General · 1 February 2026
Government takes West Midlands Trains into public ownership; half of rail network now state-run.
West Midlands Trains will transfer to public ownership on 1 February 2026, bringing both London Northwestern and West Midlands Railway under state control. The move makes WMT the fourth operator to be nationalized under the new Act, with publicly owned services now accounting for 50 percent of all Great British Railways journeys. The government says the takeover will secure more reliable connections across the Midlands and deliver on its pledge to reunify the fragmented rail network.
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