System codes/names for rail connected sites and train operators

[swt_passenger]

Moderator note - split from:

SWR outgoing Metro fleet withdrawals (complete)

Thread to keep track of the withdrawals of South Western Railway suburban stock, as part of the replacement by Class 701 trains. As of 24 December 2025, Class 456 and Class 707 have been entirely scrapped and transferred to SouthEastern respectively. Class 455 has no more booked workings...

www.railforums.co.uk

It remains to be seen if those fully intact units might be recovered and moved elsewhere or whether the administors can reactivate the place short term in order to clear the site. Everything on site will be held by the administrators at the moment while actual ownership of the items is confirmed - if they have not been paid for, the complete units might well still be owned by the lease company.

Unimetals are past administration, the receivers are responsible. I’m not sure if ownership of the site goes back to Sims at all, surely they’re just a creditor, and the official receiver owns the site.

Seems to me what causes confusion is these sort of rail connected site names rarely get updated, it should have been changed to Unimetals in Oct 2024.

Does the wider international Sims group actually have any commercial interest at all in the place now, or are they just trying to get their last payment?

 

[Ian Hardy]

Seems to me what causes confusion is these sort of rail connected site names rarely get updated, it should have been changed to Unimetals in Oct 2024.

Who is going to pay for the railway systems to be updated to reflect any name change?

Considering that something as important as the operator codes haven't been changed when the TOC name changes.
These are shown on the National Rail TOC page: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/find-a-train-company/ (when you click on the page for each TOC the code is shown):
Greater Anglia (LE)
LNER (GR)
Avanti West Coast (VT)
West Midlands Trains (LM)
Transport for Wales (AW)
Elizabeth line (XR)

 

[swt_passenger]

Who is going to pay for the railway systems to be updated to reflect any name change?

Considering that something as important as the operator codes haven't been changed when the TOC name changes.
These are shown on the National Rail TOC page: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/find-a-train-company/ (when you click on the page for each TOC the code is shown):
Greater Anglia (LE)
LNER (GR)
Avanti West Coast (VT)
West Midlands Trains (LM)
Transport for Wales (AW)
Elizabeth line (XR)

The operator codes aren’t public facing though, and obviously the public names are changed even if the codes aren’t. Indeed the sidings at Newport aren’t really a public feature either. Ultimately some ‘places’ do eventually get their names updated, so someone somewhere must be altering the details.

 

[sot]

The operator codes aren’t public facing though, and obviously the public names are changed even if the codes aren’t. Indeed the sidings at Newport aren’t really a public feature either. Ultimately some ‘places’ do eventually get their names updated, so someone somewhere must be altering the details.

On VT trains the door shows the train number that isn't for example 1A30 with VTxxxxxx, although actually I think I have seen e.g. VT1H42.

Admittedly in this case aVanTi isn't too bad.

 

[Bodiam]

If you look at old sectional appendices, private sidings often kept their former names years or even decades after a user had changed or been renamed.

 

[zwk500]

Ultimately some ‘places’ do eventually get their names updated, so someone somewhere must be altering the details.

I expect a lot of it falls down to how bothered somebody is about paying for the name change. Plenty of 'EWS' locations hanging around in the system.

Locations will also often get updated if a major resignalling or remodelling takes place that requires lots of changes anyway, as having new locations makes it easier to manage the changeover.