British railways would come back under public ownership under Labour plans
A Labour government would aim to bring the UK’s entire rail network into public ownership in its first term, the shadow transport secretary has announced.
Louise Haigh said a new national operator named Great British Railways (GBR) would be created if the party is victorious at the next general election expected later this year.
The arm’s-length public body would gradually take control of the tracks as existing private contracts expire.
That means the end of individual franchises such as Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and c2c – as well as those currently run by the British Government, including LNER and the TransPennine Express.
All would eventually be swallowed up by the GBR brand, bringing an end to passenger panic over whether a ticket bought through one operator would work for another.
Labour’s plans would also mean the abolition of Network Rail in an effort to bring tracks and trains together under one banner.
But industry figures have warned that the move could end up costing taxpayers more in the long run.
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In an exclusive chat with Metro.co.uk, Ms Haigh said: ‘We can create a new body that is single handedly focused on delivering for passengers and for the taxpayer, because the current model doesn’t work for anyone.
‘It doesn’t work for the taxpayer who is underwriting every single penny that’s spent on the rail.
‘It certainly doesn’t work for passengers who are having to contend with delayed and overcrowded trains on a daily basis.
‘And it doesn’t work for our economy – we’ve lost dozens of days to industrial action over the last couple of years, and record delays and cancellations are really holding back economic growth.’
ScotRail, which is controlled by the Scottish Government, and the Wales & Borders franchise, operated by the Welsh Government, would continue in their existing forms.
But the devolved administrations would be handed more power on infrastructure under the plans, once Network Rail is dissolved.
What happened the last time rail was nationalised?
The UK railway network was originally taken into public ownership in 1947, as part of Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s flurry of nationalisation which also resulted in the birth of the NHS.
British Rail operated for almost 50 years, which included the massive slashing of routes under the notorious Beeching cuts of the 1960s.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, it became something of a national punchline, with comedians poking fun at its unpleasant food and unreliability.
A programme of privatisation took place under John Major between 1994 and 1997, and Tony Blair decided not to reverse that process when Labour regained power.
However, the old company lives on through the iconic British Rail double arrow logo, which is still used to symbolise the railway on signs across the country.
The big operational decisions for GBR would be made by rail experts picked from the existing industry, rather than by civil servants or government officials, Ms Haigh said.
She added: ‘There’s brilliant people making brilliant innovations all the time and trying to do the right thing for passengers. But because the system is so complex, it hampers those efforts and prevents them being delivered.
‘So a unified publicly controlled system that is run by the people who actually understand the railways means that they can deliver those changes much across the network.’
Conductors, drivers and other staff who currently work for private operators would simply be transferred over to a GBR contract.
The name Great British Railways is taken directly from a white paper released by the Conservative government in May 2021, which outlined a radical shake-up of the railways that has not yet come to fruition.
Those proposals, written up by then-transport secretary Grant Shapps and businessman Keith Williams, still involved a ‘major role’ for private business in the rail sector.
In the vision described in the report, GBR would ‘own the infrastructure, receive the fare revenue, run and plan the network and set most fares and timetables’ – but contract with separate companies to operate the trains themselves.
Rail Partners, an industry body which supports the Williams-Shapps plan, said Labour’s idea would result in a ‘prolonged and messy transition’.
Andy Bagnall, the group’s chief executive, said: ‘Train companies agree that change is needed for the railways, but nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs over time.
‘Creating a thriving railway for customers and taxpayers does not have to be an ideological choice between a monopoly railway in public hands and one that delivers private investment and innovation through franchising.’
The Department for Transport has been contacted for comment.
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