British Rails Basic vocabulary

a smoker carriage	вагон для курців
a non – smoker carriage	вагон для некурців
a face to direction seat	місце в напрямку руху
a back to direction seat	місце в зворотному напрямку руху
pay phones	таксофони
far off parts	віддалені частини
a one-way/ single ticket	квиток в одному напрямку
around trip ticket/return ticket	квиток в два напрямки
a day return ticket	квиток в два напрямки на один день
rail traveller	подорожуючий залізницею
half-price	півціни
at reduced rates	за зниженим тарифом(за пільгами)
travel card	проїзний квиток
extra-cost	додаткова плата
destination	місце призначення
valid	діючий, дійсний
issued	виданий
aisle	прохід
extra cost	додаткова вартість

The railway network of Great Britain is very wide. It was operated by British Rail (BR) between 1948 and 1997.  Between 1994 and 1997, British Rail was privatized. Under the process of British Rail's privatization, operations were split into more than 100 companies. Now BritRail is a trademarked name of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) of Britain. BritRail was created as an initiative by the many private railway companies of ATOC in order to entice international travellers to visit Britain and explore its countryside by train.

The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world; the world's first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825. Most of the railway track is managed by Network Rail, which in 2010 had a network of 15,754 kilometres of standard-gauge lines, of which 5,249 kilometres are electrified. There are also several private railways (some of them narrow-gauge), which are primarily short tourist lines. The British railway network is connected with that of continental Europe by an undersea rail link, the Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994.

Travel by British railways is fast, comfortable and easy. You can travel to many places by Inter-City trains. Air-conditioned Inter-City-125 services (travelling at speeds up to 125 miles per hour, or 201 kilometers per hour) link London with South and West Wales, the West of England, the Midlands, the North-East of England and Scotland. For example, you can reach Cardiff, Leeds and York, each in less than two hours.

New Inter-City-225 services link London with far-off parts of Britain in record time. It is now possible to travel from London to Edinburgh in as little as 3 hours 59 minutes. Inter-City trains usually have a restaurant and/or buffet cars, where hot meals or, in the case of buffet cars, light snacks and drinks are served.

When you buy a ticket, you can choose a smoker or a non-smoker carriage, you can choose a face to direction or a back to direction seat, you can also choose a window or an aisle seat. In some trains there are pay phones.

Railway travel in Britain is expensive, more expensive than in European continent. There are two classes of carriages in these trains: first and standard. First class carriages are more comfortable and the tickets are more expensive. A one-way ticket is called a single ticket and a round-trip ticket is called a return ticket. If you are going to return on the same day, buy a day return which is considerably cheaper.

There are special offers for passengers made by railway companies. For example, some rail cards sold to certain groups of rail travellers enable them to travel at half-price or at specially reduced rates. Among such travellers are old age pensioners (OAPs), young people under 24 or disabled people. These rail cards are valid for one year only.

There are a lot of BritRail Passes for various railway trips.

A London Visitor Travel card (in full, a One Day Travel-card) is a special ticket issued at a reduced rate for travel on a single day within the Greater London area by any train, including those of the underground, and also some buses.

BritRail operates a service of 1600 trains a day serving over 2000 stations; there’s hardly a part of Britain that can’t be reached by train. A fast Inter-City network links London with all major cities as Bristol, Cardiff, York and Edinburgh with trains leaving the capital every hour during the main part of the day. Also, at no extra cost, you can travel up to 125 mph (200kph) on the High Speed Inter-City Trains to many major destinations.