Transport in England

England has a dense and modern transportation infrastructure. The Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network.

Rail

The British Rail network is largely based on services originating from one of London's rail termini operating in all directions. Internal intercity services include:

• Abellio Greater Anglia
  • London Liverpool Street to East Anglia: Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich (main branches include Southend, Clacton-on-Sea)
• Virgin Trains East Coast
  • London Kings Cross to the North East: Leeds, York, Newcastle upon Tyne, and into Scotland, Edinburgh Waverley (onwards to Aberdeen and Inverness) and Glasgow Central.
• Virgin Trains
  • London Euston to the midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry.
  • London Euston to the northwest: Crewe, (Chester and into Wales to Holyhead), Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster, Carlisle, into Scotland, Glasgow Central (for connections to rest of Scotland).
• Great Western Railway
  • London Paddington to the southwest: Reading, Swindon, Bristol into Wales (onwards as the South Wales Main Line to Swansea), Exeter, Plymouth and into Cornwall to Penzance.
• South West Trains
  • London Waterloo to the west
• c2c
  • London Fenchurch Street to Southend.
• Southern
  • London Victoria to the south: Southampton, Brighton.
• Southeastern
  • London St Pancras to the southeast: Ashford, Margate, Canterbury.
• Chiltern Railways
  • London Marylebone to the midlands: High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Banbury, and Birmingham.
• Grand Central Railway
  • London Kings Cross to York and Sunderland
• East Midlands Trains
  • St Pancras railway station to Corby, Melton Mowbray, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, York, Scarborough, Lincoln and Leeds

Short distance travel that doesn't pass through London is generally referred to as cross country travel. Most services are operated by CrossCountry and often terminate in South East Wales or Scotland. The Oxford to Cambridge or Varsity Line is due to be rebuilt to enable journeys avoiding London and Birmingham.

Regional train services are also operated by these, and other, train companies, and focus on the major cities, several of which have developed commuter and urban rail networks.

Many cities in England have rapid transit systems. Most well known is the London Underground (commonly known as the Tube), the oldest and longest rapid transit system in the world. Also in London are the separate Docklands Light Railway (though this is integrated with the Underground in many ways), and the London Overground. Outside of London, there is the Tyne and Wear Metro, focused on Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Sunderland, and Merseyrail, which operates in and around Liverpool.

Trams and light rail

A vintage British tram from the former Leeds Tramway, preserved at the National Tramway Museum.

Tram systems were popular in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with the rise of the motor bus and later the car they began to be widely dismantled in the 1950s. By 1962, only Blackpool tramway remained. However, in recent years trams have seen a revival, as in other countries, as have light rail systems. Examples of this second generation of tram systems and light rail include:

• Docklands Light Railway in east London.
• Manchester Metrolink in Greater Manchester.
• Sheffield Supertram in Sheffield.
• Midland Metro in the West Midlands.
• Tramlink in Croydon.
• NET in Nottingham.

Rail links with adjacent countries

• Wales; yes.
• Scotland; yes.
• France; yes; via Channel Tunnel.
• Belgium; yes; via Channel Tunnel and France.
• Ireland; no (except by ferry); proposed via an Irish Sea Tunnel.

Road

Motorways

England contains a vast majority of the UK's motorways, dating from the first built in 1958 (part of the M6) to the most recent (M6 Toll). Important motorways include:

Motorway	From	To	Major destinations	Year opened to completion
M1	London	Leeds	Leicester Milton Keynes Nottingham Sheffield	1999
M11	London	Cambridge	Stansted Airport	1980
M20	London	Folkestone	Channel Tunnel	1991
M23	London	Crawley	Gatwick Airport	1999
M25	London Orbital	London Orbital	n/a	1986
M27	Southampton	Portsmouth	Fareham	1983
M3	London	Southampton	Winchester	1995
M4	London	Pont Abraham	Bristol Cardiff	1996
M40	London	Birmingham	Oxford	1990
M42	Redditch	Tamworth	Birmingham	1989
M5	Birmingham	Exeter	Bristol	1977
M56	Chester	Manchester	Manchester Airport	1981
M6	Rugby	Carlisle	Birmingham Manchester	1972
M6 Toll	National Exhibition Centre	Wolverhampton	Birmingham	2003
M60	Manchester Orbital	Manchester Orbital	n/a	2000
M62	Liverpool	Hull	Manchester Leeds	1976
M65	Preston	Colne	Blackburn	1997
M69	Leicester	Coventry	Hinckley	1977
A1(M)	London	Newcastle-upon-Tyne	Non-continuous motorway	2006

Note: There is no definition of a major motorway. Those in the table are particularly important due to their destinations, and other motorways exist. Where a major city (such as London) is given as a destination it is usually to give a general idea of the location, as most (London) motorways end outside the actual city (for example, the M40 actually ends in Buckinghamshire).

Bus transport

Buses play a major role in the public transport of England, as well as seeing extensive private use. While rail transport has increased over the past twenty years due to road congestion, the same does not apply to buses, which have generally been used less, apart from in London where their use has increased significantly. Bus transport is heavily subsidised, especially in London. In 2014/15, there were 4.65 billion bus journeys in England, 2.4 billion of which were in London.^[1]

Ports

Ships

See also

• Transport in Northern Ireland
• Transport in Scotland
• Transport in Wales

References

1. "Government bus statistics".