> but the rail itself kept in a weird thing called National Rail It's called "Network Rail", "National Rail" is the organisation that provides a joined up tim

> but the rail itself kept in a weird thing called National Rail It's called "Network Rail", "National Rail" is the organisation that provides a joined up timetabling and ticketing system for all of the train operating companies (e.g. Virgin, GWR, ScotRail etc). Network Rail operates and maintains the physical infrastructure upon which the trains run e.g. track, signalling, special trains (such as de-icers, permanent way test trains, leaves-on-the-line cleaning trains). edit: prior to Network Rail there was RailTrack which went bust after the fallout from the Hatfield rail crash.