Train services on many routes are being disrupted this morning because of a fault with the GSM-R system, which allows train drivers to talk to signallers on a radio link.Operators mainly affected according to National Rail are ScotRail, South Western Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway and Southeastern. Some trains are running late and others may be cancelled.Some services from Reading and London Heathrow on the Elizabeth Line are also being cancelled.National Rail says the fault is ‘currently being investigated’.

FirstGroup is stepping up its open access ambitions by completing the buyout of Grand Union Trains and bidding for a new route to Somerset and Devon. First now owns Grand Union Trains GWML Holdings Limited, which has rights for open access services between London Paddington and Carmarthen, calling at Bristol Parkway, Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction, Cardiff Central, Gowerton and Llanelli from December 2027. First is also asking the Office of Rail and Road today for five daily return paths between London and Paignton, calling at Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St David’s and Torquay from May 2028, as well as a sixth path between Highbridge & Burnham and London. Both the Carmarthen and Paignton routes would be branded Lumo. The Group said it expected the new services to be turning over £50 million after two years, and that it is currently ‘considering rolling stock options’. The move is the latest in a flurry of open access applications from the private sector, which have been made as the Government moves ahead with nationalising all remaining contracted passenger operators, starting with South Western Railway in May. First has already gained open access rights between London and Stirling, and wants to extend its London-Edinburgh Lumo route to Glasgow. FirstGroup chief executive officer Graham Sutherland said: ‘Growing our open access rail portfolio is a key priority for FirstGroup. The introduction of our new Carmarthen to London Paddington service will significantly bolster our footprint, and should our other applications be successful, we will almost treble our current open access capacity over the next few years.’

South Western Railway will be the first private passenger operator to be renationalised under the new Passenger Railway Services Act, the Government has confirmed. The former franchise, which is currently a National Rail Contract, was to have expired on 28 May 2023 but was extended by a Notice of Variation to 25 May 2025 and will end then. South Western Railway is owned by FirstGroup (70 per cent) and MTR (30 per cent). SWR took over from Stagecoach’s South West Trains on 20 August 2017. The next in the queue will be Trenitalia’s c2c, where the contract ends on 20 July 2025, followed by Greater Anglia in the autumn of 2025, although no exact date has been quoted. Greater Anglia’s National Rail Contract, owned by UK Transport Group (60 per cent) and Mitsui (40 per cent), had not been due to expire until 20 September 2026. Chiltern Railways and Govia Thameslink Railway both have earlier break points, with core expiry dates of 1 April 2025, but they have not yet been listed for renationalisation. The DfT told Railnews: ‘Once a core expiry date has passed, the transport secretary can end a contract by giving the operator twelve weeks’ notice. Greater Anglia’s core expiry date was 15 September 2024. We need to remain flexible about the dates when contracts actually end, so that we can manage the transition to public ownership smoothly.’ The DfT is also changing the way renationalisation is being described. DfT Operator of Last Resort Holdings Limited, previously known as DOHL, has become DfT Operator Limited, and its functions will eventually be part of Great British Railways. The DfT said its renamed Operator ‘will continue to focus on transforming Britain’s railways into a more reliable, affordable, and accessible system’. The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024, which makes public ownership the default option rather than the last resort, received Royal Assent on 28 November, only a few hours before transport secretary Louise Haigh resigned after it came to light that she had received a conditional discharge for fraud in 2014 in connection with a mobile phone, which she had wrongly said was stolen. She said it had been a mistake on her part, and she regretted following legal advice not to comment when she was interviewed by police. Her successor at the DfT is Heidi Alexander, who is now responsible for continuing the Government’s railway renationalisation programme. She said: ‘For too long, the British public have had to put up with rail services which simply don’t work. A complex system of private train operators has too often failed its users. ‘Starting with journeys on South Western Railway, we’re switching tracks by bringing services back under public control to create a reliable rail network that puts customers first. ‘Our broken railways are finally on the fast track to repair and rebuilding a system that the British public can trust and be proud of again.’ The DfT quoted Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan as saying: ‘Today’s announcement is an important milestone on the journey to a restructured railway. The UK supply chain will work with and support the Government’s plans to deliver improved rail performance and reliability, as we together develop world class rail, both track and train. There is now a real opportunity to provide more certainty and visibility over work plans, which will help a reformed railway be a catalyst for boosting growth and connectivity.’ However, the group Rail Partners, which has been campaigning on behalf of the private sector operators, remains doubtful. Rail Partners’ chief executive Andy Bagnall said: ‘Publishing the timeline for bringing SWR, c2c and Greater Anglia into public ownership is a watershed moment that means the Government is now taking charge of fixing the railways, but has parked the big decisions about how to do that until next year. ‘Simply changing who runs the trains won’t deliver more reliable and affordable services for passengers, reduce subsidy for taxpayers, or grow rail freight. ‘The key to both improving performance and holding down fares is restoring the railway to financial sustainability. It is counter-intuitive to start removing private sector operators from the system, with their track record of delivering growth to reduce subsidy, when the question of what will replace them long-term won’t be answered until further rail legislation is introduced.’

South Western Railway will be the first private passenger operator to be renationalised under the new Passenger Railway Services Act, the Government has confirmed. The former franchise, which is currently a National Rail Contract, was to have expired on 28 May 2023 but was extended by a Notice of Variation to 25 May 2025 and will end then. South Western Railway is owned by FirstGroup (70 per cent) and MTR (30 per cent). SWR took over from Stagecoach’s South West Trains on 20 August 2017. The next in the queue will be Trenitalia’s c2c, where the contract ends on 20 July 2025, followed by Greater Anglia in the autumn of 2025, although no exact date has been quoted. Greater Anglia’s National Rail Contract, owned by UK Transport Group (60 per cent) and Mitsui (40 per cent), had not been due to expire until 20 September 2026. Chiltern Railways and Govia Thameslink Railway both have earlier break points, with core expiry dates of 1 April 2025, but they have not yet been listed for renationalisation. The DfT told Railnews: ‘Once a core expiry date has passed, the transport secretary can end a contract by giving the operator twelve weeks’ notice. Greater Anglia’s core expiry date was 15 September 2024. We need to remain flexible about the dates when contracts actually end, so that we can manage the transition to public ownership smoothly.’ The DfT is also changing the way renationalisation is being described. DfT Operator of Last Resort Holdings Limited, previously known as DOHL, has become DfT Operator Limited, and its functions will eventually be part of Great British Railways. The DfT said its renamed Operator ‘will continue to focus on transforming Britain’s railways into a more reliable, affordable, and accessible system’. The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024, which makes public ownership the default option rather than the last resort, received Royal Assent on 28 November, only a few hours before transport secretary Louise Haigh resigned after it came to light that she had received a conditional discharge for fraud in 2014 in connection with a mobile phone, which she had wrongly said was stolen. She said it had been a mistake on her part, and she regretted following legal advice not to comment when she was interviewed by police. Her successor at the DfT is Heidi Alexander, who is now responsible for continuing the Government’s railway renationalisation programme. She said: ‘For too long, the British public have had to put up with rail services which simply don’t work. A complex system of private train operators has too often failed its users. ‘Starting with journeys on South Western Railway, we’re switching tracks by bringing services back under public control to create a reliable rail network that puts customers first. ‘Our broken railways are finally on the fast track to repair and rebuilding a system that the British public can trust and be proud of again.’ The DfT quoted Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan as saying: ‘Today’s announcement is an important milestone on the journey to a restructured railway. The UK supply chain will work with and support the Government’s plans to deliver improved rail performance and reliability, as we together develop world class rail, both track and train. There is now a real opportunity to provide more certainty and visibility over work plans, which will help a reformed railway be a catalyst for boosting growth and connectivity.’ However, the group Rail Partners, which has been campaigning on behalf of the private sector operators, remains doubtful. Rail Partners’ chief executive Andy Bagnall said: ‘Publishing the timeline for bringing SWR, c2c and Greater Anglia into public ownership is a watershed moment that means the Government is now taking charge of fixing the railways, but has parked the big decisions about how to do that until next year. ‘Simply changing who runs the trains won’t deliver more reliable and affordable services for passengers, reduce subsidy for taxpayers, or grow rail freight. ‘The key to both improving performance and holding down fares is restoring the railway to financial sustainability. It is counter-intuitive to start removing private sector operators from the system, with their track record of delivering growth to reduce subsidy, when the question of what will replace them long-term won’t be answered until further rail legislation is introduced.’

The restored Northumberland Line between Newcastle upon Tyne and Ashington will welcome its first passengers for 60 years on 15 December. The route is opening later in the year than had been hoped, and four stations are unfinished. When passenger services were withdrawn in November 1964, Ashington was an intermediate station and trains continued to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, but Ashington will now be the terminus for trains from Newcastle, which will also call at a new station at Seaton Delaval and the existing station at Manors. Four more stations still under construction at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Northumberland Park and Newsham are set to open in 2025. When the project to upgrade the freight line to Ashington was first proposed in 2020, the cost was put at £160 million, but the final price will be close to £300 million. The budget for a single road bridge at Newsham alone has almost trebled from £11 million to £30 million. Northern has been recruiting staff to work the new route, where trains will run every half hour during the day, taking about 36 minutes to complete the 29km journey. The peak single fare will be £3.00, reduced to £2.60 off-peak. Neil Blagburn is Northumberland Line programme delivery director at engineering consultants AECOM. He said: ‘This milestone has not come easily but we’re almost there thanks to the determination of the people working tirelessly on the programme – from the people on site who have tackled extremes of weather to the people who have pulled together all of the documentation that satisfies the many legal requirements to enable passenger services. ‘At Newsham, although it’s very close to completion, it is our biggest and most complex site and there have been a number of power, engineering and regulatory challenges.’

The latest statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show that revenue from train fares rose by 14 per cent to £10.4 billion between April 2023 and March 2024, but at a slower rate of increase than journeys, which were up by 16 per cent (writes Sim Harris). The ORR’s method of counting journeys is a little eccentric, because it says it counts every train used in the course of an end-to-end trip, which naturally inflates the total of journeys, as does split ticketing.  Counting every train used to get from A to B is not, in itself, an exact science, because unless a passenger is travelling on a train-specific Advance ticket (they only account for about 8 per cent of journeys) or on a route where only one train would be used (such as London Paddington to Didcot Parkway, or Edinburgh to Darlington), the ORR cannot always know what individual trains were involved. Quite apart from deliberately breaking a journey, a passenger may be travelling on a route where there are some through services but where a connection is needed at other times. But allowing for this statistical blurring, the ORR is on safer ground when it counts up the pennies. If the number of journeys is increasing, why are they not earning the same proportion of additional revenue? One answer might be that the journey calculations are more flawed than we think, and another might be that journeys are, on average, getting shorter. Some are. The average number of kilometres covered by an average journey between April and June this year was down by 3 per cent on regional journeys and also down by 0.2 per cent in London & South East. The total rose on long distance services by 0.6 per cent, but as London & East makes the largest contribution, any change there would have the greatest effect on the totals. Another factor is commuters. The number of commuters, particularly five-days-a-week commuters, has been falling for a long time. Commuters are not counted as such, but the total of journeys made on season tickets used to be a reasonable substitute. Between April and June 2019, 33 per cent of journeys were made using season tickets, but in the same quarter this year the percentage was down to 12 per cent. But it seems at least possible that some part-time commuters still travelling in the peaks on some days find that Anytime tickets are cheaper than seasons, even ‘flexible’ ones. Although Covid appears to have dented season ticket sales, it may have simply accelerated an existing trend. The 34 per cent recorded in 2019-20 was significantly less than the 45 per cent in 2009-2010, for example. If people only use trains to get to work two or three times a week without buying season tickets revenue might go down, but it is worth bearing in mind that some seasons offer a discount of more than 60 per cent on the Anytime fare, and so passengers buying Anytime tickets are paying more, not less, for each journey they make. Changing circumstances also distort statistics. The Elizabeth Line is doing very well, but at least some of its users will have been diverted from London Underground (particularly the Central Line) or the Docklands Light Railway. All Elizabeth Line travel is counted as part of National Rail, but the Underground and DLR are not. So when the central London section of the Elizabeth Line opened in 2022, did it tip the balance away from Transport for London in favour of National Rail? Other factors which may have distorted recent figures are the low level of performance achieved by some operators, and the widespread disruption caused by repeated industrial action. This all goes to show that coming to easy conclusions about travel statistics may be just a little too easy, and such conclusions should be treated with care.

Heidi Alexander has been appointed as the new transport secretary after Louise Haigh’s resignation today. The Swindon South MP had been a justice minister. She was Sadiq Khan's deputy transport mayor between 2018 and 2021. Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Paul Tuohy said: ‘We welcome the appointment of Heidi Alexander as transport secretary. ‘With her wealth of experience as Deputy Mayor of London for transport, she will be well-placed to take forward the vital reforms that have already been set in motion to make transport work for all people and all places. We look forward to working with her to help improve transport across the country.’

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has resigned over a conviction she received in 2014 in connection with a mobile phone, which she had wrongly said was stolen. She had made a mistake but pleaded guilty to making a false report to police, which amounted to fraud by false representation, having been advised by a lawyer not to comment during a police interview. The case went to Camberwell Green magistrates’ court in London where she was given a conditional discharge, which is technically a conviction but does not involve a fine or other penalty. She was elected as MP for Sheffield Heeley six months later. It is understood that the Prime Minister had been aware of the case when she was appointed transport secretary. She said: ‘In 2013 I was mugged while on a night out. I was a young woman and the experience was terrifying. ‘I reported it to the police and gave them a list of what I believed had been taken, including a work mobile phone that had been issued by my employer. ‘Some time later I discovered that the mobile in question had not been taken. In the interim I had been issued with another work phone. ‘The original work device being switched on triggered police attention and I was asked to come in for questioning. ‘My solicitor advised me not to comment during that interview and I regret following that advice. ‘The police referred the matter to the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and I appeared before magistrates' court.’ She has written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer offering her resignation, while assuring him that she remains ‘totally committed to our political project’. Sir Keir has replied: ‘Thank you for all you have done to deliver this government’s ambitious transport agenda. You have made huge strides to take our rail system back into public ownership through the creation of Great British Railways, investing £1 billion in our vital bus services and lowering costs for motorists. I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future.’ Ms Haigh is the first cabinet minister to resign since Labour came to power after the General Election on 4 July this year. Her conviction is now spent. A Conservative party spokesman said: ‘Louise Haigh has done the right thing in resigning. It is clear she has failed to behave to the standards expected of an MP. In her resignation letter, she states that Keir Starmer was already aware of the fraud conviction, which raises questions as to why the prime minister appointed Ms Haigh to cabinet with responsibility for a £30 billion budget? The onus is now on Keir Starmer to explain this obvious failure of judgement to the British public.’  One of her priorities had been railway reform, which includes bringing the remaining private sector operators back into public ownership. Her resignation has come less than 24 hours since it was announced that the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act had received Royal Assent. The new law makes public ownership of railway passenger contracts the default, rather than the last resort. Ms Haigh had become well known for describing herself as ‘Passenger in chief’, and saying that she intended to ’move fast and fix things’. The first two private sector passenger operators to be affected by the new Act are set to have their contracts terminated in April.

Six names for London Overground lines have been officially launched by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. He has been at Dalston Junction today to unveil the names and a celebratory plaque. The London Overground was launched at Hampstead Heath station in November 2007 by Sadiq Khan’s predecessor Ken Livingstone, when Transport for London took over control of the Metro lines which had been part of the Silverlink franchise. Since then, more routes have been added, and each is now being identified with its own name and colour. The names of Underground lines evolved and did not all appear at the same time, often being based on the name of the original company, so that the Central London Railway became the Central Line, while the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway soon became the Bakerloo Railway and later the Bakerloo Line, after the shortened name had been suggested by a newspaper columnist. The six Overground names have been chosen in most cases to represent the communities they serve so that, for example, the Windrush Line, running from Highbury & Islington to New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon, commemorates the name of the ship which brought 492 Caribbean migrants to Britain in 1948. However, the name of the Lioness Line from Euston to Watford Junction via Wembley, which is often known within the railway as ‘the DC Lines’, refers to the English women’s football team. Entrepreneur Levi Roots and singer Mica Paris joined community representatives of the line names at the official launch. The new names and colours, which were developed through competitions and then fine-tuned by creative agency DNCO, were also considered by TfL’s Independent Disability Advisory Group, so that the colours would be as clear as possible to passengers with impaired vision. Today’s launch came at the end of an intensive nine days, during which 6,000 new station direction signs were installed. Map posters, digital screens and information displays on trains were all updated, and a new pocket edition of the Underground map showing the line colours has also just been published. TfL said final touches to the TfL website, TfL Go app and audiovisual passenger information on newer London Overground trains will be completed over the next couple of months. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: ‘I’m delighted to officially launch the six new line names and colours of the London Overground, in an historic change to the capital’s transport network. ‘These distinct colours and identities will not only make our fantastic London Overground network easier for customers to navigate, they also celebrate the best of London, from the contribution of the Windrush generation to our inspiring England women’s football team, as well as other untold elements of London’s cultural history. ‘The London Overground is now a reminder that we wouldn’t be the city we are today without the energy and diverse experiences of everyone who lives here.’

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act has received Royal Assent, and it means that public ownership of the former passenger franchises is now the default, rather than the last resort. Some parts of the 1993 Railways Act, which privatised the railway, have been repealed. The first National Rail Contracts which are now set to be renationalised are Chiltern Railways and Govia Thameslink Railway, which both reach break points, also known as core expiry dates, on 1 April 2025. The last DfT contract to be ended is likely to be CrossCountry, which is set to be terminated on 17 October 2027, when its core term ends. The Government is reserving the right to terminate contracts more quickly if the terms of the contract have been breached. Another Act will be needed to create Great British Railways in full, when it will become the operator. Until then, the DfT’s Operator of Last Resort will take over. It already runs LNER, Northern, TransPennine Express and Southeastern. Three more operators are run by the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales, including Caledonian Sleeper. Private sector lobby group Rail Partners has consistently opposed renationalisation. Its chief executive Andy Bagnall said: ‘Royal Assent of the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act is a watershed moment that means the Government has now assumed direct responsibility for improving Britain's railways, but simply changing who runs the trains won’t mean more reliable or affordable services for passengers. ‘This Act is political not practical. It is counter intuitive to remove the private sector from the railways when it is the only part of the system with a track record of delivering growth in passenger numbers to reduce subsidy – especially when answering the question of what will replace it is being parked until further rail legislation next year.’ It has already been reported that Rail Partners itself is to be wound up in April 2025.