Greater Anglia to Transfer to Public Ownership on 12 October

On Sunday, 12 October 2025, Greater Anglia will transfer to public ownership, with the first service in public ownership being the 4:10am Stansted Express from London Liverpool Street.

After this transfer, half of rail operators will be publicly owned and almost 50% of rail passenger journeys will be delivered TOCs in public hands.

Greater Anglia will be the third operating company to enter public ownership under the government’s Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act. Currently Greater Anglia is owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. and operates the East Anglia franchise. It has consistently been rated one of the best-performing in the country and was last week named Rail Operator of the Year at the National Transport Awards 2025. The Department for Transport is confident it says that it will “continue to thrive under public ownership”.

Greater Anglia, like c2c and South Western Railway – the other two operating companies to enter public ownership under the Act – is being taken over as the franchising contract expires. Other operators already under public ownership, such as Northern, Southeastern and Transpennine Express, were taken over because of severe performance / mismanagement issues.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said:

From this Sunday, passengers commuting into Norwich or heading for a day out in Cambridge will be travelling on services that are owned by the public, and run with their interests front of mind.

We're reforming a fragmented system and laying the foundations for a more reliable, efficient and accountable railway – one that puts passengers first and delivers the high standards they rightly expect.

Two new stations are opening on the East Anglia network: Beaulieu Park this month and Cambridge South early next year. Greater Anglia also has a new fleet of bi-mode trains (ordered in 2016/17, will full fleet replacement completed in 2023). The DfT confirmed the existing operator had “built up a strong track record of running punctual services, with 93.9% of trains arriving within three minutes between April 2024 and March 2025.”

The government says it is planning on using Greater Anglia’s excellent performance to date as a benchmark for other operators and to share best practice in order to improve standards across the network as part of its ‘Plan for Change’.

Martin Beable, Managing Director, Greater Anglia, said:

At Greater Anglia, we’re proud to be one of the highest performing UK train operators in the country, recently recognised with the Passenger Operator of the Year award for the second year running. We’ve introduced new trains on every service, enhanced accessibility across our network, and welcomed more local passengers than ever before – achievements made possible by the dedication of our people.

Moving into public ownership is an exciting opportunity to build on this success. By working more closely with the wider family of publicly owned operators, we can share expertise, drive innovation, and deliver even better journeys for our passengers across the Anglia region.

This transition also brings us one step closer to Great British Railways - a simpler, more unified network that puts passengers at its heart. Together, we can create a railway that drives growth, sustainability, and pride for the communities we serve and right across the UK.

In anticipation of the establishment of Great British Railways (GBR), integrated leadership teams are being set up across the now publicly owned TOCs and Network Rail routes in order to increase collaboration and accountability, the government says.

The Anglia region will be headed by Jamie Burles as Integrated Managing Director (Designate) for the Anglia region. It will be his job to identify opportunities for “track and train join up” and to create a unified single ‘Executive Leadership Team’, bringing together Network Rail Anglia, c2c and Greater Anglia across the Eastern region.

The next train operating companies to transfer to public ownership are:

• West Midlands Trains on 1 February 2026
• Govia Thameslink on 31 May 2026

Legislation to establish Great British Railways will be introduced this autumn.