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'Regional Railways' was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1981 that existed until 1996 a year before Privatisation. 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.

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Sprinterisation

Privatisation

Sprinterisation

Regional Railways' main achievement 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'', used bus technology, from the Leyland National, in classes numbered in the 14X range. ''Sprinters'' were assigned class numbers in the 15X range; most were based on the Mk3 (Cl 150-156) carriage.
The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw the development of secondary express services that complemented the mainline Intercity routes. In particular, key Scottish and Transpennine routes were upgraded with new Class 158 Express Sprinters, while a network of 'Alphaline' services was introduced elsewhere in the country.

★ 'See also:' British Rail brand names

Privatisation

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

★ Anglia Railways, later 'one'

★ Central Trains and Central Citylink

★ Merseyrail Electrics, later Mersyrail

★ North Western Trains, later First North Western
Now part of Northern Rail

★ Northern Spirit, later Arriva Trains Northern
Later split into

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★ Northern Rail

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★ TransPennine Express

★ ScotRail, later First ScotRail

★ Wales and West
Later split into

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★ Wales and Borders, now part of Arriva Trains Wales

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★ Wessex Trains, now part of First Great Western