Great Western Railway, the operator that runs the main line services through the South West, will be brought into public ownership on 13 December 2026. It becomes the latest operator transferred under the Government's programme to bring passenger railways under the Great British Railways banner, following Chiltern Railways in September.
For areas like West Somerset and Mid Devon, the change centres on Tiverton Parkway and Taunton. Sitting on the Bristol to Exeter line and managed by GWR, it carries local passengers to London Paddington, Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, and is the busiest rail gateway for communities in Tiverton and Minehead.
Ministers have argued that public ownership will deliver a simpler, more reliable railway. The national picture so far offers little sign of that improvement. Figures from the Office of Rail and Road show that cancellations across Great Britain rose from 3.2 per cent in the year to June 2025 to 4.1 per cent a year later, the equivalent of roughly 17,000 additional cancelled services every quarter on the industry's standard measure. Punctuality, measured by the share of trains arriving within three minutes of schedule, slipped from 86.3 per cent to 85.0 per cent over the same period.
South West services were already lagging before the handover. In a Westminster Hall debate on the region's railways in January 2025, MPs heard that GWR had run to timetable just 60.2 per cent of the time in July to September 2024, more than seven points below the national average, with CrossCountry, which also calls at Tiverton Parkway, worse still at 46.4 per cent.
James Wright, an Exmoor farmer and Conservative campaigner, said: "People were promised that public ownership would mean better trains. The national numbers show cancellations going up, services across the South West are already among the least reliable in the country. A change of ownership on paper means nothing to a family, a commuter or a small business owner left standing on the platform at Tiverton Parkway or Taunton. When GWR passes into public hands in December, ministers explain how they plan to deliver the reliable railway we can depend on.”
