The UK Labour government’s decision to renationalise its railways marks a significant and welcome shift away from the global trend of rail privatisation. It also marks a rupture with the European policy agenda embedded in EU directives like the Fourth Rail Package.
The shift is the direct result of relentless campaigning by ITF-affiliated rail unions – the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), and the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) – who have fought tirelessly to expose the failures of privatisation. As the private sector model finally collapsed into timetable chaos, delays, cancellations and strikes, union lobbying, and public advocacy pushed a positive vision of renationalisation onto the political agenda, ensuring that workers and passengers – rather than shareholders – are at the heart of Britain’s railway future. The election of the Labour government in the UK put this vision on the legislative agenda.
Implementation timeline
- The first Parliamentary Act – designed to reintroduce public sector control over the delivery of the majority of passenger railway services – became law on 28 November 2024.
- A second Bill will follow to establish the publicly owned railway – titled Great British Railways.
- The UK government has launched a public consultation on 18 February, which is due to run for eight weeks.
- To minimise costs, the government is adopting a phased implementation approach with services being brought under public control as existing private contracts expire. South Western Railway is scheduled to return to public ownership in May 2025, followed by c2c in July 2025, and Greater Anglia in late 2025.
Union perspectives
Rail unions regard the news as a significant victory but remain vigilant regarding its implementation and are demanding:
- A complete end to private sector involvement in both train operations and track maintenance.
- Job security and fair conditions for all railway workers, reversing the outsourcing and casualisation seen under privatisation.
- Democratic accountability and worker involvement in the new public railway structure, ensuring decisions are made in the public interest, not by bureaucrats or corporate consultants.
Trade unions will play a key role in ensuring the renationalisation addresses the damage that the legacy of years of profiteering has done to the UK’s rail industry, including the leasing of rolling stock and ending the outsourcing of key railway operations to the private sector.
ITF Railway workers' section chair Julio Sosa said: “We commend the campaign of the ITF-affiliated rail unions RMT, ASLEF and TSSA who have fought tirelessly to expose the failures of privatisation. Under these measures, systems deteriorated, infrastructures became heavily damaged due to lack of maintenance, and workers have lost many of their rights.
“Now workers and their unions will be key in pushing for a nationalisation that will benefit the rail system, passengers and workers.”
ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton said: “The renationalisation of the UK’s railways is a victory for trade unions, passengers, and the wider labour movement. After decades of privatisation failures, this shift back to public ownership represents a crucial opportunity to build a railway that works for people, not profits. However, the fight is not over. Unions and campaigners must continue to hold the government accountable, ensuring that renationalisation leads to a fully integrated, publicly-owned system rather than a watered-down compromise.”
ITF’s vision for publicly-owned railways
A socially-owned rail industry organised around the needs of rail workers and users is possible. Worker control over transport infrastructure and operations is feasible and recognises public transport as a public service designed to meet the needs of ordinary people, not as a market to tap for lining the pockets of private profiteers. It harnesses technology to make the jobs of rail workers easier and safer, rather than devaluing, replacing, monitoring, and disciplining them. It puts the vast accumulated knowledge and skills possessed by rail workers to use for the greater public good while providing them with decent, healthy, and fulfilling jobs. It envisions a just transition that goes beyond simply “mitigating the worst effects” of the green digital transition but radically rethinks the industry with workers and the planet at its centre. Truly sustainable rail goes beyond phasing out diesel; it defines rail as a social good and puts workers and the planet at its centre. Safe and sustainable rail offers a new economic and social model of mobility that redefines the role of the workers, the state, and the environment.
ITF’s rail affiliates endorsed the following demands at their 2024 conference in Marrakech:
- Public ownership of rail as a public good, and an end to all rail privatisation.
- Unitary rail systems with infrastructure, rolling stock, and operations all owned by one public entity.
- Public financing of rail, with profits reinvested back into rail, other forms of public transport, or returned to public funds.
- Integration of rail with other modes of public transport to provide affordable, safe, and accessible services.
- Negotiation and collective bargaining with trade unions to determine the transport and other needs of workers, passengers, and communities.
- All public investment and spending must guarantee freedom of association, collective bargaining, and labour rights throughout the supply chain.
