The Transport Secretary has announced the first plans to return train operators to public ownership.
The news follows on from the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 received royal assent.
South Western Railway will be the first to come under public control in 2025, and will be followed by c2c in July 2025 and Greater Anglia in Autumn 2025.
The services will be run and managed by DfT Operator Limited, previously known as DfT Operator of Last Resort Holdings Limited.
The DfT says it expects all train operators to be under public control in the next three years.
“For too long, the British public have had to put up with rail services which simply don’t work. A complex system of private train operators has too often failed its users.
“Starting with journeys on South Western Railway, we’re switching tracks by bringing services back under public control to create a reliable rail network that puts customers first.
“Our broken railways are finally on the fast track to repair and rebuilding a system that the British public can trust and be proud of again.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander
Responses
Perhaps South Western Railway should inherit the Class 222 Meridians from East Midlands Railway to operate on London Waterloo-Salisbury, Frome, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter Central, Exeter St. David’s, Trowbridge, Yeovil Central, Yeovil Pen Mill, Westbury and Honiton.
And to keep the Class 158 & Class 159 to be used on other routes to & from Southampton Central & Portsmouth Harbour.
South Western Railway should introduce more Class 701s on other routes around Southwest London, Berkshire and Surrey from next year. Including operating the Class 701 Arterio on the Reading, Weybridge, Chessington South, Hampton Court, Dorking, Woking and Guildford services.
Also what is happening with the Class 458 or will SWR allow the Class 458s to operate on the Alton line or to be used on the Basingstoke stopper service.
Well it isn’t doing much for Northern
Strangely, and I never believed this to be possible, the government took control of Northern, and their poor service has actually got worse. Its is unreliable with services regularly cancelled at very short notice. Weekends are a lottery, and overcrowding, that would be unacceptable in other forms of transport is as bad as ever, especially when they send 2 carriage units into cities , while empty 6 units travel in the opposite direction at rush hour. The railways are doomed with this policy.
What rubbish. Has anyone tried a northern Sunday service recently. It’s non existent and that’s government run . Northern has zero improvement
I am afraid this will only make things worse especially with this present government as they are very incapable and very foolish !!! The railways will be come a political football and investment will diminish rapidly under the present chancellor ! They will wreck our railways !!!
But at least those hard working and under paid train drivers will be ok
I couldn’t agree more. Look at the damage that BR wrought with their various political masters. Years of trashing existing infrastructure and thus capacity and hardly a new train to be seen. Sad day.
Absolute rubbish
BR replaced steam, electrified extensively, resignalled many lines, introduced HSTs, got rid of old loose coupled freight wagons, coped with incidents without closing down sections of line for days on end, and were run by professional railwaymen who had plenty of experience.
Since privatisation it’s all about money while standards of comfort have markedly deteriorates.
While you highlight the good points, you fail to mention the run down stations, slow introduction of new commuter trains, especially in the North., and unions holding passengers to ransom by. Beeching was also another disaster, they oversaw, as was their ridiculous 1950s plan, that missed wage rises out of their poor calculations. My local line had no Sunday service for 40 years, until privatisation, and now the camel culture of state owned Northern has reintroduced that.