Transport Insights

A parliamentary answer from (still) rail minister Peter Hendy effectively admits that nationalisation of South Western Railway (SWR) a year ago has failed to produce anything to write home about – but did it make things worse?

Lord Patten (former Tory minister John Patten) asked His Majesty’s Government:

what assessment they have made of the performance of South Western Railways since it entered public ownership on 25 May 2025.

The reply from Lord Hendy started off in encouraging terms:

The Department is closely monitoring South Western Railway’s (SWR’s) performance following its transfer into public ownership on 25 May 2025 through a range of measures, including punctuality, cancellations, and passenger experience.

But the rest implicitly admitted that things are not going well – or at least not well enough to publicise:

When SWR entered public ownership, eighty-four out of ninety of the new Arterio trains had not entered service. The new Arterio fleet is being rolled out and will support more reliable services over time, providing modern, higher capacity trains with improved performance and reduced maintenance requirements.

SWR also inherited a shortage of train drivers when it moved into public ownership, which contributed to high levels of driver-related cancellations.

South Western Railway is subject to bespoke and rigorous performance standards, and the Department continues to work with the operator to improve reliability, capacity, and service quality for passengers.

Hendy couldn’t even say that either train driver staffing levels or driver-related cancellations had improved.

Interestingly, in a parliamentary answer in February, (still very junior) minister Keir Mather said:

The average rate of cancellations on SWR has increased from 3.5 per cent just before entering public ownership to 3.8 per cent in the most recent period.

SWR inherited significant traincrew shortages from the previous private operator, which has contributed to higher levels of cancellations, alongside training drivers to drive the new Arterio train fleet. Under public ownership, driver recruitment has been accelerated, with SWR now training up to 12 new drivers per period to reduce the risk of traincrew related cancellations.

…

The average rate of cancellations has increased slightly which is in line with regular variation during the introduction of major fleet upgrades. Technical issues affecting train reliability are expected to improve over time as teething issues are resolved.

Hendy has boasted about accelerating the Arterio rollout but it seems to have exacerbated driver shortages and worsened reliability.