BRITAIN’S SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY IS RENATIONALISED – Britain’s train services were privatised in the 1990’s
South Western Railway has become the first train operator in Britain to be renationalised under plans by the Labour government to fix the country’s troubled railway system, the transport department said.
Britain’s train services were privatised in the 1990s, but several operators have been renationalised in recent years by previous administrations, some of them losing their franchises after underperforming.
Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and disrupted by industrial unrest, key services have seen quality deteriorate and widespread criticism.
“As we transition the train operating companies into public ownership starting this weekend with South Western, we’re going to require really high standards,” British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said in Bournemouth on Thursday (May 23), adding that those standards would include punctuality and reducing cancellations.
“They won’t be able to use the brand and the logo of Great British Railways unless they’ve demonstrated to us that they have done that,” she said.
