SOUTH WEST TRAINS WILL BE FIRST IN LINE FOR NATIONALISATION
South Western Railway will be the first train operator to be nationalised under the new Labour government, it has been announced.
The local service has been plagued by cancellations and delays over recent years.
One of the UK’s biggest commuter services, which operates out of London Waterloo to stations including Teddington, Strawberry Hill, St Margaret’s and Richmond, it will be taken into public hands in May.
SWR is currently run as a joint venture between First Group and MTR, the Hong Kong rail operator.
The decision, announced last night, represents a more cautious timeline for renationalisation under new the transport secretary Heidi Alexander than proposed by her predecessor, Louise Haigh, who resigned last week.
SWR will be the next to be brought under the control of the Department for Transport’s operator of DOHL, when its contract ends in May.
Two more commuter operations out of London will be next, with C2C, the Essex service, expected to be in public hands by July, and Greater Anglia to follow in the autumn of 2025.
Alexander said: “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.”
All passenger train services operated under contracts with the DfT are expected to be nationalised within the next three years.
Passenger trains are expected to run under The Great British Railways banner when government plans for an integrated railway come into effect.
South Western recently reported an operating profit of £12.2m for the last financial year, on the back of a £140.9m subsidy from the DfT. It had once been among the most profitable franchises, making net payments to government, before Covid accelerated the fall in daily commuting into the capital and the collapse of season ticket sales.