Rishi Sunak has nationalised one of Britain’s biggest train operators after passengers suffered months of significant disruption and regular cancellations.

FirstGroup, the London-listed transport group, will be stripped of the Transpennine Express franchise at the end of this month.

It is the latest rail operator to be brought back into public ownership after Southeastern was nationalised in 2021. Fellow red wall seat operator Northern rail was brought in public ownership in February 2020. The east coast main line, now called LNER, was nationalised in 2018. 

FirstGroup also runs much-criticised west coast main line services under a joint venture called Avanti.

Mark Harper, Transport Secretary, said: “After months of commuters and Northern businesses bearing the brunt of continuous cancellations, I’ve made the decision to bring Transpennine Express into Operator of Last Resort.

“This is not a silver bullet and will not instantaneously fix a number of challenges being faced.”