Renaissance Trains is a company formed in August 1997 by former

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

managers Mike Jones and John Nelson with the purpose of promoting and investing in

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

passenger and freight rail businesses in the United Kingdom, as well as promoting and investing in rail industry innovation. Mary Bonar and Peter Wilkinson are also shareholders. It is based in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Previous operations

Hull Trains

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open access operator, open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull Paragon Interchange, Hull Paragon / Beverley rai ...

– operates trains between Hull/

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

and London King's Cross. Hull Trains was formed in 2000 with

GB Railways GB Railways was the parent company of a number of Train operating company, train operating companies, running the Anglia Railways franchise from January 1997 and launching Hull Trains and GB Railfreight. GB Railways was also involved in the mana ...

having an 80% shareholding and Mike Jones & John Nelson 10% each.

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Wrexham & Shropshire Wrexham & Shropshire (legally ''Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway Company Limited'') was an open access operator that provided passenger rail services in the United Kingdom. Services between Wrexham General railway station, Wrexham Gen ...

– operated trains between

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

and

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone a ...

from April 2008. It was a joint venture between Renaissance (36%),

Arriva UK Trains Arriva UK Trains Limited is the company that oversees Arriva's Train operating company, train operating companies in the United Kingdom. It gained its first Rail franchising in Great Britain, franchises in February 2000. These were later lost, ...

(50%) and John Laing (14%). Operations ceased in January 2011 with a review of the business determining it unlikely to ever be profitable.

Proposed operations

Humber Coast & City Railway

The success of Hull Trains and its services from Hull to London led Renaissance Trains to start developing a proposal in 2003 to run trains from South Humberside and Lincolnshire to London To minimise revenue abstraction from franchised operators and avoid the congested

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

, it proposed to operate via the joint line to

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, across to Ely and then via the

West Anglia Main Line The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main line railways that operate out of (the other being the Great Eastern Main Line to Ipswich and Norwich). It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and ...

to Stratford commencing in 2008/09. This service would have taken more than three hours from Lincoln to London, whereas by changing at Newark North Gate the journey would usually take no more than 2 hours. In addition, Lincoln was being served by a daily service to London St Pancras via

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

East Midlands Trains East Midlands Trains (EMT) was a British train operating company owned by the transport group Stagecoach, which operated the East Midlands franchise between November 2007 and August 2019. Following the Department for Transport (DfT) award of ...

, and East Coast began running a daily direct train between Lincoln and London King's Cross. Both St Pancras and King's Cross were more central than Stratford and provided links to Eurostar, but with the

Stratford City Stratford City is a mixed-use development project in Stratford, London, England, to the north of Stratford town centre. The main developers are the Westfield Group and Lendlease. Stratford City is the name given to the urban community centre ...

development opening in 2011 and Stratford is nearer to Docklands. An update to the website in 2009 saw all details of the proposal removed, implying that it was no longer being pursued.

Glasgow Trains

* Glasgow Trains – proposed a daily service from

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a railway station complex located on Lime Street, Liverpool, Lime Street in Liverpool city centre. Although publicly a single, unified station, it is operationally divided into two official railway stations: Liv ...

with stops at

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

and Preston. During the development of the business case, it was determined that operating the Nottingham services via the Settle & Carlisle and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

was a more viable alternative. It was proposed to divert the weekend Liverpool services to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. The Glasgow Trains proposal was put on hold in November 2005 to allow new franchises to be settled and their needs (in terms of train paths) identified. By September 2007 plans had progressed far enough for Renaissance Trains to begin train and operations planning in preparation for lodging an application for access rights with the

Office of Rail Regulation The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its a ...

. The proposal did not appear to proceed any further, with no evidence of an application having been lodged with the Office of Rail Regulation until in 2014, the Renaissance Trains website was updated to say that the project had been revived.

Rejected proposals

First Harrogate Trains

First Harrogate Trains First Harrogate Trains was a proposed open access operator with ambitions to run passenger rail services between Harrogate and London King's Cross via York. The company was a subsidiary of Hull Trains, then owned by FirstGroup (80%) and Renais ...

– proposed a four times daily service from

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

to London King's Cross via

and the

from summer 2009. The application was denied by the Office of Rail Regulation in a preliminary report released in January 2009, and in a final decision in February 2009.

References

External links

*
Humber Coast and City Railway proposal to the Office of Rail RegulationRail firm considers new service
{{Clear Transport operators of the United Kingdom Companies based in York Railway companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in England British companies established in 1997