Railway Codes and other data

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:

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.

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

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

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… and something else last update 19 January 2022:

You will find a small collection of railway photographs on the editor's Flickr pages. It is hoped that you find them enjoyable and a little different to the usual 'front three quarters in countryside' views. Click on an image to go to the photos.