Thames Trains facts for kids
Thames Trains was a company that ran trains in the United Kingdom. It operated both short and long-distance train services. These trains mostly ran around the Thames Valley area.
The company's main hub was Reading. Its trains traveled to many places. These included Oxford, Gatwick Airport, Guildford, London, Basingstoke, Worcester, Hereford, and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Thames Trains started in 1996. This was when the national train system, British Rail, was split up and sold to private companies. This process is called privatisation. Thames Trains took over some routes from a part of British Rail called Network SouthEast.
In 2004, Thames Trains stopped operating. Its services were then taken over by a new company called First Great Western Link. Two years later, in 2006, First Great Western Link joined with two other train companies, First Great Western and Wessex Trains. Together, they formed a bigger train service known as the "Greater Western" franchise.
Thames Trains was involved in a serious train accident. This happened at Ladbroke Grove in 1999.
Images for kids
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Pictures of various Thames Trains. These show the inside of the Thames Turbo and Turbo Express trains. You can see the 1st class area, the driver's cab, and 2nd class seats from both Class 166 and Class 165 trains. These photos were taken between 2000 and 2004.
