South Western Railway will be the first train operator nationalised under the Labour government, ministers have announced.
One of the UK’s biggest commuter services, which operates out of London Waterloo, it will be taken into public hands in May.
SWR is run as a joint venture between First Group and MTR, the Hong Kong rail operator.
The decision spells a more cautious timeline for renationalisation under new transport secretary Heidi Alexander than envisaged 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 last resort, 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.
All operators will eventually be nationalised under the provisions of the public ownership bill championed by Haigh, which became law last week.
Haigh had, however, been mulling exercising break clauses in other contracts that could have seen Greater Anglia renationalised earlier.
Other train operators under public control had previously only had contracts terminated after clear financial or operating breaches.
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.”
LNER has been run by DOHL – shortly to be renamed DfT Operator Limited – since the Virgin East Coast franchise collapsed in 2018, while Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine followed under the Conservative government.
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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 (GBR) banner when government plans for an integrated railway come into effect.
Under the government’s broader plans to reform the railways, GBR will bring track and trains together under one “directing mind”. A shadow GBR team in the DfT is continuing to set up the new structure pending legislation. The DfT said the transition to a publicly owned railway would “improve reliability and boost economic growth”.
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.
MTR’s contract to run the Elizabeth Line trains expires in May, when it will be succeeded by a Tokyo Metro and Go-Ahead joint venture.
