Swindon South MP Heidi Alexander used her speech at the Labour Party Conference on Monday to invoke the town’s history with the Great Western Railway before announcing another potentially significant change to the way Britain’s railways are run.
Speaking to Labour members, Alexander said the arrival of the railway had transformed Swindon and the opportunities available to people living here.
“When the Great Western Railway came to my home town of Swindon, it revolutionised the opportunities of the people who lived there,” she said.
“Our railways were drivers of change and progress. They unleashed possibilities for communities up and down the country.”
Alexander then argued that Britain’s transport system had failed to keep pace with those ambitions, before setting out the Government’s plans for further public control of the railways.
Under one of the major announcements from her conference speech, the Government will consider whether Great British Railways should directly own newly ordered trains instead of relying on the long-established system of leasing rolling stock from private companies.
For nearly three decades, most passenger trains have not been owned by the companies operating them. Instead, rolling stock companies, known as ROSCOs, have bought trains and leased them to operators.
According to the Department for Transport, franchised train operators spent more than £4 billion leasing and maintaining trains they did not own in 2024.
The Government says directly owning trains could provide greater flexibility and potentially save money in some circumstances. Heidi told conference:
“If GBR owning trains would best serve taxpayers and passengers then we should do it.”
The announcement comes at a particularly significant time for rail passengers in Swindon.
Great Western Railway, which operates the majority of passenger services through Swindon station and traces its history back to the railway which transformed the town, is itself preparing to move into public ownership.
GWR services are due to transfer on 13th December this year, following Chiltern Railways, which entered public ownership earlier this month.
The changes form part of the Government’s wider creation of Great British Railways, which is intended to bring responsibility for trains and railway infrastructure under a single organisation.
Heidi said ten train operating companies are now in public ownership, with Great Western next.
But the proposed change to train ownership potentially goes further than transferring responsibility for operating services.
The Government recently announced around £1 billion of investment in 29 new British-built battery-electric trains for services in the North.
For Swindon, a town whose modern development was shaped by railway engineering and the huge Great Western Railway works, Alexander’s conference speech therefore carried particular symbolism.
The question locally will be whether the Government’s plans to reshape railway ownership can bring economic opportunities to Swindon as well as changes for passengers using its station.
Jim Robbins, leader of the Labour party in Swindon said:
“It was great to see Heidi setting out the achievements made by the Labour Government on Transport under her watch. She is making a real difference, but was clear about the further challenges ahead and the need to do more to really transform transport across the country.
It is clear that she will leave the transport system in a much better place than she found it, but I’m excited to see what more she can deliver for both the country and locally here in Swindon!”
With GWR now less than three months away from entering public ownership, Swindon passengers will soon get their first opportunity to see what that change means on the railway most closely associated with the town.
