South Western Railway: Labour begin renationalisation of railways with first firm as SWR taken into public control

SWR is the first railway firm to be renationalists, having previously been owned by FirstGroup and MTR Corporation. The firm will now be run for DtF (Department for Transport) Operator.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has labeled the move “a new dawn for our railways”. Speaking just before she travelled on the first renationalised departure from London Waterloo, she said: “Moving away from 30 years of inefficiency, delayed services and failing passengers, and moving confidently into a new era – the era of Great British Railways.

“That’s why I was so adamant I had to be here at Waterloo this morning, alongside all these other excited passengers and rail aficionados, for what really is a watershed moment. Most rail users don’t spend much time thinking about who runs the trains, but they do want them to work, and that’s why there’s a genuine excitement here today at the generational opportunity we have to completely transform train travel in this country.

“As the 6:14 service leaves Waterloo, I’ll be sat on it with a sense of pride but also a determination to get this right and deliver a railway Britain can be proud of again.”

The government plans to renationalise all other private firms when the contracts of private companies reach the end of their minimum terms, integrating the services into Great British Railways (GBR), a new public sector body. The next service set to be renationalised will be c2c, which runs between London and Essex, on July 20, while Greater Anglia will follow in October.

Britain’s railway services were privatised in the mid-1990s, although operators currently under public ownership include LNER, Northern, Southeastern, and TransPennine Express. The entire renationalisation process is set to be completed by the end of 2027. Legislation to enable GBR to be created is expected to be introduced to Parliament later this year.

Richard Bowker, former boss of the Strategic Rail Authority, has welcomed the move, adding that while it is “quite easy to be sceptical”, there is “real potential here for things to get better”.

He said: “It has become overly complex, and I think bringing together track and train more now is a pragmatic and sensible thing to do. The key with this will not really be who owns it. Are the people that are going to be running it day to day… going to be genuinely empowered to make the right decisions to run the railway?

“We’ve got plenty of very, very able managers, but over the last five years – particularly since Covid when franchises effectively went bust and national rail contracts were put in place – there has been a huge amount of centralised control, and it’s quite stifling.”

Johnbosco Nwogbo, from the public ownership campaign group We Own It, said: “Today is a great day for passengers because our railway is finally beginning its journey back to putting us, our communities and our planet before the profits of private shareholders. But the job is not yet done. The Government still has to get public ownership right, so that it really delivers for people.”