UK rail network guide

Kieran Read

Published: Sep 2, 2026

Updated: Sep 3, 2026

Britain’s railway runs to around 15,850 km (9,850 miles) of track, calling at approximately 2,585 stations, and carries roughly 1.6 billion passenger journeys a year.

That’s a lot of network to picture in your head, which is exactly what a good train map is for, whether you’re planning a single journey or trying to understand how the country’s railway fits together. Here’s where to find the official maps, including live versions, and a guide to the main lines that connect the UK.

Where to find the official UK rail map

The definitive source is National Rail’s own interactive route map, which plots every station, every line, and every operator across Great Britain, alongside tram and metro networks that connect with the railway. It’s zoomable, includes step-free access information for each station, and shows live departure boards for the next two hours at any station you click on.

If you’d rather have something downloadable, National Rail also publishes two official static maps as PDFs: a principal route map, showing a simplified overview of the main lines, and an all stations route map, which covers every station and route in detail. Both are free to download and are updated periodically as the network changes.

Is there a live UK train map?

Yes, and there are a couple of ways to get one, depending on what you need:

National Rail’s interactive route map now layers live departures directly onto the map itself.
For tracking specific trains in real time, including their current position between stations, dedicated tools built on Network Rail’s open data feeds are generally the most detailed option.

For most everyday journeys, though, a live departure board or journey planner search will tell you what you need without a moving map at all.

London train maps

‘London train map’ can mean a few different things, and it’s worth knowing which one you actually need:

National Rail’s London and South East map covers the National Rail routes and stations across Greater London and the wider commuter belt, including the Network Railcard validity area.
London’s rail and Tube map is a combined map showing National Rail, London Underground, the DLR, and London trams together within Greater London and just beyond it, useful if your journey involves switching between the two networks.
The Tube map itself only covers the London Underground and doesn’t include National Rail services at all.

If you’re arriving on a train to London and continuing your journey by Underground, the combined rail and Tube map is generally the most useful single reference, since it shows both networks on one diagram.

The UK’s main rail lines

A handful of principal main lines carry most of the UK’s long-distance rail traffic, each radiating out from London or connecting major regional cities:

Rail line	Details
Chiltern Main Line	Runs between London Marylebone and Birmingham via High Wycombe and Banbury, operated by Chiltern Railways.
CrossCountry route	Rather than a single line, this is a network of long-distance services that avoid London altogether, linking the South West, Midlands, North, and Scotland directly.
East Coast Main Line (ECML)	Runs from London King’s Cross north through York and Newcastle to Edinburgh, operated primarily by LNER.
Great Western Main Line (GWML)	Links London Paddington to Bristol, South Wales, and the South West, run mainly by GWR.
Midland Main Line	Connects London St Pancras to Leicester, Nottingham, and Sheffield, operated by East Midlands Railway.
West Coast Main Line (WCML)	Connects London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, with Avanti West Coast running the principal long-distance services.

For journeys along any of these routes, our destination guides cover the fastest and cheapest ways to travel between major UK cities.

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Who runs the UK rail network?

Network Rail owns and maintains the physical infrastructure (the tracks, signals, and most major stations) across Great Britain, while individual Train Operating Companies (TOCs) run the passenger services.

But that operator landscape is currently changing. Under the government’s Great British Railways programme, passenger operators are being brought into public ownership as their existing contracts expire, rather than all at once.

Those already transferred to public ownership:

c2c
Govia Thameslink Railway group (Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern, and Gatwick Express)
Greater Anglia
LNER
Northern
Southeastern
South Western Railway
TransPennine Express
West Midlands Railway

Chiltern Railways and Great Western Railway are due to follow, while ScotRail and Transport for Wales are already run by their respective devolved governments.

A smaller number of open-access operators, such as Grand Central, Hull Trains, and Lumo, continue to run alongside the main network on a commercial basis.

UK rail network FAQs

How many train stations are in the UK?

There are approximately 2,585 stations across the rail network in Great Britain, and these are all operated by Network Rail.

How many miles of railway track are in the UK?

The network spans around 15,850 km (9,850 miles) of track, of which roughly 6,130 km (3,810 miles) is electrified. Again, this infrastructure is owned and operated by Network Rail.

How many train operating companies run UK rail services?

The number is falling as operators transfer into public ownership under Great British Railways, but currently around 20 companies - a mix of publicly and privately run - operate passenger services across the network.