New Labour government 'will directly control 54 per cent of passenger trains'
More than half of all passenger trains will be state-run by this time next year, The Telegraph has reported.
This comes after the new Labour government pledged to proceed with plans to nationalise the railways – introducing its flagship rail nationalisation bill to Parliament on Thursday (July 18).
An article on The Telegraph’s website read: “It’s ‘full steam ahead’ for Labour’s plan to renationalise the railways as data analysis shows it will control 3.1m services by next July.
“The Government will directly control 54 per cent of passenger trains across the country by July 2025, data analysis by The Telegraph has revealed.”
The article quoted Transport Secretary Louise Haigh’s post on social media, which read: “Public ownership of rail, full steam ahead.”
The national newspaper reported that the number of individual services run by the Government is set to increase from a quarter of all trains to more than half of them by July 2025.
"Over the next 12 months four passenger rail contracts will expire, meaning ministers can bring them under state control,” transport correspondent Gareth Corfield, added.
"They are c2c, Chiltern, South Western Railway (SWR) and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).
“Analysis of figures published by the Office of Rail and Road, the regulator, showed that 5,677,890 train services ran in the 12 months leading up to April.
“Of those, a quarter were under state control. This figure is set to double to more than half of all trains – that is, 3.1 million, or 54.8 per cent – by July next year.”