Chiltern Railways has been brought into public ownership after 30 years as a private company, making it the 10th rail company now under the Great British Railways (GBR).
The 10 train operating companies under this framework now include:
London North Eastern Railway
Northern Trains
Southeastern
TransPennine Express
South Western Railway
c2c
Greater Anglia
West Midlands Trains
Govia Thameslink Railway
Chiltern Railways
Chiltern Railways, which was privatised in 1996, operates services from London Marylebone to Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, as well as destinations in the West Midlands.
The government said the transfer into public ownership would tackle overcrowding by introducing 25 additional daily services from December, and the Department for Transport (DfT) said the additional weekday services under GBR would provide 10,000 extra seats. The DfT also claimed that they would include half hourly services during weekdays on the Chiltern Main Line between London and Birmingham, as well as more weekend services.
Rail minister, Lord Peter Hendy, met staff at Marylebone Station on Thursday alongside the first Chiltern train in the GBR livery and said that the extra trains and seats will make a real difference to people who travel on those lines every day.
The GBR is the government's programme of public ownership, which it says will save money and improve rail services across the country.