With West Midlands Trains due to join the nine rail operators already under public ownership on 1 February 2026, the move marks another significant step in the quiet but steady expansion of public operation across Britain’s rail network. It also raises an important question for transport professionals: what changes when a franchise returns to the public sector?

To explore this, it is useful to look at the operator that has now spent the longest in this situation: London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which was brought back into public ownership in 2018.

One of the first points LNER makes, looking back at seven years of public operation, is that it has not simply become a pre-privatisation British Rail in modern form. The organisation continues to operate under a commercial mindset and competes for passengers in a market where modal shift, flexible working and customer expectations are all evolving rapidly.

The major difference has been the governance structure. Without private shareholders, LNER reports that decision making has become “long-term by default”, with priorities set around reliability, service quality and revenue growth rather than franchise-cycle targets. This approach has aligned well with the wider strategic aims of the DfT and Network Rail’s East Coast route, particularly around decarbonisation and passenger experience.

According to the operator’s own assessment, LNER’s period in public hands has seen record customer numbers, with ridership recovering strongly after the pandemic, increased use of digital ticketing and a shift towards “touchless travel”, and continued investment in fleet, customer service training and timetable improvements.

However, it is also clear that not everything can be attributed to the operator alone.

Infrastructure constraints, industry-wide cost pressures, and the limitations of the existing funding models have all shaped what LNER can – and cannot – achieve. The experience highlights that public ownership may stabilise an operator, but it does not in itself resolve systemic issues around fares reform, or long-term investment.

Despite this, in June 2025 the Minister of State for Transport of the United Kingdom, Lord Hendy FCIHT, enthused: “LNER is making more journeys than ever under public ownership and has become a trailblazer for innovation across our railways.

“They’ve proven time and again that public ownership can deliver cutting-edge services that put passengers first, and this is a blueprint that we’ll be following as we overhaul the rail network and set up Great British Railways (GBR).”

What this means for the West Midlands

For the West Midlands route, the move to public ownership offers some potential advantages. The removal of franchise-based risk could allow for more coordinated planning across the region’s busy commuter, regional and inter-urban services.

But expectations should remain realistic - the public operator will inherit many of the same challenges its predecessors faced.

Success will depend on how effectively the new structure works with Transport for West Midlands, Network Rail and local stakeholders integrating rail into the region’s wider transport strategy.

LNER’s experience suggests that public ownership can deliver steady improvement – particularly when combined with clear strategic direction. Yet it also shows that the fundamentals of railway performance rely on long-term infrastructure investment and consistent policy, regardless of who runs the trains.

Image: a LNER train speeds through Peterborough station. Credit: Shutterstock.