In 2010, there were 1. 33 billion journeys on the National Rail network, making the British network the fifth most used in the world ( Great Britain ranks 23rd in world population ).

From the start of 1948, the " big four " were nationalised to form British Railways ( latterly " British Rail ") under the control of the British Transport Commission.

A East Midlands Trains British Rail Class 222 | Class 222 Meridian on a London to Nottingham service.

A CrossCountry British Rail Class 170 | Class 170 numbered 170113 with a service from London Stansted Airport to Birmingham New Street railway station | Birmingham New Street First Capital Connect British Rail Class 365 | Class 365 ' networker ' numbered 365538 at Cambridge railway station | Cambridge Rail Station

British Railways ( BR ), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997.

It was formed from the nationalisation of the " Big Four " British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997.

The British Rail " double arrow " logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed " the arrow of indecision ".< ref >

The British Rail Mark 2 coach, however, carried the B4 bogies from new.

The BT10 bogie was introduced on the British Rail Mark 3 coach in the 1970s.

A First ScotRail operated British Rail Class 318 | Class 318 departing Gourock railway station | Gourock.

From Elmers End to Woodside route 1 and route 4 ( and route 2 from Arena ) follow the former British Rail branch line to Addiscombe, then diverge to reach Addiscombe tram stop, which is 500 metres west of the now-demolished Addiscombe railway station.

The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon follows the old single-track British Rail route for the most part, which was closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink.

* Cyclops, a nickname for the British Rail Class 67 Locomotive

The situation was greatly complicated by the large number of landowners involved: the PLA, the Greater London Council ( GLC ), the British Gas Corporation, five borough councils, British Rail and the Central Electricity Generating Board.

* Virgin Trains British Rail Class 221 unit 221129 is named in his honour.

* 1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence.

* HMS Auriga ( P419 ), a British submarine launched in 1945

The first ironclad battleship, with iron armour over a wooden hull, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859 ; she prompted the British Royal Navy to build a counter.

That same night, the British launched a surprise counter-attack on Ai, retaking the island and killing 200 Dutchmen.

* 1860 – The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched.

On 16 July, the Australians — supported by British tanks — launched an attack to try to take Point 24 but were forced back by German counter-attacks, suffering nearly fifty percent casualties.

In August 1776, British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign designed to seize New York.

Julien Fedon, a mixed race owner of the Belvedere estate in the St. John Parish, launched a rebellion against British rule on the night of 2nd March 1795, with coordinated attacks on the towns of Grenville, La Baye and Gouyave.

France launched an invasion of eastern Spain while the British successfully raided Vigo.

In June 1946, following instances of Jewish sabotage, the British launched Operation Agatha, arresting 2700 Jews, including the leadership of the Jewish Agency, whose headquarters were raided.

When the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden to US authorities and to disband al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in which teams of American and British special forces worked with commanders of the United Front ( Northern Alliance ) against the Taliban.

*, British aircraft carrier launched in 1937 that participated in World War II and was sunk by a U-boat in 1941.

The King realised that peace would be impossible if a real invasion of Natal was launched, and that it would only provoke a more concerted effort on the part of the British against them.

For example, four miles past the Ineyzane River, after the British had comfortably crossed, and after they had spent a day consolidating their advance, the Zulu finally launched a typical " buffalo horn " encirclement attack that was seen off with withering fire from not only breach-loading Martini-Henry rifles, but 7-pounder artillery and Gatling guns.

After finishing his talks with Stalin and Molotov, Ribbentrop, at a dinner with the Soviet leaders, launched into a lengthy diatribe against the British Empire, with frequent interjections of approval from Stalin, and then exchanged toasts with Stalin in honour of German-Soviet friendship.

In January 1985 the Capitalcard season ticket was launched, offering validity on British Rail as well as London Underground and London Buses.

Lindow Man's permanent home is at the British Museum, although before the remains were taken there, people from North West England launched an unsuccessful campaign lobbying for the body to be kept in Manchester.

By the most likely account, Khrushchev prepared an elaborate ambush, convening a meeting of the Presidium on 26 June, where he suddenly launched a scathing attack on Beria, accusing him of being a traitor and spy in the pay of British intelligence.

The British launched their attack on the Nepali forces at Nalapani, the western most point of Nepal's frontier at the close of 1814.

* 1971 – Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket, the only British satellite to date launched by a British rocket.

On 7 October 2001, early combat operations including a mix of strikes from land-based B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bombers ; carrier-based F-14 Tomcat and F / A-18 Hornet fighters ; and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from both U. S. and British ships and submarines signaled the start of Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan ( OEF-A ).

A Canadian and U. S. led operation ( supported by British and Dutch forces ), Operation Mountain Thrust was launched in May 2006 to counter renewed Taliban insurgency.

Kruger won another presidential election in 1898, but the following year British forces were gathering on the borders of the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State and fearing Britain's imminent annexation, the Boers launched a preemptive strike against the nearby British colonies in 1899, a strike which became the Second Boer War.

Several foreign airlines also serve Rinas Airport: Alitalia ( from Rome and Milan ), British Airways ( from London Gatwick Airport ), Austrian Airlines ( from Vienna ), Adria Airways ( Ljubljana ), Jat Airways ( Belgrade ), Lufthansa ( Munich ), Malev ( Budapest ), Olympic Air ( Athens ), Hemus Air ( Sofia ) and Turkish Airlines ( Istanbul ).

Thameslink is a 50-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport.

As a result it is now regarded as a fashionable and desirable place to live for the British middle classes and is within easy commuting distance of the City of London and West End and the main railway termini for transport to airports at Heathrow and Gatwick and the south of England.

The newly formed company consisted of British Airways and Iberia as well as their respective subsidiaries and has its main hubs at London Heathrow Airport and Madrid Barajas Airport as well as smaller hubs at Gatwick Airport and Barcelona El-Prat Airport.

BAA Limited and its predecessors, the British Airports Authority and BAA plc, owned and operated Gatwick continuously from 1 April 1966 until 2 December 2009.

British European Airways ( BEA ) began operating from Gatwick to the Channel Islands.

* 28 May 1982: For the first time, Pope John Paul II set foot on British soil at Gatwick after disembarking from an Alitalia Boeing 727-200 Advanced that had just arrived from Rome.

* 2 June 1982: At the end of his first visit to the British Isles, Pope John Paul II departed Gatwick on board a BCal Boeing 707 bound for Rome.

* July 1985: A British Airways Concorde operated the type's first-ever commercial flight from Gatwick.

By the end of the 1960s, annual passenger numbers at Gatwick had grown to three million, with British United Airways accounting for almost half of these.

On 16 April 2009, while preparing to board a British Airways flight at London's Gatwick Airport bound for a concert appearance in Bologna, François Ravard, accompanying Faithfull, was detained and then later arrested.

In a statement, British Airways said: " A male customer became aggressive and abusive at check-in when he was refused travel on a flight from Gatwick to Bologna.

In 1975 British Airports Authority airport director John Mulkern, British Caledonian Airways chairman Adam Thomson and British Rail's Southern Region regional manager Bob Reid, formed the Gatwick Liaison Group to discuss matters of mutual interest.

One of the first successes of the group was to persuade the British Rail board to redevelop Gatwick station by building a raft over the platforms, and this was opened by British Rail chairman Peter Parker in 1980.

Gatwick Express was the first portion of British Rail's InterCity sector to be converted into a separate train operating unit, ready for franchising as a private business with the assets transferred to Gatwick Express Limited ( legal name Gatwick Express Limited, company no 2912338 ) in March 1994.

* On 22 June 2009, it was revealed that Iraqi Airways had struck a deal with British aviation authorities to resume direct Baghdad-London ( Gatwick ) flights ; the flights were supposed to begin on 8 August 2009 using a Boeing 737-400 leased from Tor Air and should eventually get the Airbus A320-232 operating the route ; this has failed to happen and there has been no news since.

British Airways also directly competes with Virgin on the London Gatwick route currently operating ten flights per week on Boeing 777s.

Flights were operated by Gatwick aircraft and crews until the firm's takeover by British Airways at the end of October 1992.

British Airways is based in the 1971 extension to the end of the pier, with Heathrow and Gatwick shuttles making up most of its traffic.