UK Rail Operators Are Already State Owned

During the GE2019 campaign, and before, there has been a lot of talk about renationalising the railways by the Labour party.  Did you know that most of the train operators transporting millions of passengers each are already state owned?  Not necessarily by Westminster but by other countries.

An article in the Independent in August 2019 by Harry Cockburn listed the details provided by the paper’s Europe correspondent Jon Stone.  Here is the list of operators and the details of their ownership.

c2c: Italian state owned

Chiltern: German state owned

Caledonian sleeper: Private ownership

CrossCountry: German state owned

East Midlands: Dutch state owned

Eurostar: French state owned

Gatwick Express: French state owned

Grand Central: German state owned

Great Northern: French state owned

GWR: Private ownership

Greater Anglia: Dutch state owned

Heathrow Express: Private ownership

Hull Trains: Private ownership

LNER: British state owned

London Northwestern Railway: Dutch state owned

London Overground: German state owned

London Underground: British state owned

Merseyrail: Dutch state owned

Northern: German state owned

Northern Ireland Railways: British state owned

Scotrail: Dutch state owned

South Western Railway: Hong Kong state owned

Southeastern: French state owned

Southern: French state owned

Stansted Express: Dutch state owned

TfL rail: Hong Kong state owned

Thameslink: French state owned

TransPennine Express: Private ownership

Transport for Wales: French state owned

West Coast: Italian state owned

West Midlands Railway: Dutch state owned

Maybe Corbyn and co. are just trying to get the UK to catch up with other countries.  It will be interesting to see if Labour win the General Election how this could happen given that there are contracts in place.

Image: SplitShire