A week is a long time in the Department for Transport (DfT). Last Thursday, the then-transport secretary, Louise Haigh, welcomed Royal Assent being given to the Public Ownership Bill. This is the law that aims to renationalise the railways. Ms Haigh called it “a huge win for frustrated passengers up and down the country”.
The minister, who styled herself the passenger-in-chief, said: “For far too long, passengers have faced unacceptable levels of delays, cancellations and unreliability under a fragmented, privatised system – but not on my watch.”
Her watch was to last less than a day. Within hours of the announcement, Ms Haigh had resigned after revelations about a fraud case involving a mobile phone. Her replacement as transport secretary is Heidi Alexander. Within six days, the new incumbent has revealed the first three train operators to be brought back into public ownership.
“Starting with journeys on South Western Railway [SWR], we’re switching tracks by bringing services back under public control to create a reliable rail network that puts customers first,” said Ms Alexander.
SWR is the busy and complex operation running from London Waterloo to the southwest suburbs of the capital into Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and Dorset. One route makes it as far as Exeter in Devon, and SWR also runs the short line on the Isle of Wight.
By May 2025, First Group and MTR (which runs the Hong Kong Metro) will be on a one-way journey to railway oblivion. Within a few months, two more train operators will be on their way out: C2C, shuttling between London and south Essex; and Greater Anglia, a big network that covers East Anglia and includes the Stansted Express.
The government promises:
- Improved reliability, which will “turn the page on decades of delays, fragmentation and failure”.
- Saving up to £150m a year in payments currently made to private shareholders.
“Our broken railways are finally on the fast track to repair,” says Ms Alexander.
If the giant First Group, with decades of experience as a transport operator, and a vast Asian enterprise are being kicked out, who will be running the show?
The DfT, which is currently already in charge of some leading train operators: LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express. They are currently in the hands of an organisation catchily called “DfT Operator of Last Resort Holdings Ltd”. The term “Last Resort” does not radiate self-confidence, and the civil servants will henceforth be known as DfT Operator Ltd.
What will passengers notice? They will travel on the same rolling stock (including the new £1bn fleet of Arterio trains), with the same staff, and anyone buying an Advance ticket need not worry: it will be valid as expected whether the operation is in private or public hands.
The only tangible change, according to the government, will be fewer delays and cancellations. In the words of Mick Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers’ union, Aslef: “We are going to see the wheels and the steel put back together, an end to the failed fragmentation of our network.”
The track is already government-owned and operated in the shape of Network Rail, another offshoot of the DfT. Bring the trains into public ownership, the theory goes, will mean “rebuilding a system that the British public can trust and be proud of again.” Soon “one directing mind” will take charge. Just as British Rail did until the 1990s, Great British Railways will run the show.
Thank you for assimilating that weighty organisational flow chart. It is necessary to understand the government’s belief about the UK’s precarious railway: get the structure right and the rest will follow.
The travelling public has been led to believe nationalisation will be a magic wand – that things can only get better under the new arrangements. As someone who has always depended on rail, I fervently hope ministers and unions prove correct. But I am also conscious that the £150m in savings is only a fraction over one per cent of the total subsidy paid by taxpayers to keep trains running – currently amounting to £400 per second.
To start the assessment: I look forward to comparing the latest delay and cancellation figures for SWR’s main line, for the four weeks to 12 October, with the same spell in 2025.
Two simple metrics: this year, one in 23 trains was cancelled, and one in 25 was delayed by at least a quarter of an hour.
That’s a lot of upset passengers. We will be holding ministers to account.