First published in the i.

This week’s dramatic rail news was the resignation of Louise Haigh and appointment of Heidi Alexander as the new Secretary of State for Transport. However, the more significant development was actually the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill receiving Royal Assent. This is a watershed moment that means the Government has assumed responsibility for the UK’s railways. It is expected that the next step is announcing which train company will be first to be brought into public ownership as a result of the Act, with over half of train companies likely to be under government control by the end of next year. The new Transport Secretary must now set out how she will deliver improvements for passengers, taxpayers and freight customers.

Train companies have been calling for radical reform of the railway for several years and want the same outcomes as the Government – a better railway for those who use it and those who pay for it. But simply changing who runs the trains won’t mean more reliable or affordable services. Four in ten passenger train miles travelled across the UK are already on trains run by public operators and the evidence shows that public and private operators face the same challenges. Looking at the most recent performance data from the Office of Rail and Road, four of the eight least reliable train companies were publicly operated. By comparison, the five most punctual operators were all privately operated. And, the infrastructure manager, Network Rail — publicly owned since 2002 — is responsible for around 60 per cent of delay minutes.

Changing who runs the trains is also unlikely to reduce fares because of nationalisation alone. We already know in the short term that they are in fact going to increase in price, with the recent Budget revealing a 4.6% rise in rail fares from March 2025. Going forward, rail will now be competing for investment with the demands of other public services, including the NHS, schools and defence. This is particularly challenging in the current financial climate.

Of course, with Royal Assent, train companies have lost the argument. We advocated for a public-private partnership on the railways that delivers the best of both worlds for passengers and taxpayers – commercial focus under public control – but the government has a clear mandate to deliver on its plans for rail renationalisation. Our focus will now shift to ensuring a successful transition. This is important as a successful railway is key to economic recovery and is necessary to help Britain reach net zero.  Rail Partners and its members care about the future of the railway regardless of our role in it.

Far from delivering large scale reforms to the railway, this Act only serves to ban the future contracting of train companies to run services with the more challenging questions delayed until the larger Railways Bill, expected next year. The new Transport Secretary has the more challenging job in the second Bill of answering how the railway will be organised to drive improvements, most notably how Great British Railways will be designed to ensure the passenger experience is one of more reliable and affordable train services. She must also create a system that works for both freight and open access operators that will remain in the private sector.

This first Act alone isn’t going to solve any of the big issues on the railway. With responsibility now falling to the Government, the test is how they will deliver a successful railway for the future, to help drive wider economic growth.