Great Western Railway will return to public ownership on 13 December, but passengers should not expect services to change overnight. The operator's managing director, Mark Hopwood, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that customers should not expect "radically different" change when the company comes back into public hands next month.

"Fundamentally, it's going to be the same staff on the same trains at the same stations," Hopwood said, adding that staff had been working hard behind the scenes to make sure passengers do not notice too much change. "I think people should be reassured that this isn't a change that's going to make everything radically different, but it will be a change that I think will put the right foundations in for us to build a better railway."

The Swindon-based operator, owned by FirstGroup, has run services linking London with the south-west of England and Wales since 1996. Its return to public ownership is the next step in the government's programme to bring passenger rail services back into public control, with all operators under Department for Transport contracts expected to transfer by the end of 2027.

Longer trains planned as carriages freed up

While there will be little immediate change to day-to-day services and timetables, Hopwood said GWR was working on future plans, including freeing up more carriages for services. "We have got a plan to lengthen some trains, but we don't have enough rolling stock to lengthen everything," he said. Additional rolling stock is currently being introduced in Devon and Cornwall, which will then release some trains to lengthen services in other parts of the network.

GWR will become the eleventh operator to come under public ownership since the programme began. Ten of the fourteen train operators delivering passenger services under contract with the Department for Transport are already in public ownership, after Chiltern Railways transferred on 20 September. Avanti West Coast is due to follow on 7 March 2027. Welsh services were nationalised in 2021 and Scotland took its trains into public ownership the following year.

What passengers can expect

The transfer will see GWR's services run by a new publicly owned operating company, a subsidiary of DfT Operator Limited, ahead of the establishment of Great British Railways, the single body that will eventually bring track and train together. The Railways Bill, which will create Great British Railways, is currently going through Parliament, and the new body is expected to be operational around twelve months after the bill receives Royal Assent.

Passengers should not expect immediate fare reductions as a result of the change. The government has previously announced a freeze on regulated fares in England until March 2027, which it has estimated will save commuters more than 300 pounds on some of the most expensive routes. GOV.UK confirms that Great Western Railway's services will be the next to transfer, on 13 December 2026, followed by Avanti West Coast on 7 March 2027.