Joint Railway
A Joint Railway signifies a railway operating under the control of more than one railway company: those companies very often supplying the traction over the railway. There are many examples of joint railway working in the United Kingdom: the more important ones included:
- Isle of Axholme Joint Railway : joint working by North Eastern and Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways (NER/LYR) 27.5 miles (44km)
- Cheshire Lines Committee: Great Northern, Great Central and Midland Railways (GNR/GCR/MidR) 140 miles (224km)
- East London Railway: run by a committee of the Great Eastern, London, Brighton and South Coast, South Eastern and Chatham, Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways (GER/LBSCR/SE&CR/MetR/District) 7 miles (11km)
- Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway: LNWR/GCR 9 miles (14km)
- Preston and Wyre Joint Railway: L&YR/LNWR before amalgamation in 1922 45 miles (72km)
- Severn and Wye Joint Railway: Great Western Railway (GWR)/MidR 39 miles (62km)
- Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway: London and South Western Railway (LSWR)/MidR 101 miles (162km)
- South Yorkshire Joint Railway: GCR/GNR/L&YR/MidR/NER 20 miles (32km)
Joint station
Where a railway station was served by several railway companies, it was often necessary to form a joint committee to operate it. Examples of such stations were:
- Carlisle : Caledonian and London and North Western Railways (CalR/LNWR). The North Eastern Railway (NER), the Maryport and Carlisle Railway, the Glasgow and South Western Railway, the North British Railway and the Midland Railway were all tenant companies. Each company operated its own trains
- Leeds City station: trains from the LNWR, the NER and the MidR eventually used the combined station
- Victoria station: the station and 1.25 miles (2km) of approach lines owned until 1923 by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway. Worked by the GWR, LNWR, LB&SCR and SECR until the 1923 Grouping, when the Southern Railway took over
- The term used in the United States is Union Station