Great Western Railway to be nationalised in December

Great Western Railway will be nationalised in December, the government has announced.

The train service, which has been in private hands for 30 years, mainly run by First Group, will be the 11th train operator on the national railway brought back into public ownership.

When the Labour government was elected in 2024, legislation was immediately passed to renationalise all passenger trains when contractually allowed, a process that is expected to conclude by the end of 2027.

The date for GWR train services to be nationalised has now been set for 13 December, the Department for Transport (DfT) said, when new timetables around the country are set to take effect.

GWR has worked closely with the DfT in recent years in upgrading the mainline and introducing a new fleet of intercity trains. The operator connects Paddington station in west London on the mainline to west and south-west England and south Wales, as well as running services on lines to Oxford and Hereford.

Govia Thameslink Railway, the biggest single commuter service, which operates Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern services around London, is due to be nationalised at the end of May.

Chiltern Railways will be nationalised in September this year, leaving three other national rail operations remaining in private ownership next year after GWR’s transition: Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway.

A DfT spokesperson said: “This is another significant moment for the government’s flagship public ownership programme and brings a simpler, more reliable network under Great British Railways a step closer.

“The government is delivering on its commitment to bring services back into public ownership and put passengers, not shareholders, at the heart of our railways.”

Steps have already been taken to integrate the management of train operators and Network Rail, which looks after the track and rail infrastructure, where trains have returned to public ownership.

GBR will be headquartered in Derby but most daily rail operations will be devolved to regions, some of which are already now run as combined track and train units.

South Eastern railway was the first to have an overall managing director with responsibility for both track and train – a single point of accountability that ministers hope will raise standards and performance, as well as reducing costs.

That model has also been established at South Western Railway and in Anglia, since the privatisation of Greater Anglia. It is not known if GWR will immediately follow suit in December.