fate purchased by firstgroup founded october 1996 defunct august 2003 headquarters london united kingdom key people michael schabas jeremy long jim morgan max steinkopf services passenger transportation freight transportation subsidiaries anglia railways hull trains 80 % gb railfreight website www.gbrailways.com gb railways 1 was the parent company of a number of train operating companies running the anglia railways franchise from january 1997 and launching hull trains and gb railfreight . 2 gb railways was also involved in the management of the estonian rail company edelaraudtee and had an investment in great southern rail in australia . the company was acquired by firstgroup in august 2003 . history edit anglia railways 86230 at stowmarket with a liverpool street bound service indian pacific at cook south australia hull trains 170393 at hull gb railfreight 66706 at london king s cross gb railways was formed in october 1996 by entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds initially to bid for rail franchises in the united kingdom during the privatisation of british rail . after being awarded the anglia franchise in 1996 3 4 5 6 gb railways was listed on the alternative investment market in january 1997 . 7 in october 1997 as part of the great southern railway consortium with legal & general macquarie bank railamerica g13 pty ltd 8 and serco it acquired the interstate passenger services of australian national railways which were operated as great southern rail . 9 in 1998 gb railways as part of the inter capital express consortium was shortlisted for a high speed rail service from sydney to canberra . 10 in september 2000 gb railways as part of the western freight consortium with amec engineering lodged a bid for the westrail freight business in western australia . 11 12 in october 1999 the company announced the sale of its 19.7 % share in great southern rail to serco . 13 in september 2000 gb railways launched hull trains with an 80 % shareholding 13 an open access intercity rail operator running trains between hull and london king s cross . 14 in november 2000 gb railways acquired an interest in the estonian passenger rail operator edelaraudtee through estonian subsidiary gb railways eesti as for 10million kroon 540 000 with investment and stock increase deals over five years as part of the agreement . 15 16 gb railways owned 20 % of the shares with the majority owners being edelaraudtee chairman henn ruubel and lawyer marcel vichmannile . 17 18 19 in 2002 gb railways investment in the company was only 70 000 it provided management to the company on a fee basis . 20 gb railways launched freight train operating company gb railfreight in march 2001 . 21 in 2001 the company was rumoured to be in takeover talks with potential suitors . the company s services were badly affected by the speed restrictions imposed on all train operators by railtrack after the hatfield rail crash 22 and was making a net loss despite receiving an increased subsidy from the strategic rail authority . 23 24 in 2002 a consortium of gner and freightliner attempted to acquire the company valuing it at around 1 per share or 8.75 million ; gner sought the passenger trains operations whilst freightliner sought the gb railfreight subsidiary . the offer was rejected without discussion and the companies ceased the acquisition attempt . 25 26 in july 2003 firstgroup made a takeover offer for gb railways offering 2.50 per share offer with further deferred consideration of 2.00 if the greater anglia franchise was won and 0.50 if either the northern rail or wales & borders franchises were won . 27 28 none of the bids were successful . 29 30 31 legacy edit hull trains continued as a subsidiary of firstgroup being rebranded first hull trains in 2008 . firstgroup sold gb railfreight to eurotunnel in june 2010 . 32 references edit companies house extract company no 3263210 gb railways group plc gb railways plc corporate brochure kpmg llp 10 january 2010 rail franchising policy analysis of historic data pdf department of transport section 3.1.1 anglia p. 24 gourvish terence richard 2002 british rail 1974 97 from integration to privatisation oxford university press p. 517 appendix l table l. 2 franchised passenger services 1996 7 european conference of ministers of transport competitive tendering of rail services oecd publishing 2007 p. 11 table 1 rail franchises first round gb railways group plc investing.businessweek.com bloomberg lp tooher patrick 7 january 1997 debut by gb rail nets founders pounds 2m paper profit the independent g13 pty ltd great southern railway consortium completes acquisition of australian national railways passenger business pdf serco group 31 october 1997 riding the big ticket railway digest australian rail historical society august 1998 page 18 westrail bids shortlisted railway gazette international 1 september 2000 short list announced for westrail freight sale railway digest australian rail historical society september 2000 page 5 a b gb railways grp plc final results www.investigate.co.uk gb railways group plc 8 june 2000 still on the right track ten years after launch this is hull and east riding 6 october 2010 gunter aleksei 30 november 2000 passenger transportation projects rejected the baltic times edelaraudtee sold to gb www.railwaygazette.com railway gazette international 1 january 2001 rail deal unveils shady investors the baltic times 9 august 2001 estonia passenger services restored world report international railway journal october 2001 vichmann ja ruubel said edelaraudtee p hilisteks omanikeks www.epl.ee in estonian 2 august 2001 annual report 2002 gb railways plc 31 march 2002 new rail freight player www.railfuture.org.uk railfuture 31 march 2001 murray andrew 2001 off the rails britain s great rail crisis cause consequences and cure verso companies in trouble pp. 124 125 barker sophie 28 march 2002 hatfield hit gb rail gets 23m hand out the telegraph the telegraph osborne alistair 19 june 2002 gb railways halts bid talks the telegraph the telegraph osborne alistair 19 september 2002 spurned gb rail bidder applies the brakes the telegraph the telegraph freightliner bid shunted away by gb this is london 18 september 2002 osborne alistair 17 july 2003 first group bids 500p a share for gb railways the telegraph the telegraph recommended cash offer for gb railways group plc firstgroup plc 16 july 2003 national express group announced as preferred bidder for new greater anglia franchise strategic rail authority 22 december 2003 serco nedrailways announced as preferred bidder for new northern rail franchise strategic rail authority 1 july 2004 sra announces preferred bidder for new integrated wales franchise strategic rail authority 1 august 2003 wales & borders wright robert 1 june 2010 eurotunnel in 30m deal for gb railfreight ft pearson plc retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gb railways & oldid 738951199 categories companies formerly listed on the alternative investment marketdefunct train operating companiesrailway companies established in 1996railway companies disestablished in 20031996 establishments in england2003 disestablishments in englandhidden categories cs1 estonian language sources et use british english from february 2012use dmy dates from february 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages eestisuomi edit links this page was last modified on 11 september 2016 at 23 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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