First renationalised train service starts today – but not how you’d have hoped…

Published

6 months ago

May 25, 2025

admin

South Western Railway (SWR) has been renationalised this weekend as part of the government’s transition towards Great British Railways.

The train operator officially came under public ownership at around 2am on Sunday – and the first journey, the 5.36am from Woking, was partly a rail replacement bus service due to engineering works.

So what difference will renationalisation make to passengers and will journeys be cheaper?

What is nationalisation?

Nationalisation means the government taking control of industries or companies, taking them from private to public ownership.

Britain’s railway lines are currently run by train operating companies as franchises under fixed-term contracts, but Labour have said they want to take control of the lines when those fixed terms end.

In its manifesto, the party vowed to return rail journeys to public ownership within five years by establishing Great British Railways (GBR) to run both the network tracks and trains.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said renationalising SWR was “a watershed moment in our work to return the railways to the service of passengers”.

“But I know that most users of the railway don’t spend much time thinking about who runs the trains – they just want them to work,” she added. “That’s why operators will have to meet rigorous performance standards and earn the right to be called Great British Railways.”

How will ticket prices be affected?

Labour have argued cutting off payments flowing into the private sector could save the taxpayer £150m a year.

But the government has not explicitly promised the savings made from nationalisation will be used to subsidise fees.

It is unlikely rail fares will fall as a result of nationalisation, rail analyst William Barter told Sky News.

“The government could mandate fare cuts if it wanted to, but there’s no sign it wants to,” he said.

“At the moment, I’m sure they would want to keep the money rather than give it back to passengers. The current operator aims to maximise revenue, and there’s no reason the government would want them to do anything differently under government control.”

What difference will it make for passengers?

Britain’s railways are frequently plagued by delays, cuts to services and timetable issues, but Mr Barter said nationalisation will make very little day-to-day difference to passengers.

There was “no reason to think” the move would improve issues around delays and cancellation of services, he said.

“It’s going to be the same people, the same management,” he explained.

“The facts of what the operator has to deal with in terms of revenue, infrastructure, reliability, all the rest of it – they haven’t changed.”

Which services are being next to be nationalised?

In the longer term, the move is likely to bring “a degree of certainty compared with relatively short-term franchises”, Mr Barter said, noting the government would only want to renationalise a franchise “because in one way or another something very bad is going on in that franchise, so in a way it can only get better”.

It also means the government will have greater accountability for fixing problems with punctuality and cancellations.

Mr Barter said: “If this is the government’s baby, then they’re going to do their best to make sure it doesn’t fail. So rather than having a franchise holder they can use as a political scapegoat, it’s theirs now.”

He added: “In the short term, I don’t think you’d expect to see any sort of change. Long term, you’ll see stability and integration bringing about gradual benefits. There’s not a silver bullet of that sort here.”

Next to be renationalised later this year will be c2c and Greater Anglia, while seven more companies will transfer over when their franchises end in the future.

Politics

Starmer says Lammy ‘setting out facts to best of his knowledge’ on prisoner releases

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2025

admin

Starmer says Lammy 'setting out facts to best of his knowledge' on prisoner releases

Sir Keir Starmer has said David Lammy “set out the facts” on mistaken prisoner releases “to the best of his knowledge” amid questions over what the justice secretary knew and when.

Speaking for the first time since it emerged two prisoners were wrongly freed from HMP Wandsworth, the prime minister also said the situation was “intolerable” and that he was “angry and frustrated”.

The Met Police announced on Wednesday afternoon that registered sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian national, had been released in error on 29 October. He is still at large.

A few hours later it was revealed another prisoner, 35-year-old William “Billy” Smith, had been wrongly released on Monday – the same day he was convicted for multiple fraud offences and handed a 45-month jail term. He has since handed himself in.

Asked how the public can have confidence in the justice system, Sir Keir said: “Let me just say how angry and frustrated I am that these mistakes have been made in releasing people. They’re intolerable, and they shouldn’t be made.

“A lot of it comes from the burden and the strain on the system because of the failures of the last government. But I recognise it’s our job to step up and to fix this.”

Sir Keir went on to defend Mr Lammy’s handing of the saga, which comes a week on from the mistaken release of Ethiopian sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who has since been deported.

Mr Lammy declared on 27 October that stronger prison checks in light of the Kebatu fiasco would come into force immediately.

But on Thursday, he said those checks were not in place when Kaddour-Cherif was released two days later.

Asked whether he was being truthful last week or on Thursday, Sir Keir said: “David Lammy can speak for himself on that.

“I’m absolutely clear that he’s setting out the facts, to the best of his knowledge and that’s the right thing for him to do.

“But whatever the checks, it’s intolerable. So, we have to make sure that whatever changes are needed are made.”

Government sources have said the mistakes that triggered the release of Kaddour-Cherif happened at the end of September, before the new regime was put in place.

Meanwhile on Thursday night, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced the rollout of “cutting-edge technology to more prisons” in order to reduce human error and modernise “the archaic processes that have led to mistakes”.

“These measures will build on the tough new checks that were brought in last month, and ensure governor oversight of all releases,” the MoJ said.

Mr Lammy, who is also the deputy prime minister, is facing further criticism for failing to reveal that he knew of Kaddour-Cherif’s release during PMQs on Wednesday, when he was filing in for Sir Keir who is at the COP summit in Brazil.

He was asked repeatedly by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Kebatu and refused to answer the question. The news broke at the end of PMQs.

On Thursday, Mr Lammy said he did not have all the details in the morning and did not want to mislead the public.

He told broadcasters: “I took the judgment that it is important when updating the House and the country about serious matters like this, that you have all of the details.

“I was not equipped with all of the detail, and the danger is that you end up misleading the House and the general public.

“So that is the judgment I took. I think it’s the right judgment.”

But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “David Lammy has either lied or has absolutely no clue what’s going on in his department.

“How can the public have confidence in the justice secretary when he can’t establish a timeline of events or answer basic questions?”

Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure.

It is understood he is not an asylum seeker but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.