hairyhandedfool
Established Member
- Joined
- 14 Apr 2008
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If we go with your argument, we in fact have three organised groupings:
Southern Railway Ltd (a limited company formed under the Companies Acts of 1985, 1989 and 2006)
southern TOC (not a statutory company, who operate all the train lines shown in Green on the map referenced earlier)
gatwick express TOC (not a statutory company, who operate all the train lines shown in Red on the map referenced earlier)
For simplicity, I have capitalised the statutory company but not the other two. We then have:
gatwick express is not part of southern, but is part of Southern.
Southern is not part of anything.
southern is part of Southern but not part of gatwick express.
Southern and southern are different
southern + gatwick express = Southern
Southern Railway Limited is a TOC.
Southern is a trading name for a TOC and listed as part of the definition of "train companies" in the NRCoC.
Gatwick Express is a trading name for a TOC and listed as part of the definition of "train companies" in the NRCoC.
So:
Gatwick Express (as noted in the NRCoC) is not part of Southern (as noted in the NRCoC), but is a trading name of Southern Railway Limited
Southern Railway Limited is a franchised train operating company.
Southern (as noted in the NRCoC) is a trading name of Southern Railway Limited, but is not part of Gatwick Express (as noted in the NRCoC).
Southern and Southern Railway Limited are different.
Southern and Gatwick Express are trading names of Southern Railway Limited (as noted in the NRCoC).
I hope that is a little clearer....
I think it's even more complicated than that, because a "TOC" is a licensed train operating "company" and that means (using your terminology) Southern Railway Ltd.
But HHF reckons that NRCoC has a different definition of "train company".
"Train company" and "train operating company" are not the same term. Different terms can have different meanings. "Train company" is used and defined in the NRCoC, "train operating company" is not.