Chiltern Railways renationalised after 30 years

Chiltern Railways has been brought into public ownership after 30 years as a private company.

It is the 10th rail company now under the Great British Railways (GBR), the government's programme of public ownership, which it says will save money and improve services.

Chiltern Railways, which was privatised in 1996, operates services from London Marylebone to Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, as well as destinations in the West Midlands.

The government said the transfer into public ownership would tackle overcrowding by introducing 25 additional daily services from December.

The start of the first day of public ownership saw some disruption, with Chiltern warning the line between Birmingham and Marylebone, external was "expected to be much busier" due to the late notice of the West Coast Main Line closure affecting services at London Euston.

The operator said it would run more trains than usual between the stations with significantly enhanced capacity.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said the additional weekday services under GBR would provide 10,000 extra seats.

They would include half hourly services during weekdays on the Chiltern Main Line between London and Birmingham, as well as more weekend services.

Rail minister Lord Peter Hendy met staff at Marylebone Station on Thursday alongside the first Chiltern train in the GBR livery.

"The most difficult thing on Chiltern is that it's shorter capacity and those extra trains and those extra seats will make a real difference to people travelling on this line up here from Marylebone every day," he said.

The rollout of the new trains would also improve accessibility and provide better Wi-Fi on board, the rail operator said.

From Sunday, passengers whose train had been cancelled can use another operator's service two hours either side of their train to get to their destination at no extra cost, it added.

Chiltern's interim managing director Tony Baxter said: "Sunday is a significant milestone for Chiltern Railways and we look forward to working together with the wider rail industry to deliver a better railway for everyone in Great Britain."

The aim is for GBR to operate all passenger services by the end of 2027.

Great Western Railway's services will be the next operator to be brought into public ownership, on 13 December.

Lord Henry said: "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.

"As we set up Great British Railways (GBR), we're putting passengers first.

"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."