What does the pledge mean?

Britain’s railways were privatised in the 1990s. Since then, different bodies have had control over various aspects of the railways. For example, Network Rail is the public body responsible for rail infrastructure in Great Britain, but generally private train operating companies have been responsible for passenger services.

There have been cases where the Department for Transport’s operator of last resort (a public body now called DfT Operator Limited, or DFTO) took over the running of specific train operations, before Labour entered government. LNER, for example, has been run by DFTO since 2018, when it took over from Virgin Trains East Coast.

When Labour came into government in July 2024, 14 operators had a contract with the government, but four of these (LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express) had already been taken into the public sector.

Labour’s manifesto provided further detail as to how this pledge would be achieved. It said railways would be brought into public ownership “as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver, without costing the taxpayers a penny in compensation”.

Labour had already promised to set up a body called Great British Railways (GBR) in order to deliver the promise, which its manifesto said would be “responsible for investment, day-to-day operational delivery and innovations and improvements for passengers”. In its announcement of this promise, it said open access operators would be able to continue to compete “wherever there is a case that open access adds value and capacity”.

What progress has been made?

As the public ownership of train operators with government contracts is now possible in law, and some such train operators are now under public ownership, we’ve rated this pledge as “appears on track”.

After being included in the July 2024 King’s Speech, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act was introduced to Parliament in July 2024, and passed into law on 28 November 2024.

The Act amended the Railways Act 1993 to allow the transport secretary to only enter or extend a franchise agreement under specific circumstances and to allow a public sector company to provide train operations when existing franchises end.

The Act applies to England, Wales and Scotland and prohibits ministers in the Senedd and Holyrood from entering new franchise agreements. In Scotland, Scottish Rail Holdings—a public company—is already responsible for ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper, while train services within Wales are run by Transport for Wales, which is owned by the Welsh government.

Not every train company will be taken into public ownership through this legislation. It won’t affect open access operators (such as Lumo and Grand Central) or operators with contracts with devolved administrations in England (such as the London Overground and Merseyrail). Freight operators are also not included.

The first train service to come into public ownership through this Act was South Western Railway on 25 May 2025. This was followed by c2c on 20 July. The government expects Greater Anglia’s services to be nationalised in October, and West Midlands Trains’ in February 2026.

In September 2024 the government launched “Shadow Great British Railways”, which it said would “pave the way” for GBR.

In May 2025 transport secretary Heidi Alexander MP said GBR was expected to be established 12 months after the passing of the Railways Bill, which will consolidate the 14 different train operating companies, Network Rail, and DFTO into one organisation.

As of mid-September 2025, this bill had not yet been laid before Parliament. The government’s website, however, appears to suggest GBR will be created in 2027.