‘Defining moment’: UK’s largest train operator enters public ownership

Ministers have hailed the nationalisation of the of the largest train franchise as a ‘defining moment’ as the government pushes forward with nationalising the railway.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander hailed the nationalisation of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), with its services accounting for one in six train journeys in the UK.

Its four brands, Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express, cover large areas of south-east England and beyond.

Transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: “From this Sunday, millions of passengers across the South East and East of England will be travelling on rail services back in public hand, run for the public good, not private profit.

“Bringing Britain’s largest train operator into public ownership is a defining moment in our reform of the railway.”

Doubling down

The Department for Transport has also doubled down on its commitment to double the frequency of Gatwick Express services between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport from December.

This includes introducing more early morning services on Saturdays and Mondays from this summer.

It also pledged to crackdown on graffiti in Thameslink train toilets, upgrade signalling between Farringdon and Blackfriars to cut delays.

The department will also deploy 110 new travel safe officers to tackle anti-social behaviour across the network.

Alexander added: “It gives us an opportunity to tackle the bread and butter issues people want, like driving down cancellations and improving the frequency of services to Gatwick Airport.

“As we set up Great British Railways (GBR), we’re putting passengers first, fixing what’s broken, and delivering a railway people can rely on.”

Creating GBR

GBR will be a new public sector body bringing responsibility for tracks and trains under a single organisation for the first time since privatisation in the mid-1990s.

Legislation to create GBR was included in the recent King’s Speech, with the first train displaying GBR branding was a Southern train being unveiled in Brighton earlier this month.

GTR chief operating officer John Whitehurst said: “This is a railway that carries millions of people to work, to school, and to see friends and family every single day.

“From this Sunday every one of them will be on a publicly owned service, which is a responsibility we take seriously and one we have been preparing for.

“We have spent the past year building the foundations, and bringing even deeper integration into our operations with Network Rail, with a single focus on what’s right for our customers and communities.

He added that public ownership gives GTR the chance “to go further to deliver the railway that millions of people across the South East deserve”.

GTR is the fifth operator to enter public ownership, joining c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express were already nationalised when Labour came to power.

Chiltern Railways’ services will be next to transfer on September 20, followed by Great Western Railways on December 13.

The full public ownership programme is expected to be completed by the end of next year.