JR East to operate British rail franchise

No, it's simply a matter of Open Season upon the poor British Rail user. These Operating Companies essentially have a license to print money, highlighted by the fact that the UK has one of the highest costs of rail travel anywhere...

Hopefully this is the beginning of all rail way operations in the world by JR.

But please keep your riff raff out our jolly little country, old chap! 

I think you are confusing Japan with china

Thank god for this. I really hope they manage to expand to the southeast, i'm moving to york but back when I was working down south I had to walk to work almost every day during winter and that was 6.5 miles!

Oh my God, we are going to have real trains, finally ?!!!

Sad to say that the UK has one of worst and also most expensive trains in Europe. Well in Europe for now as it may soon become some deserted island unfortunatelly, lost in the middle of nowhere :-(

Luckily for train lovers there will be always unique Japanese excellency :-)

I hop[e they take over the TTC in Toronto Canada making it a lot more efficient than its self proclaimed reliable status.

Poor old JR East, they have no idea what they have gotten themselves into. Still, at least they are starting out small and not trying to grab one of the major networks in the South East. Good luck to them but I'd be surprised if they stick around once the contract has run its course.

Hopefully operating Queensland Rail in Australia is next on the list. Not a day goes past without commuter trains being cancelled or running late because of some kind of fault and we've had 100s of timetable changes in the past 8 months because they opened a new rail line but didn't hire any extra train drivers to drive the many extra trains on that line. Plus they've purchased new rail stock from India but there are so many basic faults in them (e.g. the train drivers can't see the stopping mark on the platforms etc) that we don't expect them to be operational for many many more months.

I've been hoping that JR start operating UK lines for a while now. I know how punctual JR trains are, pretty much down to the second, so it would be nice to see that actually happen in the UK too. Of course, I don't know how cooperative the West Midlands drivers are going to be. If they have even half a brain cell, they should cooperate fully and without fuss, that way when my fellow Brits see how smoothly these trains now run, they'll be putting pressure on the government to get the rest of the country's rail networks running just as smoothly.

A man can dream, right?

Good luck with that, although they can't be worse than the last lot.

They have no idea what they are taking on. It will all end in tears.

Huh. Foreign investment in the UK - fine. But please keep your riff raff out our jolly little country, old chap! Unless you're minted and want to buy up exclusive properties in Knighstbridge, of course. Properties that you'll never use, what ho!

Apologies, rant over. I'm sure this will be a nice little earner and maybe the services will actually run on time, not be grossly overpriced and safe. For passengers and staff. Here's hoping.

The Japanese stake is only a third. The Dutch rail operator holds what appears to be the controlling stake. But this story comes to us from Japanese media, so anyway....

Should call it "JR UK". I hope they take over more rail franchises here in the UK, because the Japanese are well known for having punctual train schedules.