PUBLIC OWNERSHIP TRANSITION PROGRAMME

Rating: Compared to financial year 2024/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating for 2025/26 Q4 has remained at Amber. Good progress continues to be made with South Western Railway, c2c, Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains successfully transferred into public ownership. Work is progressing well on the Govia Thameslink Railway transfer scheduled for 31 May 2026, with further transfers scheduled (including Chiltern Railways on 20 September 2026 and Great Western Railway on 13 December 2026). This indicates that the Programme has a good chance of successful completion, although larger, more complex transfers remain.

Schedule: The programme is progressing on time and as planned; the services of South Western Railway, c2c, Greater Anglia and West Midlands have successfully transferred into public ownership. The SoS has also issued expiry notices confirming the planned transfer of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) services on 31 May 2026, Chiltern services on 20 September 2026 and Great Western Railway services on 13 December 2026. Work on the GTR transfer is well advanced with work on Chiltern now progressing to plan. Decisions regarding the timing of the final three transfers will be made by the SoS later with the full programme of transitions into public ownership expected to be completed by the end of 2027. Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remains the same. There is a risk that a Train Operating Company may default, which could necessitate unplanned transfers and exacerbate capacity and capability pressures across the department and DFTO. While the likelihood of default is considered low and the risk is regarded as manageable, the programme continues to plan for this. The transfer of DFT Rail Services Group staff to DFTO took place at the end of March 2026.

Cost: Compared to Q4 of the 2024/25 financial year, the project’s departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at Q4 of 2025/26 (measured in £m) has remained the same.

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: The Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 is AMBER. This is due to‚ The programme agreed with the IPA/NISTA IQA of Amber and has commenced implementing the recommendations contained in the report.

Schedule: The project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 is scheduled to be 31/12/2027. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ On 4 December 2024, the government launched the rail public ownership programme and announced the first services to transfer into public ownership following Royal Assent of the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill. South Western Railway’s services were the first to transfer on 25 May 2025 followed by c2c’s services on 20 July 2025. Greater Anglia’s services will then transfer on 12 October 2025. Following the transfer of Greater Anglia’s services, DfT expects the programme will continue with one operator’s services transferring roughly every 3 months. The transfer of passenger services operated under contracts with DfT is expected to complete by the end of 2027.

Cost: The project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) is 36. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ [text ends here in the published file]

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)