TRANSPORT unions have welcomed government confirmation that three rail operators will be renationalised next year.

RMT hailed the first step under the new Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act and establishment of Great British Railways.

General secretary Mick Lynch said: “This is a significant step forward for passengers, rail workers, and those who want to see an efficient rail system run for the public good, rather than private profit.

“Bringing infrastructure and passenger services under one employer in public ownership means proper investment in operations, harmonising conditions for staff, and prioritising the needs of passengers.

“RMT will support the roll-out of Great British Railways and the tangible benefits a fully publicly owned rail system can bring.”

Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “This is the right decision, at the right time, to take the brakes off the UK economy and rebuild Britain. 

“The privateers have taken hundreds of millions of pounds from our railways and successive Conservative governments have pursued a policy of managed decline which has sold taxpayers, passengers, and staff short.

“Now we are going to see the wheels and the steel put back together, an end to the failed fragmentation of our network, and a railway brought back into the public sector, where it belongs, to be run as a public service, not for private profit.”

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said that she recognised that “affordability is really important to people” but that people were “willing to pay for a good service” as the government confirmed next year’s renationalisation of South Western Railway in May 2025, C2C in July and Greater Anglia in autumn.

We Own It lead campaigner Johnbosco Nwogbo said: “If this is to succeed, the government must go all in to serve passengers and taxpayers. That means three things:

“Take the companies that own and lease the trains themselves back into public ownership — clawing back £250 million a year lost to private shareholder dividends.

“Invest to bring down ticket prices and reopen new routes, like the Dartmoor Line and the Northumberland Line, creating new economic corridors.

“Passengers need our own democratically elected watchdog to give us a real say — like a trade union for people who use the railway.

“Meaningful public ownership means giving the public a voice on how our services are run.”