information system designer/supplier)
  47. ISC Best Practice (CAD models for listed building and railway consents)
  48. JCP (consulting engineers)
  49. J Murphy & Sons (infrastructure contractor)
  50. JNP Group (consulting engineers)
  51. Kier Rail (infrastructure contractor)
  52. Lancashire council (local government)
  53. Landlab (landscape architects)
  54. Lionverge (infrastructure staff supplier)
  55. London Midland (passenger train operating company)
  56. MacRail Systems (progress reporting and workforce attendance monitoring)
  57. Mott MacDonald (consultant)
  58. MTR Crossrail (passenger train operating company)
  59. Murphy Group (infrastructure contractor)
  60. Network Rail (infrastructure owner)
  61. Nexus Alpha (transport information systems supplier)
  62. Northern Rail (passenger train operating company)
  63. NG Bailey (infrastructure contractor)
  64. OLE Limited (electrification services)
  65. Onsite (water/drainage specialists)
  66. OwenWilliams Railways (former consultancy, now part of Amey)
  67. Parkeon Transit Systems (ticket vending machine manufacturer/maintainer)
  68. Peeping Passenger Counts (operations consultant)
  69. Permanent Rail Engineering (UK) (infrastructure installation and maintenance)
  70. PRA-Rail Operations (operations consultant)
  71. Premtech Solutions Limited (consultancy)
  72. The Railway Engineering Co Ltd (consultancy)
  73. RKG Partnership (architect)
  74. Rockshore (real time information systems)
  75. RSSB (safety and standards)
  76. Scientifics (chemical analyst)
  77. SELRAP (campaign group)
  78. SKM Anthony Hunt (consultancy)
  79. Siemens (equipment manufacturer)
  80. SNC Lavalin (consultancy formerly known as Interfleet Technology)
  81. Southern Railway (passenger train operating company)
  82. South Western Railway (passenger train operating company)
  83. South West Trains (passenger train operating company)
  84. Stirling Geoenvironmental Ltd (earthworks examinations)
  85. Stobart Rail (infrastructure contractor)
  86. TEF Gauging (railway gauging services)
  87. telent (communications services)
  88. Trackmaps (infrastructure diagram publisher)
  89. Tracsis plc (operations and planning systems consultant)
  90. Transport for London (government department)
  91. Transport Scotland (government department)
  92. Travelogix (data reporting software)
  93. Trevor Patrick Partnership (consultancy)
  94. TSP Projects (multi-disciplinary solutions)
  95. University of Birmingham (education establishment)
  96. University of East Anglia (education establishment)
  97. University of Southampton (education establishment)
  98. Vital Rail (infrastructure contractor)
  99. Volker Rail (infrastructure services)
  100. WSP (consultancy)
  101. WycheGnome (passenger information consultancy)
  102. Yorcard (smart ticketing)

Does your company use these pages?  Let the editor know to be added to the list!

... and something else (last update 25 November 2019):

You will find a small collection of railway photographs here and on this second page.  It is hoped that you find them enjoyable and a little different to the usual "front three quarters in countryside" views.  Being a little self-indulgent, the editor admires the new GWR branding; this Flickr album showcases it 'in action':

GWR brand