History
In June 1996 M40 Trains was awarded the Chiltern Railways franchise by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising for a period of seven years with operations commencing on 21 July 1996. M40 Trains was a management buyout led by some former British Rail managers who held a combined 51% shareholding backed by John Laing plc (26%) and 3i (23%). A restructure in March 1999 saw John Laing taking an 84% shareholding with the remaining 16% owned by the former British Rail managers.
In March 2000 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced M40 Trains and Go-Ahead had been shortlisted to bid for the next Chiltern franchise. In August 2000 M40 Trains was awarded a new franchise, to run for 20 years conditional on various investments being made. The new franchise commenced on 3 March 2002.
In August 2002 John Laing acquired the remaining 16% of shares in M40 Trains it did not already own. In September 2006 John Laing was purchased by Henderson Equity Partners.
In June 2006 M40 Trains was invited by the Department for Transport to lodge a bid to operate the Snow Hill Lines lines then operated by Central Trains, as part of the letting of the West Midlands franchise. The bid was not successful.
In July 2007 Henderson Equity Partners put Laing Rail up for sale. Arriva and Go-Ahead both expressed an interest in acquiring Laing Rail, but by December 2007 only Deutsche Bahn of Germany and NedRail of the Netherlands remained in the bidding contest. In January 2008 Laing Rail was purchased by Deutsche Bahn and Chiltern became part of the DB Regio group.
A restructure in early 2011 saw DB Regio become a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains.
In May 2011 Chiltern took over the operation of services on the Oxford to Bicester Line from First Great Western.
Read more about this topic: Chiltern Railways
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