Rail transport in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom and Ireland railway network

There are two independent parts to the rail network in the United Kingdom. Since 1994 Great Britain has been connected to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel. The network of Northern Ireland is connected to the Republic of Ireland. The National Rail network is 10,072 miles (16,209 km) in Great Britain and 189 route miles (303 route km) in Northern Ireland. It carried 1.7 billion passengers and 110 million tonnes of freight in 2018.

Urban rail networks are also well developed in London and several other cities. There were once over 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of rail network in the UK. The UK was ranked eighth among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index. That assessed intensity of use, quality of service and safety.

The rail network in Great Britain is the oldest network in the world. There are five high-speed main lines: the West Coast, East Coast, Midland, Great Western and Great Eastern. They go out from London and other big cities.

The Covid pandemic made most people stop using the trains. The government had to take over most of the privatised operators in 2020. The rail franchising system was abolished. The rail companies became contractors. They run services on a timetable set by the government. There have been many strikes. 5% of trains were cancelled in the last quarter of 2023. Passenger numbers were 82% of 2019 numbers by the end of 2023. More than £52 billion was spent by the government on rail services between April 2020 and March 2023.