GEC Transportation Projects Ltd., (GEC-TPL) was established in 1974 and was based at St Albans and Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It specialised in the design, execution and management of major railway and mass transit electrification projects around the world. In 1981 GEC-TPL was transferred to Trafford Park in Manchester took over residual responsibility for vehicle design from GEC Traction, e.g. British Railways Class 91s and locomotive equipment design, e.g., British Railways Class 90s. GEC-TPL project managed 406 track kilometres of electrification in Taiwan in 1984. It involved the design, supply and installation of equipment including catenary, substations, telecommunications, locomotives and multiple units. The company also supplied the 134, 3-car trains and project managed the equipment of Lines 3 and 4 of Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation. Closer to home, GEC-TPL was the project management company for Phase 1 of the Docklands Light Railway and the Manchester ‘Metrolink’ and supplied the initial vehicles for both systems. In 1987, GEC-TPL contracted to supply the body mounted power equipment for the initial build of Trans Manche Super Trains, later known as ‘Eurostars’, the bar car mechanical parts for which were supplied by its long term partner Metropolitan Cammell which later became part of GEC-TPL in 1989. In 1989, GEC Transportation Projects Ltd became part of the joint company, GEC Alsthom Transportation Projects Ltd., when GEC and Alsthom of France, part of Compagnie Générale d’Electricité (CGE) formed GEC Alsthom. The combined company acquired Metropolitan Cammell at this time. (Alsthom’s name had earlier been derived from ‘Alsace Thomson-Houston’, thereby revealing its earlier parentage from Thomson-Houston of America, as also had the British Thomson-Houston Co., of Rugby, another GEC constituent). In 1998 the company formally changed its name to ALSTOM.

The British Railways Board was an independent statutory corporation responsible for running the British railway network from 1963. It was established by the Transport Act 1962, which abolished the British Transport Commission and divided its undertakings between five newly-created bodies: the British Railways Board, the British Waterways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the London Transport Board, and a Transport Holding Company. The British Railways Board was responsible for running the railway network, as well as managing government-owned railway hotels. Members of the British Railways Board were also appointed by the Minister for Transport. The first Chair of the British Railways Board was Dr Richard Beeching. The British Railways Board operated through regional boards, which were responsible for regional sections of the railway network. These regions were Southern, Western, London Midland, London and North Eastern, Eastern, and Scottish. Members of these regional boards were appointed by the British Railways Board, in consultation with the Minister for Transport. The British Railways Board also operated a series of committees to manage every aspect of railway control, including committees for finance, technical, works and property. These committees were frequently reorganised throughout the life of the British Railways Board, under both different Chairs of the Board and different governments. Several changes occurred during the 1960s. The Board had two new Chairs; Stanley Raymond, who replaced Richard Beeching in 1965, and his successor Henry Johnson, who became Chair in 1967. In 1968, the Transport Act transferred the control of the Sundries and Freightliner divisions from the British Railways Board to National Carriers Ltd and Freightliners Ltd. The Board retained a forty-nine per cent stake in Freightliners Ltd. During the 1970s, the British Railways Board created several subsidiary companies which were to manage some of its undertakings. These included British Transport Hotels Ltd, British Rail Engineering Ltd, and British Rail Hovercraft Ltd. Many of these subsidiary companies were sold under the Conservative governments of the 1980s. There were also two new Chairs during this time. Richard Marsh replaced Henry Johnson in 1971, and Peter Parker became chair in 1976. The privatisation of the British rail network during the 1990s radically changed the role of the British Railways Board. The Transport Act 1993 established Railtrack, a publicly-owned company. The Act transferred the ownership of track and railway infrastructure from the British Railways Board to Railtrack, in addition to the control of signals. Railtrack also replaced the British Railways Board as the body responsible for track investment and maintenance. The British Railways Board remained in existence after these changes, but only performed residual functions relating to pensions, liabilities, and non-operational railway land. The Board also continued to operate the British Transport Police service. The British Railways Board was abolished by the Transport Act 2000, which transferred the remaining functions of the Board to the newly-created Strategic Rail Authority.

The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF) is the French National Railway Company and was formed by a decree from the French Government on 31st August 1937. This was to take over the operation of the French Railway system from the four existing private companies, Chemins de fer de l’Est (Est), Chemins de fer du Nord (Nord), Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) and Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi (PO-Midi) and the railways already controlled by the state under the Chemins de fer de l’État (État). SNCF took over control of the French Railway system from 1st January 1938. Upon creation, it became responsible for 42,700 km of railway, 8% of which was electrified, run by 515,000 workers. At this time, it was controlled by the French Government, who owned 51% of the shares, and the private railway companies, who between them owned 49%. The board was formed of the Vice President of the Council of State, the Governor of the Bank of France, the Director of Caisse des Depôts et Consignations, 12 representatives of the State, 12 nominees of the private railway companies, four members appointed by railwaymen, and two who had rendered eminent railway service. The operation of SNCF was divided into five regions, which corresponded to the private companies, Northern, Nord, Eastern, Est, South Eastern, PLM, South Western, PO-Midi, and Western, État. Each of the regions was controlled by a regional manager who reported to the general manager. Each of the regions has its own operating, rolling stock and way and works departments. Following the Second World War SNCF embarked on a program of five-year plans in order to recover from the damage and to modernise the system. In 1966 a research service was created and in 1981 the first Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) was introduced between Paris and Lyon. In 1982 SNCF ceased to exist as a nationalised company, as it had been since creation in 1937, and was restructured in line with the Loi d’orientation des transports intérieurs, the law on internal transport policy. This handed the company over to complete state ownership, removing the stake that had been controlled by the predecessor companies. Under the new structure SNCF became a Public Industry and Commercial Establishment with increased state control. The board now consisted of seven state representatives, six members elected by staff and five others. Also, a contract between the government and SNCF, the Contrat de Plan, which set out the strategic objectives and statutory relationship and was renewed every five years, was created. This limited passenger fares, laid out SNCF responsibilities to working conditions and set out what government subsidies would be and where they would be spent, debt elimination, services, infrastructure etc. The restructuring did not eliminate the 12 billion Franc debt the company had accrued. Following the 1982 restructuring the regional structure of SNCF was replaced with sectors. Passenger services were split into Intercity, Regional, later rebranded in 1987 as Transport Express Regional (TER) and Pairs Suburban, while Freight services were set up as an individual sector. Several subsidiaries were also formed including SERNAM, parcels, Servirail, catering, SGW, wagon hire, CNC, container service, and Cariane, coach and bus services. In 1997 Réseau Ferré National, later known as Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), was created as a state owned Industrial and Commercial Enterprise. This was responsible for developing and improving the French rail network with the work being carried out by SNCF under RFF guidance. It also took over all state-owned infrastructure controlled by SNCF but not used in operating transport services. In 1999 SNCF launched a partnership with the Paris transport association known as Transilien SNCF. This was designed to improve the quality and usability of Paris suburban services. In 2015 the Rail Reform Act again restructured SNCF by creating the SNCF Group. This is a unified public service company which consists of three states owned Industrial and Commercial Enterprises, SNCF, SNCF Réseau and SNCF Mobilités, which operate five core businesses. SNCF manages the property and land owned by the group under the business name SNCF Immobilier. SNCF Réseau manages the infrastructure network, traffic, expansion and maintenance in France as well as providing guidance for systems in other counties. SNCF Mobilités is made up of three business areas. These are SNCF Voyageurs, Keolis and SNCF Logistics. SNCF Voyageurs operates passenger trains in France consisting of Transilien, public transport in the Paris region, TER, regional services, Intercités, intercity services, and Voyages SNCF, high speed services, domestic long-distance services and international services. SNCF Voyageurs is also responsible for station management. Keolis manages public transport in France and internationally. SNCF Logistics is made up of Geodis, which operates freight transport in France and internationally, TFMM, which operates rail and multimodal freight transport, Ermewa Group, which is responsible for leasing rail equipment, and STVA, which operates auto and vehicle logistics. In this form SNCF is controlled by a supervisory board with each Industrial and Commercial Enterprise having its own board. As of 2016 SNCF operated 30,000 km of railways in France with 2,000 km of this being high speed lines and 14,500 km electrified. The group employs 260,000 people with 155,000 working in France.

In 1929 Vickers Ltd and Cammell Laird merged their rolling stock activities in a new company, the Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company Ltd with Vickers and Cammell Laird each holding 50% of the shares of the new company. Following the Second World War, the company manufactured carriages for the railways of the world, including UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, Jamaica, and Egypt. In addition, the company manufactured mineral wagons, diesel multiple units and locomotives. However, over this period of sustained high output, international industrial development together with reductions in home market demand as orders were fulfilled, led to the necessity to reduce capacity and in 1962 the Saltley Works were closed and eventually the whole enterprise was concentrated at the Midland Works offices at Leigh Road, Washwood Heath. In the 1970s Metro-Cammell specialised in the design and construction of rapid transit vehicles for customers such as London Underground, Tyne and Wear Metro, Hong Kong Mass Transit Corporation and the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation. They also built Maglev vehicles for Birmingham Airport, diesel multiple units for BR and Mk IV coaches for BR. In May 1989 the Laird Group sold their transportation interests to GEC Alsthom and Metro-Cammell became part of the new Anglo-French Power Generation and Transportation Group. This led to involvement in the construction of the Eurostar trains for the Channel Tunnel project. The name Metro Cammell disappeared forever in 1998 when the owners floated the company under the name Alstom.

Intercity was a British Rail Sector formed on 4th January 1982 as part of the sectorisation programme. Prior to this the term had been used in a variety of roles to describe express passenger service. The first use of the term was ‘The Inter-City’, a fast train between London Paddington and Wolverhampton on the Western Region of British Railways, introduced in October 1950 and withdrawn in 1965. The British Railway staff magazine described newly introduced Diesel Multiple Units as Inter-City Units in 1957. The term was also used in the Beaching Report of 1963 to describe all of the long distance passenger network for the first time. The use of Inter-City as a brand name began with the introduction of electric services between London Euston and Liverpool/Manchester in 1966. This was accompanied by the introduction of services at regular intervals as well as 80 mph average speeds and sustained 100 mph running. Rather than naming individual trains, as had been done in the past, the whole route was branded ‘Inter-City’ to show that the improvements applied to all trains, not just a select few flagship services. The success of this approach, with a 66% increase in passenger numbers, led the scheme to be extended first to service to Birmingham, and then to the wider network, including sleeper services which were branded as ‘Inter-City Sleeper’. Although the new Inter-City brand was not responsible for the running of trains, which was still in the hands of the five regions of British Railways (London Midland, Eastern, Scottish, Western and Southern) it did create a unified brand for express passenger services across the system. It also provided direction for the development of new equipment. This led to a focus on increasing speeds within the existing infrastructure, rather than building new dedicated high speed routes as had been done in France and Japan, and providing greater passenger comfort across all classes. The product of this was the High Speed Train (HST) which was introduced on Western Region services in 1976. Branded as ‘Inter-City 125’ the new trains showed the new marketing strategy as there was a focus on reduced journey times and increased comfort rather than purely speed for speeds sake. On the 1st of January 1982 the six passenger regions of British Rail (Southern Region of British Railways, Western Region of British Railways, London Midland Region of British Railways, Eastern Region of British Railways (merged with North Eastern in 1967), North Eastern Region of British Railways (merged with Eastern in 1967) and Scottish Region of British Railways) were reorganised into business led-sectors. ‘Sectorisation’ saw BR move from its embedded regional structure into three business-led passenger sectors, Other Provincial Services (later renamed Regional Railways), InterCity and London & South East (later renamed Network SouthEast). InterCity was viewed as a 'commercial railway' and London & South East and Provincial as 'social railways'. The aim of sectorisation was outlined in BR's annual board report of 1979 '... by decentralising BR into clear accountable groups... (we) can create confidence in our stewardships of these national businesses and justify the case for investment'. Sector management placed managerial accountability with one director without the need for hugely significant changes to infrastructure or increased administration costs. The sectors were regarded by the British Rail Board as merely a business and planning unit rather than an operational or administrative one. This meant the regions maintained control over the day to day running of trains were as the sectors created business plans, coordinating the various regions within its area and putting forward plans for large scale investments, such as new stock, refurbishments etc. Intercity (the hyphen being dropped during the mid-1980s) by this time was used on all express services radiating out of London and was split into five routes. The East Coast route ran from London to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, West Coast ran from London to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Carlisle, Glasgow and the Highland Sleeper Services. Great Western ran services from London to Bristol, South Wales and Plymouth, Midland ran from London to Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. Cross Country was the only route not to serve London but rather ran between the North East of England and the South West. The new sector became responsible for 3400 passenger vehicles, 362 locomotives and 5,400 staff headed by Cyril Bleasdale. The new structure allowed for the reallocation of resources that allowed HSTs to be introduced on new routes to improve speed and service quality. A marketing relaunch was also brought about with a new livery consisting of light and dark grey with red and white bands. In 1985 new routes were added to Intercity. These were the London to Norwich services on the Great Eastern Mainline as well as the Gatwick Express from London Victoria. This was part of a government policy that the sector should not receive a subsidy and move towards profitability. To this end many loss making routes were transferred to Provincial and the Tyne-Tees Pullman was reintroduced to boost income. John Prideaux took over as head of Intercity in February 1986 and continued the policy of cutting costs and increasing passenger numbers. This included increasing the number of Pullman services to increase First Class ticket sales. In 1989 this led to a £57 million profit which would rise to £100 million by 1994. The sector also introduced new rolling stock and locomotives on the West Coast Mainline. Also the East Coast Mainline was electrified and new class 91 locomotives and mark 4 carriages were introduced. With Organisation for Quality in 1992 the regions of British Rail were abolished and the sector took over Civil Engineering and the running of trains. This was overseen by John Welsby a former economist for the Department of Transport who had become Chief Executive of BR in 1990. This allowed Intercity to act as its own railway company owning the assets and running services as well as being responsible for a £1 billion turnover and 30,000 staff. This new structure was headed by Chris Green who had come to the post in January 1992. In October 1993 the Gatwick Express services were spilt from the sector to form their own Train Operating Unit (TOUs) in preparation for privatisation. The remaining five routes (Anglia, East Coast, West Coast, Great Western, Midland Cross Country and West Coast) were split to form six TOUs (Anglia which included local services in East Anglia transferred from Regional Railways, East Coast, Great Western, Midland, Cross Country and West Coast). Intercity ceased to operate on 1st April 1994 as did the Intercity brand. The TOUs were directly operated by the British Railways board until they were sold off between 1995 and 1997.

British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Railways Board. Created through the Transport Act 1968, BREL began trading in 1970 under managing director A.E. Robson. The company was created to manage British Rail’s thirteen workshops, replacing the British Rail Workshops Division. The works managed by BREL were Ashford, Crewe, Derby Locomotive Works, Derby Litchurch Lane, Doncaster, Eastleigh, Glasgow (formerly St Rollox), Horwich Foundry, Shildon, Swindon, Temple Mills, Wolverton, and York. The primary object of BREL was to provide a construction, maintenance, and repair service to Britain’s railways. BREL produced most of British Rail’s new locomotives and carriages. These included the Class 141, 142 and 144 Railbuses, as well as the Mark III coach, used on all BR’s 125mph trains for inter-city travel. The company also overhauled BR’s fleet of locomotives and rolling stock, including passenger coaches. At one time, it was also the principal UK manufacturer of wagons for coal and freight. In addition to carrying out work for BR, the Transport Act 1968 allowed BREL to use the spare capacity of its main works to manufacture for outside industry. In 1971, BREL formed BRE-Metro Ltd, a joint company with Metro-Cammell Ltd. This was to promote export sales of locomotives and rolling stock. Export contracts included the manufacture of coaches for the Northern Ireland Railway and Coras Iompair Eirann, and wagons for railways in Sweden, Malaysia, Yugoslavia and Bangladesh. BREL also supplied components and general engineering equipment to a wide range of non-railway customers, including the British Steel Corporation. During the 1980s, BREL began a major project of rationalisation. Ashford Works, which had been gradually run down throughout the 1970s, was closed in 1981. Temple Mills Works, which mainly carried out wagon maintenance, was closed in 1983, and its work transferred to Doncaster. Shildon Works was closed in 1984, with Swindon following in 1986. In May 1987, the wagon department at Doncaster was separated from the rest of the works, and was sold to RFS Industries as Doncaster Wagon Works Ltd. In 1987, the remaining BREL workshops were split into three distinct groups. Eastleigh, Wolverton, Doncaster and Glasgow were formed into BR Maintenance Ltd, a new British Railways Board subsidiary. Horwich Foundry was transferred to a new, separate subsidiary company, and was sold in 1988. Crewe, York, and the two works in Derby became BREL (1988) Ltd. In April 1989, BREL (1988) Ltd was sold to a consortium of BREL management and employees, the Swiss-Swedish conglomerate Asea Brown Boveri, and Trafalgar House. Asea Brown Boveri later bought out Trafalgar House, and in 1992 the company was renamed ABB Transportation Ltd.