The British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , 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...

 Class 319 dual-voltage electric multiple units (EMU) were built by BREL

BREL

British Rail Engineering Limited , was the railway systems engineering division of British Rail, until the design and building of trains in the UK was privatised in 1993. On 31 October 1969, the company was incorporated as British Rail Engineering Limited.-Main products:The vast majority of BREL's...

 York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 in two batches in 1987–88 and 1990. The trains were introduced for new north-south cross-London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 services from Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

 to Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

, and since privatisation these services have been operated by Thameslink

Thameslink (train operating company)

Thameslink was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, run by Govia . It operated the London commuter railway line known by the same name...

 and First Capital Connect

First Capital Connect

First Capital Connect is a passenger train operating company in England that began operations on the National Rail network on 1 April 2006...

, the former franchise having been merged with the Great Northern section of the former WAGN franchise to form the latter train operating company

Train operating company

The term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...

 on 1 April 2006 as a result of re-franchising.