South Western Railway (SWR) has become the first operator to be nationalised by the government as part of its long-term strategy to create the publicly-owned body Great British Railways (GBR).
In its manifesto, the Labour Party committed to the creation of GBR as a way to tackle ongoing issues such as high prices and poor punctuality facing many of the services run by private operators. The effective renationalisation of the UK’s rail system is planned to happen gradually as existing private contracts elapse.
While SWR was the first operator to be nationalised over the weekend, all passenger services running under contracts with the department will return to public ownership by the end of 2027. Franchises C2C and Greater Anglia will be the next transferred into public ownership, with C2C moving in July 2025 followed by Greater Anglia in autumn 2025.
SWR was previously run by First Group, which held the contract to operate the franchise from 2017 until this weekend alongside Hong Kong’s...