When will every major UK rail operator be nationalised? Full list of routes and dates

Before Labour was elected back in 2024, one of the party’s big manifesto pledges was to renationalise Britain’s railways. Keir Starmer and co promised to bring all of England’s major railway lines back into public ownership by 2027, and we are starting to see this come into effect. 

A few of England’s train companies have already been brought into public ownership, as their private contracts with the Department for Transport expired. Going forward, the government has pledged to renationalise one line roughly every three months over the next couple of years. 

Here’s everything we know about the renationalisation of the railways so far. 

Which train companies have already been nationalised?

Here is a list of nationalised train companies and the date they were renationalised:

• South Western Railway (SWR), May 25 2025
• c2c, July 20 2025

Already in the public sector:

• LNER
• Northern
• Southeastern
• TransPennine Express
• ScotRail
• Transport for Wales Rail

When will the rest of the British rail companies be nationalised?

These are the companies that will be nationalised by the end of 2026, and the dates that have been confirmed so far:

• Greater Anglia, October 12 2025
• West Midlands Trains (includes West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway), February 1 2026
• Govia Thameslink Railway (includes Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink), May 31 2026
• Chiltern Railways, TBC
• Great Western Railways, TBC

Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway will remain privately owned until 2027, but will be nationalised in the future. 

Will nationalisation make train fares cheaper?

It’s bad news, because nationalisation isn’t going to slash the price of your extortionate train ticket. In the October 2024 Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that regulated fares in Britain would rise in by 4.6 percent in 2025. Fares are expected to increase again in 2026. 

Every major rail operator in Britain, ranked from worst to best. 

Ticketless train travel that tracks passenger locations is being trialled in England.