THE next three British passenger operators to transfer into public ownership were confirmed by the Department for Transport (DfT) on September 26.
Following the previously-announced transfers of Greater Anglia on October 12 and West Midlands Trains (WMT) on February 1 2026, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) will revert to public ownership on May 31 2026.
The largest passenger operator in Britain, running services in and around London and southeast England branded as Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink, GTR is currently held by a joint venture of Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, whose National Rail Contract (NRC) with DfT expired on April 1. The original contract includes an extension up to April 2028, which will now terminate in May 2026.
According to DfT, by the middle of next year, eight in 10 passenger journeys that the department is responsible for will be operated by the public sector. Two operators have already transferred to public ownership this year: South Western Railway (SWR) on May 25 and c2c on July 20.
Chiltern Railways and Great Western Railway (GWR) are expected to follow GTR, with the secretary of state for transport, Heidi Alexander, yet to make a final decision on when this will take place.
All passenger services operated under DfT contracts are expected to return to public ownership by the end of 2027 and will eventually be integrated, together with infrastructure management, into the new body Great British Railways (GBR). This is expected to come into being in 2027 following the passage of the Railways Bill which will be introduced to Parliament later this year.
