rail transport in Europe Rail transport in Europe is characterized by its diversity, both technical and infrastructural. Electrified railway networks operate at a plethora of different voltages AC and DC varying from 750 to 25,000 volts, and signaling systems vary from ...

, an open-access operator is a

train operating company A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993. Th ...

that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and in countries where rail services run under franchises are not subject to franchising.

By country

Austria

RegioJet RegioJet a.s. ( VKM: RJ) is a private Czech provider of passenger rail and bus transport. The company Student Agency, owned by Czech businessman Radim Jančura, is the sole owner. A sister company of the same name, with its registered office in ...

WESTbahn WESTbahn Management GmbH (a subsidiary of ''RAIL Holding AG'') is an open access railway company operating express train services on Austria's Western Railway (also known as Westbahn) since 11 December 2011. The French railway company SNCF has a ...

Czech Republic

LEO Express Leo Express, formerly Rapid Express, is an open access operator, open-access train operator in the Czech Republic, established in 2010. It launched InterCity, inter-city services in November 2012 on the Prague–Ostrava route, on which state-ow ...

Belgium

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...

France

Trenitalia France Trenitalia France is an open-access train operator running international services between France and Italy. It was originally established under the ''Thello'' brand in October 2011. On 11 December 2011, Thello ran its first night service, having ...

* Izy

Germany

* FlixTrain * Harz-Berlin-Express * Nightjet *

Former operators

* Hamburg-Köln-Express taken over by Flixtrain * Locomore Stuttgart-Berlin route taken over by Leo Express

Italy

* DB/ÖBB Italia * Nightjet * NTV (Italo)

Former operators

* Arenaways

Portugal

Takargo Rail Takargo Rail is a Portuguese rail transport company founded in 2006 by Mota-Engil to take advantage of rail liberalisation in the European Union. History Founded in 2006 by Mota-Engil, the company was the first private train operator in Portugal, ...

* COMSA Rail Transport

Slovakia

(all services except those on

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% o ...

—

Komárno Komárno, ( hu, Komárom, german: Komorn, sr, Коморан, translit=Komoran), colloquially also called ''Révkomárom, Öregkomárom, Észak-Komárom'' in Hungarian; is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. ...

mainline, which are franchised)

Slovenia

Adria transport Adria is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige and Po. The remains of the Etruscan city of Atria or Hatria are to be found below the modern city, ...

Spain

* Ouigo España *

Iryo Iryo is a brand of Intermodalidad de Levante S.A., a private high-speed rail operator in Spain. The company is jointly owned by Trenitalia, Air Nostrum, and the infrastructure investment fund Globalvia. Trains began operating on the Madrid� ...

Sweden

* FlixTrain *

MTRX MTRX is a Swedish company running open access intercity railway services between Gothenburg and Stockholm. It is a subsidiary of MTR Corporation through MTR Nordic. In July 2013, MTRX was awarded paths to operate services between Gothenburg an ...

Snälltåget Snälltåget is an open access railway company in Sweden with long-distance trains along the Southern Main Line in Sweden from Malmö to Stockholm as well as sleeper trains between Stockholm and Berlin and Malmö to the ski and hiking resorts in ...

(

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of ...

) (Malmö - Stockholm - Åre) *

TÅGAB TÅGAB (Tågåkeriet i Bergslagen AB) is a Swedish railway company with headquarters in Kristinehamn. It was started in 1994 and runs trains in both Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on G ...

Former operators

* Blå Tåget *

Saga Rail Saga Rail was a short-lived open access operator in Sweden. It was founded by Mats Nyblom who had previously established Hector Rail. It commenced operations on 23 February 2018 with a twice weekly service from Stockholm to Linköping with inte ...

United Kingdom

* Grand Central *

Heathrow Express Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway (train operat ...

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement u ...

Lumo In chemistry, HOMO and LUMO are types of molecular orbitals. The acronyms stand for ''highest occupied molecular orbital'' and ''lowest unoccupied molecular orbital'', respectively. HOMO and LUMO are sometimes collectively called the ''fronti ...

In development

* Alliance Rail Holdings *

Go! Co-operative Go-op (full name Go-op Cooperative Ltd,) is an open access train operating company which is currently proposing to operate a service between Taunton and Swindon, via Westbury. It aims to become the first cooperatively owned train operating comp ...

Grand Union A grand union is a rail track junction where two double-track railway or tramway lines cross at grade, often in a street intersection or crossroads. A total of sixteen railroad switches (sets of points) allow streetcars (or in rarer installa ...

Former operators

* Heathrow Connect (absorbed by TfL Rail May 2018) * Wrexham & Shropshire (ceased trading January 2011)

Former proposals

* First Harrogate Trains * Glasgow Trains * On Route Logistics (company dissolved) *

Platinum Trains Platinum Trains was a proposed open access operator that intended to run limited-stop train services from Scotland to London via the East Coast Main Line. Its plan was to compete with air travel. The company proposed to use two Class 180 units ...

* Rutland Rail (company dissolved)

References

Rail transport operators {{rail-transport-stub