Central Trains Totally Explained

Everything about Central Trains totally explained

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 hadn't 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

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated	Built
Class	Image	Type	mph	km/h	Number	Routes operated	Built
Class 150 Sprinter		diesel multiple unit	75	120	34	Network West Midlands (non-electro)Dorridge/Shirley/Stratford Upon Avon/Leamington Spa - Worcester/Great Malvern/Hereford	1984-1987
Class 153 Super Sprinter		diesel multiple unit	75	120	16	Lincolnshire Rural Services, Coventry-Nuneaton And Stourbridge Branch Line	1987 - 1988
Class 156 Super Sprinter		diesel multiple unit	75	120	11	Local Mid-Distance Service	1987 - 1989
Class 158 Express Sprinter		diesel multiple unit	90	145	21	Mostly Routes in the East Midlands	1989 - 1992
Class 170 Turbostar		diesel multiple unit	100	160	53	On almost all Central Trains' routes	1999 - 2002
Class 321		electric multiple units	100	160	4	Birmingham - NorthamptonBirmingham International - Walsall	1988 - 1991
Class 323		electric multiple units	90	145	26	Cross City Lines	1992 - 1993
Class 350 Desiro		electric multiple units	100	160	30¹	Liverpool - Birmingham, Northampton - Birmingham / Crewe	2004 - 2005

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. 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 isn't 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.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Central Trains'.

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