London National Rail

The soft interior of the UK rail cushions the occasional inconvenience of "leaves on the line", or the uncanny appearance of an old friend aboard the train whom you never wished to see again. Even with the many possible problems with being stuck in a confined space, you know that you can always receive solace from the beautiful country scenery whipping by your window. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain. The look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual companies operating trains and stations. About 20 privately owned Train Operating Companies, each franchised for a defined term by government, operate passenger trains on the main rail network in Great Britain. The Association of Train Operating Companies is the trade association representing the TOCs and provides several core services, including the provision of the National Rail Enquiries service. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan (which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs) and Rail Staff Travel which manages the travel facilities for railway staff. It does not compile the national timetable, however, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation (allocation of paths) and Network Rail (timetable production and publication). This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=121848