19th Sep 2026 11:50
(Alliance News) - Chiltern Railways on Sunday will become the UK's latest train operator to be transferred to public ownership.
The company runs services between London Marylebone, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and the West Midlands and will be the sixth train operator whose services have been nationalised by the British government.
From December, 25 additional daily Chiltern Railways services will be introduced – providing 10,000 extra seats each weekday to tackle "overcrowding", the UK Department for Transport said.
This includes half hourly services during weekdays on the Chiltern main line between London and Birmingham, as well as more services at the weekends.
"Every transfer into public ownership gives us the chance to tackle the bread-and-butter issues people care about – more frequent, comfortable trains that turn up on time," said Rail Minister Peter Hendy.
"It will not happen overnight, but we will build a railway the country can trust and rely on and that will create growth, jobs and homes."
The UK's largest train operator Govia Thameslink Railway as well as c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains have previously been brought into public ownership by the government.
Great Western Railways' services will follow on December 13.
LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express were already nationalised when Labour came to power.
GBR will be a new public sector body bringing responsibility for tracks and trains under a single organisation for the first time since privatisation in the mid-1990s.
Legislation to create GBR was included in a recent speech by King Charles.
source: PA
Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.