Stephen Morgan MP has welcomed more local rail services including Southern Rail coming into public ownership, which is responsible for operating services to, and from Portsmouth, marking a major step towards a simpler, unified rail system under Great British Railways.
Alongside Southern Rail, four other train operating companies also belonging to the same parent company of Govia Thameslink Railway, which connects millions of passengers across London and the South East through their services, will be brought into public ownership as well.
With these major reforms, the Government is finally ending decades of fragmentation across the rail network by bringing track and train together, delivering a reliable railway that will rebuild the trust of its passengers and ensure the high standards people expect.
To mark the progress, Mr Morgan made a visit to London Waterloo Station to see the new livery on the new Great British Railway trains that the publicly owned services will be using.
Commenting, Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, said:
“By bringing rail services into public ownership, this Government is bringing track and train together to deliver reliable, safe and better value journeys for passengers across the country.
“Under the inefficient old system, the organisation responsible for the track is different than the one providing the train service. This has resulted in conflicting priorities and a lack of clear accountability that Portsmouth people have had to put up with for far too long.
“Great British Railways is about tidying up this chaos by creating a unified network that is in public control.
“I will continue to give my support to all efforts which put passengers first and deliver a railway local people in our city can rely on”.
The Government intends to go further by taking even more train operating companies into public ownership, including the Great Western Railway which operates services to and from Portsmouth, later this year.
The city MP led the development of the plan for public ownership as Labour prepared for Government in early 2024.
