Some questions regarding UK railways

[kirk781]

[Please move this post to a relevant forum if this is not the suitable place for this]

I am not natively English yet I am very interested in trains and everything connected to them from around the world. Since this is a site primarily dedicated to rail transport in the UK, I would wish to gain some first hand trivia/knowledge about the train systems there.

a] Has British rail purely moved to electric systems or diesel [or Stephenson forbid, Steam] still can be spotted somewhere? Also, what would you say is the maximum speeds[ and average speed] that trains usually go at [I know this will be dependent both on tracks and rolling stock; it's the same in my country India as well, though the speeds here are much lower I assume than in UK]

b] How would you rate the punctuality of normal trains there [not subways like the London Underground; those are good almost everywhere around the world]? How much, in your viewpoint, has English rail advanced over the past decades and do you see catching up to Japan or China [assuming UK already hasn't; I am not sure how advanced UK is in terms of rail transport] anytime soon?

c] Finally, I assume standard gauge would be common there. Do other gauge systems like Meter gauge or Narrow gauge were also built/still exist?

Finally, hello from India.

 

[WirralLine]

Over here we use a mix of electric and diesel stock. Electric stock using AC overhead electrification or in some areas DC 3rd rail electrification. (3rd rail mainly being found in the south east with the exception of Merseyrail around the Liverpool area, the Glasgow subway and the Island Line on Isle of Wight). London Underground uses a 4th rail DC system.

We rely on diesel trains as a large portion of the network is not electrified (and a lot if it almost certainly never will be). We also use "bi-mode" stock in some areas which can run either electric or diesel (such as class 805s which can use the overhead electrification and then switch to diesel mode for the non electrified lines). I believe more bi-mode stock is likely in the future. There are a few oddities such as the 5 class 230 units used by Transport for Wales which are ex London Underground 1978 District line stock shells, repurposed as diesel electric hybrids. Trials are ongoing with Great Western Railway with another class 230 which is battery only, with experimental fast charging at the route terminus.

Merseyrail have a handful of new class 777s which can run either on the 3rd rail electrification, but can switch to battery mode for non electrified sections (currently Kirkby to Headbolt Lane).

Steam isn't used for regular service trains, however there are a number of preserved examples which are mainline registered and operate charter services. Plenty can be found at the various heritage railways around the country too.

Punctuality/reliability wise I find overall to be pretty poor nationwide. Realistically we will never catch up with the likes of China. A lot of the network is still using victorian infrastructure, all projects are insanely expensive, and we are yet to have a government who care for public transport at all!

Regarding narrow guage - it still exists in the form of heritage lines (such as the Welsh Highland Railway) but not mainline "national" rail services.

Im sure others will add more examples and go into more details.

Hope this helps!

 

[Harpo]

Welcome Kirk781.

On the mainland, Scotland has a 4ft gauge metro railway known as the Glasgow Subway.

The Island of Ireland divides into a UK country called Northern Ireland and an EU country called Eire or Ireland. The gauge on that island is 5ft 3in.

Are we advanced? No! Our railways suffer from massive political interference that makes a terrible mess of long term planning and stops the railway being an efficient network.

Electrification is a particular mess with huge diesel mileages operated by both passenger and freight trains on electric routes, often because of small unelectrified sections.

We have two long electrified routes from north to south from London to Scotland along each coast, but the only electrified east-west links between them are at each end, 400 miles apart.

 

[norbitonflyer]

On speeds, the highest speed permitted is 186mph on HS1 - the line from London to the Channel Tunnel. Otherwise, 125mph is permitted on a few main lines, but most are limited to lower speeds.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Also, what would you say is the maximum speeds[ and average speed] that trains usually go at [I know this will be dependent both on tracks and rolling stock; it's the same in my country India as well, though the speeds here are much lower I assume than in UK]

Our highest current speed are the Eurostar services on HS1, at 186mph, the domestic services that use the same lines only go 140mph.
Most of our mainlines have sections where trains can go 125mph, with most of the rest being between 100-110mph.
Regional lines go all sorts of speeds, from 40 or 50mph to 100.
HS2 (once complete) should be able to go at 225mph.

Open railway map is a good resource for answering the question about speeds, although it's worth noting that since the map can only show one speed for a place, it's not completely accurate (since there are higher speed limits in certain places, such as the west coast main line (from London Euston for the tilting Class 390s))

OpenRailwayMap

OpenRailwayMap - An OpenStreetMap-based project for creating a map of the world's railway infrastructure.

openrailwaymap.org

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Punctuality depends on the eye of the beholder. The general mood on this forum is that no trains are ever on time and that trains are either overcrowded or empty.

I still commute. Timekeeping isn’t perfect, but I can get around a big city pretty effectively without a car.

 

[kirk781]

Our railways suffer from massive political interference that makes a terrible mess of long term planning and stops the railway being an efficient network.

Oh, so exactly like my country where railways is usually seen as a cash cow or a form of political give and take for governments.

Steam isn't used for regular service trains,

True, steam has been phased out in most nations, I would assume. Steam was once dominant with WP locos abounding the landscape but I don't think any are in action outside heritage routes here as well.

HS2 (once complete) should be able to go at 225mph.

That's as fast as the Japan's Shinkansen, I think. Though I did take a look at the Wikipedia page and it seems the project might take few more years to complete. I think Japan is also re routing and upgrading it's lines via maglev that will breach 500 kph but their project completion date is uncertain.

I can get around a big city pretty effectively without a car.

Public transport > Private commute. Subways / metro systems don't get stuck in traffic snarls.

 

[jfowkes]

Answering the questions with actual numbers, 39% of the UK mainline network is electrified (as of March 2024, ref. ORR assets summary)

Of this, roughly 65 to 70% is by overhead 25kV and the rest is 650V third rail. I can't find a good source for this but I think it's about right. Wikipedia says it was 64% in 2003 and we've added a bit of 25kV since then.

For punctuality, again the ORR is the best place to go for data. In summary, for the period 1st July to 30th September 2024, 68% of all station stops were on time (no more than 1 minute late). 85% of arrivals at the final destination of a service were on time (no more than 5 or 10 minutes late depending on the service type).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2025 ==

That's as fast as the Japan's Shinkansen, I think. Though I did take a look at the Wikipedia page and it seems the project might take few more years to complete.

Typically the Shinkansen runs up to 200mph, so HS2's top speed will be faster (the high maximum speed of HS2 has been criticised, personally I think it is a good thing).

The history of HS2 is complex. It's worth reading about properly and there's a lot of outdated or simply incorrect information out there. But yes, it will take until roughly the end of this decade before trains start running, and perhaps another 5 years to finish Euston station in London (this is still very uncertain), which will complete the parts of the line that didn't get cancelled in 2022/2023.

 

[Krokodil]

True, steam has been phased out in most nations, I would assume.

I think that all that is left of "real" steam globally is the handful of WWII-era designs shunting coal mines in Bosnia. China finished recently, and I've a feeling that the Zimbabwean Garratt isn't shunting Bulawayo any more. Otherwise steam survives only for the benefit of tourists.

 

[Annetts key]

The earlier replies answer most of your questions.

I just wish to add that yes, all mainland U.K. (British) including branch and freight lines of the national railway network are standard gauge (1435 mm).

In terms of punctuality of normal trains, that varies wildly between different routes, different lines, different operators (TOCs - Train Operating Companies, some of which are still privately owned and some of which are now state owned) and if it is a good day or a bad day.

On a good day, in an area where punctuality is normally good, on a long distance train you can get to your destination station within a minute or two of the scheduled time

On a bad day, on the same route, on the same timetabled service the following day, you may experience a delay of half an hour to an hour (or more)...

Meanwhile elsewhere, the service may be poor to bad most of the time...

 

[TPO]

I think we sometimes do ourselves disservice. Yes, the GB rail sector has challenges- but is on a day-to-day basis, mostly managed remarkably well in the circumstances i.e. a small generally fairly densely populated island, routes being relatively (on a global scale) short, a highly regulated context (safest railway in Europe)...... and the history.....

One of the biggest challenges in GB railway history is that as a part of being a railway pioneer, railways were developed piecemeal and the people building both the infrastructure and trains learned lessons through bitter experience. There's also the fencing of the railway in GB- originally to keep the unwashed hordes out of the land the railway passed through but evolved into fencing to keep people safe from the railway. The railway in GB was not planned and managed centrally (as it was across Europe and in various UK and European colonies for strategic military purpose) rather it grew up ad hoc. There's a long-term financial cost associated with that.

I have heard the GB mainline railway infrastructure described as the "UK's biggest Heritage railway" because the asset is very historic and hence is often unknown. Not everything was written down and there are generations of unrecorded change. Many key structures (earthworks, embankments, bridges) date in part or wholly from the Victorian era, possibly with some "remediation" in the intervening decades.

The GB railways were commandeered by the government during both World Wars, and in both cases the assets were flogged and then handed back in a poor state, during wartime the assets were used to the max with little or no maintenance.

This was the legacy bequeathed to the 1960's and 1970's at which time competition from road transport became significant. Again, rather than recognising the strategic asset, the govt tried to cut costs.

There has been some revival in more recent decades, but the GB railway is a product of it's complex history. (There's some good detailed accounts by Christian Wolmar and Adrian Vaughan amongst others).

In that context, I'd say that the people actually running the GB mainline railways do remarkably well, considering. There's a core of extremely competent and sophisticated operators who have developed and passed on knowledge, skills and capability over generations, and when all else fails, that's the glue that holds it all together. No, not always perfectly, but they are (over-stretched) human beings after all.

Probably not a popular perspective on here. But then again, I work in the industry and see the day-to-day, not just the failures. And you know- the stats indicate we don't perform much if at all worse than our European counterparts when looking at the whole (i.e. local as well as long-distance high-speed).

TPO

 

[Alfie1014]

Answering the questions with actual numbers, 39% of the UK mainline network is electrified (as of March 2024, ref. ORR assets summary)

Of this, roughly 65 to 70% is by overhead 25kV and the rest is 650V third rail. I can't find a good source for this but I think it's about right. Wikipedia says it was 64% in 2003 and we've added a bit of 25kV since then.

For punctuality, again the ORR is the best place to go for data. In summary, for the period 1st July to 30th September 2024, 68% of all station stops were on time (no more than 1 minute late). 85% of arrivals at the final destination of a service were on time (no more than 5 or 10 minutes late depending on the service type).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2025 ==



Typically the Shinkansen runs up to 200mph, so HS2's top speed will be faster (the high maximum speed of HS2 has been criticised, personally I think it is a good thing).

The history of HS2 is complex. It's worth reading about properly and there's a lot of outdated or simply incorrect information out there. But yes, it will take until roughly the end of this decade before trains start running, and perhaps another 5 years to finish Euston station in London (this is still very uncertain), which will complete the parts of the line that didn't get cancelled in 2022/2023.

Whilst only 39% of the network is electrified Modern Railways (probably the most respected UK industry magazine) estimated back in 2020 that 80% of passenger km were provided by electric trains.

Current works to extend electrification include Trans Pennine, Midland Main Line, Cardiff Valleys (partial) and the central belt and suburban in Scotland.

However the position for frieght traffic is not so rosy as the electrified network has mostly concentrated on long distance intercity and commuter traffic. There is much to be done yet to transfer significant freight volume from diesel operation to electric or bi-mode.

 

[Chris Hamilton]

[Please move this post to a relevant forum if this is not the suitable place for this]

I am not natively English yet I am very interested in trains and everything connected to them from around the world. Since this is a site primarily dedicated to rail transport in the UK, I would wish to gain some first hand trivia/knowledge about the train systems there.

a] Has British rail purely moved to electric systems or diesel [or Stephenson forbid, Steam] still can be spotted somewhere? Also, what would you say is the maximum speeds[ and average speed] that trains usually go at [I know this will be dependent both on tracks and rolling stock; it's the same in my country India as well, though the speeds here are much lower I assume than in UK]

b] How would you rate the punctuality of normal trains there [not subways like the London Underground; those are good almost everywhere around the world]? How much, in your viewpoint, has English rail advanced over the past decades and do you see catching up to Japan or China [assuming UK already hasn't; I am not sure how advanced UK is in terms of rail transport] anytime soon?

c] Finally, I assume standard gauge would be common there. Do other gauge systems like Meter gauge or Narrow gauge were also built/still exist?

Finally, hello from India.

Welcome.

The only regularly scheduled Steam that still exists in the UK operates on the West Highland Extension between Fort William and Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland. By regularly scheduled, I mean actually operates at a set time every day over a set period of time (twice a day in the peak of summer). It is however, a private operator, and cannot be travelled on with a standard ticket between those two places. If you have a standard "National Rail" ticket, you will be on the ScotRail operated diesel Class 156 "Sprinter". If you are familiar with the Harry Potter movies, that line features heavily as it passes "Hogwarts", so it attracts huge amounts of tourists to an otherwise remote area.

Most other Steam in the UK is one off, ad-hoc or limited to maybe once a week (like the Bristol to Dartmouth, Riviera Express), or confined to one of the many volunteer run Heritage Railways we have.

I work on the Scottish end of the West Coast Main Line which links London to Glasgow and Edinburgh. My railway has everything from dense urban traffic, high (by British standards) hilly passes and winding valleys and long straights across moorlands. It is shared by everything from 60mph bulk freight, 75mph containerised freight, 90mph stopping passenger trains and 125mph tilting high speed express trains (see the Class 390 "Pendolino"). As you can imagine fitting all that in takes quite a bit of ingenuity on the part of our timetable planners at HQ in Milton Keynes. We utilise something known as "Enhanced Permissable Speed" to allow certain trains (at this point just those fitted with tilting mechanisms) to travel at speeds beyond the normal line speed of about 110mph. This uses a device known as a "Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision" (TASS) Balise fitted to the track which passively transmits an RFID code to the passing train, which has a database of all TASS balises fitted in the country and will set the speed and tilt locations and amounts appropriately. If TASS fails for any reason (The train knows how far each balise should be apart, so will alarm if it doesn't sense the next one), the train will be limited to the non-EPS linespeed of 110mph. EPS however, is not dependent on the ability to tilt, and as the likely replacements for the Class 390s will be non-tilting, we may see more trains being allowed to run at higher speeds based on weight and bogie design rather than tilting ability.

As a user, I find our railway to be relatively punctual. I travel extensively by train, and often on multi-legged journeys over long distances, and I rarely have any issues. Often issues arise because I've just made the connection to be too tight and not allowing for any delay. However, as an Engineer, I do see how quickly a relatively minor infrastructure failure can have a cascading effect across great swathes of the network. Every network has pinch points, and I can see where many of ours are. A lot of our signalling equipment is 50+ years old, and while it still works well, signs of age do show up every now and then (though, some stuff built in the 70's is more reliable than newer equipment). But money is not infinite, and priorities have to be made. As a signalling fault response Engineer it not only keeps me in a job, but lets me do what I love doing, problem solving.

 

[kirk781]

As a signalling fault response Engineer it not only keeps me in a job, but lets me do what I love doing, problem solving.

It might not be your exact domain, but I'll still ask. Were sephamore signaling ever common in UK/do they exist even now on some neglected routes? I think I have seen the odd sephamore signal here in India but it was mostly in the past on single diesel tracks.

 

[jfowkes]

It might not be your exact domain, but I'll still ask. Were sephamore signaling ever common in UK/do they exist even now on some neglected routes? I think I have seen the odd sephamore signal here in India but it was mostly in the past on single diesel tracks.

Semaphore signalling was extremely common in the UK and it still used on lots of secondary lines - not even "neglected" routes, quite intensively used routes still have some semaphore signalling (for instance at Hastings). There are questions asked about it on the forums every now-and-then, e.g. Lines where semaphore signals are still used.

 

[tumbledown]

Were sephamore signaling ever common in UK/do they exist even now on some neglected routes?

A visit to a big installation in the latest Green Signals podcast

 

[FormerBritInMe]

One thing that has been alluded to but not addressed directly is that unlike India where the entire railway is under government control, since privatisation in the 1990s Britain's railways are set up with a government owned infrastructure - Network Rail - upon which various privately owned Train Operating Companies (TOCs) operate train services for which they bid for contracts with the government. These companies usually lease their rolling stock. So at a station you may see multiple operators running services, occasionally there are even open access operators competing with the regular TOC for a service e.g. Lumo running trains London to Scotland competing with LNER.

In some (and an increasing number of) cases a service cannot find a TOC or the TOC goes under so the service ends up being run by the government as operator of last resort. There is a proposal called Great British Rail where train services will eventually all be brought under government operation again (as I understand it) amounting to a renationalisation of the system.

Admittedly this is a very broad brush description of a fairly complex setup and I probably have oversimplified things. I am sure that more knowledgeable members here can correct or fill in the details.

 

[Falcon1200]

I work on the Scottish end of the West Coast Main Line which links London to Glasgow and Edinburgh. My railway has everything from dense urban traffic, high (by British standards) hilly passes and winding valleys and long straights across moorlands. It is shared by everything from 60mph bulk freight, 75mph containerised freight, 90mph stopping passenger trains and 125mph tilting high speed express trains (see the Class 390 "Pendolino"). As you can imagine fitting all that in takes quite a bit of ingenuity on the part of our timetable planners at HQ in Milton Keynes.

For part of my rail career I was Network Rail Controller for the WCML in Scotland, and second your comments; I would add that the Signallers at Motherwell, and Carlisle for their patch, were extremely skilled in regulating traffic and keeping everything moving.

A lot of our signalling equipment is 50+ years old, and while it still works well, signs of age do show up every now and then (though, some stuff built in the 70's is more reliable than newer equipment).

Indeed, and the efforts of the local maintenance staff were much appreciated when things went wrong, especially with some of the locations involved being remote from civilisation! I recall a particular issue with, IIRC, Hi-Pin connectors failing, causing signalling failure.

 

[Oxfordblues]

Britain has some of the best railways in the world, but the British are also among the best for complaining about them! By international standards the trains are generally clean, graffiti-free and comfortable. Services are relatively frequent and reliable (with some exceptions) and the safety record is world-class, From reading the Rail UK forums you might get a more negative impression but overall we can be proud of our railways. After all, we invented them!

 

[Annetts key]

It might not be your exact domain, but I'll still ask. Were sephamore signaling ever common in UK/do they exist even now on some neglected routes? I think I have seen the odd sephamore signal here in India but it was mostly in the past on single diesel tracks.

In the late 1980s I found myself working on semaphore signals that were still in regular use.

As said above, there are still some busy secondary lines with manual signal boxes and semaphore signals.

 

[Dumpton Park]

There are lots of issues with the UK railway, nearly all of which are historic or political:

Fragmentation due to (the method of) privitisation.
Related to that, poor strategic fleet management, planning and lack of specialist knowledge in the areas responsible for that (Government).
The Treasury penny pinching projects for short term savings meaning long term greater costs.
Too much excess capacity cut in the 1960s with no thought to legally protecting any of it as rights of way in case of future need.
The very UK mindset/ideology that railways have to be shown to pay for themselves to earn virtually any investment - hence, amongst other things, the appallingly disjointed electrification coverage.
The inability in the UK to project manage effectively (at least partly because of cultural issues about voicing concerns early and waiting until things have gone so wrong they can't be denied to fix them and therefore costing even more and taking even longer to put right)
The loading gauge. Which is an insurmountable issue, ultimately.
Some interurban routes have bafflingly low capacity while some more rural ones seem randomly over generous, almost always for historical reasons.
When something goes wrong in terms of service, it can go very wrong.
There's little or no robustness in terms of handling any form of weather event.
Ticketing is a complete and total basket case and so complex you almost certainly need to ask someone knowledgeable if you want to try to get the best price for your needs.
Weekend/holiday service provision is often feeble and actually non-existent for 2 days each year.
There isn't a national discount railcard available to everyone (but see below).

There are positives.
Service frequency is as good, if not better, than many other places in Europe. Up to and above Swiss levels in a much, much bigger country. Despite the fragmentation, changing trains is still relatively easy and convenient.
New stations are opening with some frequency.
Walk-up is still doable virtually everywhere on virtually any service. The cost of it is potentially something else though. You can (still) buy a ticket from anywhere to anywhere in one booking.
Railcards are easy to get and offer decent discounts as long as you fit into one of the sometimes arbitrary categories.
Staff tend to be very good, both in terms of knowledge and treatment of customers.
Safety is good to very good.
Timekeeping is generally pretty good for such a complex system with so many interconnecting service patterns. (But see above - if it goes wrong, it can go very wrong)
Rolling stock is generally modern, mostly clean, nearly always graffiti free.
Stations are generally safe.
Edited to add: information provision on live train running is way, way better than most other places I can think of in Europe,not least from third party providers
And
Delay Repay is generally reliable and a good system.

DP

 

[norbitonflyer]

Some interurban routes have bafflingly low capacity while some more rural ones seem randomly over generous, almost always for historical reasons.

This is often because there were, in the pre-Beeching era, competing routes. He saw this as wasteful duplication, rather than network resilience.

Where there was only one route, it tended to be quadruple track and can still cope, but if there were two double track routes and one of them closed (eg between London, the East Midlands and Yorkshire) they are now struggling.

There are now, following the reopening of Airdrie - Bathgate, and a new spur at Cowlairs to connect the Caledonian's Stepps route to the NBR's Queen Street terminus, no less than five routes between Scotland's two major cities.

 

[kirk781]

intensively used routes still have some semaphore signalling

My mind has a correlation that semaphore signalling based tracks are still stuck on lower speeds since that has been impressed upon me via my country's railways where semaphore signalling has been associated with old. Do such routes also suffer from low average speeds in the UK?

since privatisation in the 1990s Britain's railways are set up with a government owned infrastructure - Network Rail - upon which various privately owned Train Operating Companies (TOCs)

This might stir up a hornet's nest and I understand everyone will have different opinions, but in your purview, has privatization of rail helped increase the quality of service?

British are also among the best for complaining about them!

Only if you complain, then you get good service. No matter how good something is, unless it's perfect, complaining isn't bad, IMO. It might be more prevalent in the UK but it's not a bad thing per se.

 

[Krokodil]

My mind has a correlation that semaphore signalling based tracks are still stuck on lower speeds since that has been impressed upon me via my country's railways where semaphore signalling has been associated with old. Do such routes also suffer from low average speeds in the UK?

There are some 90mph (145km/h) lines which still use it. Remember that many speed records were set using these systems. It's labour-intensive though so if you want to have a frequent service it's cheaper to resignal to colour lights, and this is most likely to happen on the principal routes which also happen to include the fastest ones. The UK is unusual in allowing 125mph (200km/h) running with lineside signals - most countries would insist on in-cab signalling at these speeds.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

There are now, following the reopening of Airdrie - Bathgate, and a new spur at Cowlairs to connect the Caledonian's Stepps route to the NBR's Queen Street terminus, no less than five routes between Scotland's two major cities.

Do any passenger trains run from Glasgow to Edinburgh via Springburn and Stepps? If not, it seems a bit of a stretch to describe it as an additional route.

 

[generalnerd]

This might stir up a hornet's nest and I understand everyone will have different opinions, but in your purview, has privatization of rail helped increase the quality of service?

It’s very much a mixed bag. For investment, most of the time it’s no, but for services like first class, etc, it has definitely improved. Not that I was around to travel in first class under British rail but from many accounts, it has certainly gotten better and more airline style.

 

[kirk781]

he UK is unusual in allowing 125mph (200km/h) running with lineside signals - most countries would insist on in-cab signalling at these speeds.

That's faster than here where 160 kph is the upper limit for anything. This site lists in cab signalling as ETCS [European Train Control System]; is that a specific variant of incab signalling [dunno the details of this tech much, sorry]?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Feb 2025 ==

Okay, this question might come off as noobish to you folks, but are ordinary British stations walled off as well? Like for a subway station in most parts of the world including India, one obviously can't enter unless a valid ticket in form of token, card or whatever means is used is presented to enter the premises. But railway stations in India are usually open. You can literally walk into one. Whilst technically a platform ticket is required to enter big ones, there aren't any entry gates where they are checked. You might be asked to present them if a Ticket Checking Examiner asks you but there is no single check in/check out point.

I would assume UK stations[the traditional ones, not underground ones like London Subway] would be more sophisticated and requiring paid access/valid ticket prior to entering?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

That's faster than here where 160 kph is the upper limit for anything. This site lists in cab signalling as ETCS [European Train Control System]; is that a specific variant of incab signalling [dunno the details of this tech much, sorry]?

ETCS is a type of in-cab signalling, there are some training videos you can watch on Great Northern's Youtube channel if you want.
ETCS is one of the parts of ERTMS.

 

[kirk781]

ETCS is a type of in-cab signalling, there are some training videos you can watch on Great Northern's Youtube channel if you want.
ETCS is one of the parts of ERTMS.

A slight digression from the topic since you are obviously informed about signaling, is multi aspect color light signalling more advanced in a sense than semaphore signaling? The former is standard in my country and I could hardly find any info about the modern in-cab signalling system in place, if anywhere in my country.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Okay, this question might come off as noobish to you folks, but are ordinary British stations walled off as well? Like for a subway station in most parts of the world including India, one obviously can't enter unless a valid ticket in form of token, card or whatever means is used is presented to enter the premises. But railway stations in India are usually open. You can literally walk into one. Whilst technically a platform ticket is required to enter big ones, there aren't any entry gates where they are checked. You might be asked to present them if a Ticket Checking Examiner asks you but there is no single check in/check out point.

It's a mixture here. In general, the bigger stations will tend to be gated so you can't access the platforms without a ticket, but the smaller and rural ones tend to be open. And lots of smaller stations are completely unstaffed most of the day, so they have to be open. Even many of the bigger stations will become open late at night, because the rail companies don't want to pay for staff at those times, so they just leave the barriers open instead (because you can't really have the barriers closed unless a member of staff is present to deal with any issues)