Govia Thameslink joined 10 other operators in public ownership on 31 May, leaving five privately operated franchises still to be transferred under Labour’s plan; the next, Chiltern Railways, is due in September 2026. The government is letting each core contract expire without compensation, aiming to complete all sixteen by 2027, and will launch Great British Railways this year to integrate track and train. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has accelerated the pace to roughly one nationalisation per quarter since May 2025, while former ORR chair Stephen Glaister warned that rail is “gobbling up so much public subsidy” and early performance data across the already-nationalised operators shows a mixed picture on punctuality and cancellations.