Starting this Sunday (31 May 2026), GTR will officially become part of the growing list of publicly owned operators providing rail services in Britain.
GTR are currently responsible for 1 in 6 passenger rail journeys in Britain, and provide services for hundreds of millions of across the South East each year.
A new 100 day plan set out by GTR will aim to improve services across the board once the transition has begun, and will see a number of measures put into place, including:
- Doubling Gatwick Express services
- Recruiting more drivers to reduce delays
- Improving onboard toilets
- Introducing travel safe officers
- Upgrading signalling to reduce cancellations
- Establishing better customer service communication
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said:From this Sunday, millions of passengers across the South East and East of England will be travelling on rail services back in public hands – run for the public good, not private profit.
Bringing Britain’s largest train operator into public ownership is a defining moment in our reform of the railway. It gives us an opportunity to tackle the bread and butter issues people want, like driving down cancellations and improving the frequency of services to Gatwick Airport.
As we set up Great British Railways, we’re putting passengers first, fixing what’s broken, and delivering a railway people can rely on – one that rebuilds trust, regenerates communities and delivers the high standards passengers expect and deserve.
Last week saw the unveiling of the very-first Great British Railways (GBR) branded train at Brighton, and starting this Sunday around 8 in 10 passenger rail journeys that GBR will ultimately be responsible for will take place on publicly owned services.
John Whitehurst, Chief Operating Officer for GTR, said:This is a railway that carries millions of people to work, to school, and to see friends and family every single day. From this Sunday every one of them will be on a publicly owned service, which is a responsibility we take seriously and one we have been preparing for.
We have spent the past year building the foundations, and bringing even deeper integration into our operations with Network Rail, with a single focus on what's right for our customers and communities.
That work means customers are already getting a railway that's been transforming, and public ownership gives us the chance to go further to deliver the railway that millions of people across the South East deserve.
GTR is the fifth operator to enter public ownership under the Government’s Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act, marking another step toward a unified railway under GBR.
The operator joins West Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia, c2c, South Western, Northern, TransPennine Express, Southeastern and LNER which are currently managed by DfT Operator Limited (DFTO), with Chiltern Railways’ services set to be transferred on 20 September 2026 and Great Western Railways’ on 13 December.
A full public ownership programme is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
