Central Trains

Central Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, running local and long-distance services in central England. The company’s operations were centred on Birmingham in the West Midlands.

The longer-distance services were branded as Central Citylink.

Overview
The franchise covered 1,305 miles (2,100 km) of railway, and had in its last years more than 43 million passenger journeys per year, travelling a total of 930 million miles (1,495 million km).

On 19 October 2004, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced that at the end of the current franchise in 2006, Central Trains’ routes would be divided between the Silverlink, Chiltern, Virgin Cross Country, Midland Mainline and Northern Rail franchises. The end of the franchise was delayed until 11 November 2007 when London Midland took over most of the routes.

From a low pre-privatisation base, the company ended with £74 million worth of new trains, replacing the slam-door rolling stock it inherited with the modern Class 350 ‘Desiros’, which it shared with sister-company Silverlink. It also refurbished many of its stations, introducing ticket gates and live information boards, and clamped down on vandalism on its trains.

Central Trains was owned by the National Express Group and employed over 2,400 staff.

In 2006 the company took the step of producing posters with lists of names and addresses of those who had been fined for ticket evasion.

Network
Central Trains served 232 stations in the Midlands, North East, North West, Yorkshire and East Anglia. Most services were operated in Central Trains colours except for services in the West Midlands county which operated under contract to Network West Midlands, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive and operated in their livery. These are the main services they operated:

"Citylink" Services

 * Birmingham New Street - Liverpool Lime Street
 * Birmingham New Street - Preston (one evening peak service Northbound, no Southbound service)
 * Birmingham New Street - Stansted Airport
 * Cardiff Central - Nottingham
 * Liverpool - Norwich via Manchester & Nottingham

Regional Services

 * West Coast Mainline : Northampton - Crewe/Preston
 * Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury
 * Birmingham New Street - Coventry - Northampton
 * Birmingham New Street - Nuneaton - Leicester
 * Nuneaton - Coventry
 * Doncaster / Lincoln Central - Peterborough via Spalding
 * Newark North Gate - Lincoln - Grimsby/Cleethorpes
 * Leicester - Lincoln Central
 * Nottingham - Skegness
 * Derby - Matlock
 * Derby - Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent
 * Derby - Nottingham
 * Birmingham - Nottingham
 * Nottingham - Leicester
 * Nottingham - Mansfield Woodhouse / Worksop
 * Stafford - Hanley via Stoke-on-Trent (Bus service)

Network West Midlands Services

 * Birmingham - Wolverhampton
 * Chase Line : Birmingham - Walsall / Stafford
 * Walsall - Wolverhampton
 * Cross City Line : Redditch/Longbridge - Four Oaks/Lichfield Trent Valley
 * Snow Hill Lines : Great Malvern/Kidderminster - Dorridge/Shirley/Stratford-upon-Avon

Performance
Considering the difficulties with which Central Trains contended with, including sharing tracks with so many other operators, Central Trains had not performed too badly in its twilight months. The last figures released by the ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) rated Central Trains' performance at 84.8% for the PPM (Public Performance Measure) over the third quarter of the financial year 2007/8. This was an improvement over the same period last year, during which they achieved 82.7%. Their final MAA was 86.6%. They have always had a reputation for being poor performing with bad customer service though, and this may have been partly why they lost the franchise.

Rolling Stock
When National Express Group took over Central Trains in 1997, the company started to dispose of its last 1960s and 70s ‘slam door’ trains. By 2000, all older trains were out of service, and the franchise operated a fleet of one and two carriage Diesel multiple unit railcars, mostly inherited from Regional Railways, the division of British Rail that preceded Central.

These 'Sprinters' were introduced during the 1980s, in line with a policy of replacing locomotive-hauled trains with shorter but more frequent single class rail car services. Soon after the franchise was awarded in March 1997, 33 new Class 170 100mph air-conditioned Turbostar trains were ordered.

Central Trains had recently taken delivery of 30 new 100mph Class 350 Desiro units, which were shared with Silverlink County for use on the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Northampton/Liverpool via Tamworth. The additions were part of a £100 million investment by the SRA to improve comfort, convenience, speed and accessibility.

The majority of Central Trains services were operated by diesel trains, as lines they operated were not electrified.

Final fleet

 * 1) Built for Central Trains and Silverlink regional express services and Central Citylink services on the southern section of the West Coast Main Line.

The end
It was announced in October 2005 that the Central franchise would end in April 2007 (later extended to November 2007 ), as part of a programme to reduce the number of franchises in the Midlands. Central Trains was split into three parts, each of which was amalgamated with another franchise:
 * West Midlands (now operated by London Midland, a new rail franchise owned by Govia), which comprises the former Silverlink County network and all of Central's former services along and west of the West Coast Main Line with the exception of Nuneaton and Tamworth to Birmingham (both now operated by CrossCountry) and Stoke-on-Trent to Crewe (operated by East Midlands Trains).
 * East Midlands - this includes the former Midland Mainline network, and has taken over Central's services on the Midland Main Line and East of Nottingham, plus the Crewe to Derby via Stoke-on-Trent services. This is operated by East Midlands Trains, a new rail franchise owned by Stagecoach Group.
 * Cross-Country - this encompasses most of the former Virgin Cross-Country network, and is slightly expanded from its former size by taking over the Nottingham to Cardiff, the Birmingham to Stansted "Citylink" services, and the Birmingham to Nottingham service. From 11th November 2007 Cross-Country Services are operated by Arriva rather than Virgin Trains.

The future of the problematic Liverpool to Norwich service now appears relatively secure: previous suggestions to split the service into two separate services between Liverpool and Nottingham, and Nottingham and Norwich, have been abandoned, and the service has become part of the East Midlands franchise.

Recently Central Trains in the Centro area, which covered the West Midlands, Class 150s have been repainted in a livery similar to the Central Trains services. However, it is not known if the Class 323s will also be painted in the same livery.

It was announced on Thursday 21 June 2007 that many of Central Trains services (including Snow Hill lines), would be run under a new franchise operated by London Midland whose parent company is Govia.

It was announced on Thursday 22 June 2007 that many of Central Trains services (including local services in the East Midlands), would be run under a new franchise operated by East Midlands Trains whose parent company is Stagecoach Group.

It was announced on 10th of July 2007 that many of Central Trains services (including Cardiff - Nottingham, Birmingham - Stansted Airport and Hereford - Nottingham), would be run under a new franchise operated by CrossCountry whose parent company is Arriva.

This came into action as of Sunday 11 November 2007.