London Northwestern Railway services via Milton Keynes and Northampton now under public operation

The parent company of the London Northwestern Railways (LNWR) company that operates trains via Milton Keynes has been nationalised.

West Midlands Trains has passed into public ownership at the end of it’s previous company’s contract, which expired on 31st January 2026. The company had been jointly operated by its respective franchise holders since 2017.

The franchise operates both the LNWR branding, which runs local services on the West Coast Main Line between London, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Birmingham and Liverpool, and the West Midlands Railway branding, which runs local services in the West Midlands centred around Birmingham. For now, the two companies will remain with their current names.

Nationalisation of the company is in line with the government’s policy to nationalise passenger rail services in the UK, which was part of the Labour party’s 2024 election manifesto and which was later passed in a bill that received Royal Assent in November 2024.

The government has said that the nationalisation of LNWR means half of rail passenger operations in the UK are now under public ownership. The strategy is part of plans to establish a single national unified operator called Great British Railways.

In a statement, the government’s Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said, “From this Sunday, the thousands of passengers who travel with London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway will be using services that are owned by the public and run with their interests at heart.

“We’re working hard to reform a fragmented system and deliver a reliable railway that regenerates communities, rebuilds the trust of its passengers and delivers the high standards they rightly expect.”

Ian McConnell, Managing Director of West Midlands Trains, added, “We are proud to be one of the fastest-growing train operators in the country, with millions of passengers travelling on London Northwestern Railway (LNR) and West Midlands Railway (WMR) services every month.

“We’ve introduced more than 100 new trains as well as upgrading our depots and station facilities. We’re looking forward to opening five brand new stations later this year and we’re also rolling out ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ ticketing across 75 locations to enable seamless tap-in, tap-out travel for our customers.

“Public ownership is an exciting opportunity to build on this success through a strong culture of collaboration and integration with the wider family of publicly owned operators.

“Together, we can drive performance by sharing best practice and accelerating innovation and continue to deliver even better journeys for our passengers across the LNR and WMR networks.

“We are now a step further on the journey to Great British Railways – a railway that we can be proud of and one that benefits the passengers and communities we serve.”

Since the privatisation of the UK railway network in the 1990s, operation of local services on the West Coast Main Line via Milton Keynes and Northampton has gone through multiple franchise holders. The first company was Silverlink Trains, which was run by National Express and who ran the services between 1997 and 2007.

In 2007, franchise operations passed to Govia as part of a new franchise made following a merger with former Central Trains services in the Birmingham area, with the new franchise holder renaming the company London Midland. This ran until 2017.

In 2017, the contract passed to a consortium made up of Abellio, JR East, and Mitsui & Co, who renamed the franchise West Midlands Trains. JR East sold their stake to Abellio in 2021, with Abellio then selling up their stake in 2023 to Transport UK after a management buyout of their UK rail operations.

Avanti West Coast, the other operator who runs trains serving Milton Keynes, remains in private hands as a franchise run by First Group and TrenItalia, though their contract is scheduled to expire in October.