Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in the 1980s which existed until privitisation in the 1990s. The sector was originally called Provincial, and ran regional non-express services.

The other passenger regions created in the 1980s were InterCity (express services) and Network SouthEast (principally London commuter services) (see British Rail brand names for a full history).

Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors.

Sprinterisation

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Regional Railways' main act was the sprinterisation of the system in order to reduce costs. Older locomotive hauled trains were replaced by new Diesel multiple units (DMUs) in two large groups of classes. The first, Pacers, were modified buses and assigned TOPS numbers in the 14X range. Sprinters were assigned numbers in the 15X range, they were based on the Mk3 (Cl 150-156) and Mk 4 (Cl 158) coaches.

• See also: British Rail brand names

Privatisation

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Following privatisation, the Regional Railways sector was split into several different franchises.

• Anglia Railways, later 'one'
• Central Trains
• Merseyrail Electrics
• North Western Trains, later First North Western
  Now part of Northern Rail
• Northern Spirit, later Arriva Trains Northern
  Later split into
  • Northern Rail
  • First TransPennine Express
• ScotRail, later First ScotRail
• Wales and West
  Later split into
  • Wales and Borders, now part of Arriva Trains Wales
  • Wessex Trains, now part of First Great Western