On Sunday, 20th July, train services operated by c2c will be transferred to public ownership.

c2c operates services between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness, and will be the second operator where new legislation is transferring the services into public ownership, following South Western Railway last May.

The new services will be run by the Department for Transport Operator (DFTO), joining those previously operated by Northern, TransPennine Express, Southeastern and London North Eastern Railway (LNER), with Greater Anglia services set to be transferred to public ownership on 12th October.

Later this year, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill will be introduced to Parliament to enable the establishment of Great British Railways (GBR), which will result in passengers travelling on GBR trains, on GBR tracks, and on trains running to a GBR timetable.

In the interim, rigorous performance standards will be laid down for public sector operators to allow them to meet and earn the right to be called ‘Great British Railways’. Among the standards to be laid down will be punctuality, cancellation, and passenger experience, which will be set out in due course.

A great advantage of public ownership puts passengers back at the heart of the railway network, so that during times of disruption, passengers can use their tickets on trains run by another publicly owned operator at no extra cost. This facility has already been implemented in northern England, where passengers can travel on Northern and TransPennine Express services with a single booking; since June 2024, over 15,000 journeys are estimated to have been booked this way.

Elsewhere, by working with Network Rail, Southeastern has added capacity on trains in the summer months to popular seaside resorts such as Margate, Whitstable and Herne Bay.

“At c2c, we are proud of the reliable and high level of service we offer our passengers, consistently being rated as one of the best performing operators in the country. We now have a golden opportunity to collaborate with the wider family of publicly owned operators, sharing our successes and best practices, but also learning from a wide range of different and diverse operators who have already benefited from public ownership, to drive even more improvements for the people and places we all serve. A unified and focused railway can deliver more for our communities, including better growth, jobs and houses. If we are thriving as a train operator, it helps our communities to thrive. This is the positive feedback loop we are excited to deliver, supported by better and closer collaboration with our partners in the lead up to GBR.”

Rob Mullen, Managing Director of c2c