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The UK government plans to take South Western Railway into public ownership in May, in the first nationalization of the country’s passenger rail network under Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor administration.
Ministers will step in after the contract between FirstGroup and MTR to manage the SWR network expires in May, the government said on Wednesday.
Control of the operator will be handed over to the Operator of Last resort, a public body that operates nationalized trains on behalf of the government.
OLR will be renamed DfT Operator Limited next year.
SWR is one of the largest operators in the UK and provides commuter services to London Waterloo as well as much of South West England. The Financial Times first reported the government’s plans on Tuesday.
The company that operates commuter services between London and Essex, c2c, will follow by July 2025, followed by Greater Anglia, which has routes from London to the East of England, in autumn 2025.
“For too long the British public has had to put up with rail services that simply don’t work. The complex system of private rail operators has too often failed its customers,” said Transportation Secretary Heidi Alexander.
Labor has promised to renationalise rail operators after their contracts expire, with plans to bring the entire passenger network into public ownership this decade.
Alexander’s decision to start with SWR represents a more cautious approach than that taken under her predecessor Louise Haighwho resigned last week.
Haigh hatched plans to invoke the break clause to nationalize Greater Anglia or West Midlands rail as early as February, people familiar with the matter said.
Industry and government officials have warned that the plan carries a serious risk of legal action from their owner, Transport UK.
Haigh resigned from the government on Friday after admitting she pleaded guilty to a felony charge over the missing mobile phone.
The Work The government’s flagship “public ownership bill” received royal assent and became law last week, ending an era of privatization of Britain’s railways that began in 1994.
Under the law, the management contracts of the railway operators, which are leased to private companies, will be permanently returned to the government after they expire.
Around 40 per cent of services are already run by the Operator of Last Resort, after the previous Conservative government took over four failed services in England, including the East Coast Main Line and TransPennine Express.
Scottish and Welsh railways are already run by their devolved governments.
Ministers plan to introduce new laws next year to further reform the industry and hand control of operators to a new public body — Great British Railways — which will unite track and train for the first time since British Rail went out of business.
Dominic Booth, chief executive of Transport UK, which operates four rail companies including Greater Anglia, said he was surprised to see the company on the list to be the first to be nationalised, calling it “the best rail operator for both the passenger and the taxpayers”. .
“Nevertheless, we look forward to a constructive dialogue with the government at the appropriate time,” he added.
Speaking last week, SWR chief executive Stuart Meek said the company’s management was “committed to working with the government”.
“Our job at South Western Railway is to provide a good service to our customers and our communities. . . what we’re actually really excited about is the government’s plan to put rail travel at the top of the agenda,” he told reporters.
Although unions welcomed the government’s plans, the private sector criticized them.
“Simply changing train drivers will not deliver more reliable and affordable passenger services, reduce taxpayer subsidies or increase rail freight,” said Andy Bagnall, chief executive of industry lobby group Rail Partners.
This article has been edited to correct an earlier title
