Great Western Railway public ownership 'reunites track and train'

The south west of England's biggest rail company needs to be renationalised for services to improve, experts and politicians have said. The government confirmed on Friday a decision to take Great Western Railway (GWR) back into public ownership on 13 December when its contract with the Department for Transport ends. GWR, which is based in Swindon, runs services linking London to south-west England and south Wales. Andrew Bowes-Roden, the Cornwall-based deputy editor of Modern Railways Magazine, said reintegration allowed "coherent balanced decisions", whereas opponents of the decision said it made government accountability "virtually non-existent". Bowes-Roden said the ownership issue was less important than the change possibly being able to improve coordination. He said: "I think what we're seeing is less improvements from a change of ownership from private to public, and more improvements due to the fact that track and train are being reintegrated together. "What that means is that the railway can make really coherent, balanced decisions about how to run its services, how to plan its maintenance and so on. "So, Great Western integrated with Network Rail Western should deliver a b