South Western Railways will be the first train company to be nationalised under Labour’s plans (Image: PA)
One of the UK’s major railway operators will become the first train company to be renationalised under the Labour government this week – but planned engineering works could dampen the celebrations. South Western Railway’s (SWR) first planned service under its transition into Great British Railways appears to have been cancelled due to a repair project on the line, with travellers directed to a bus replacement service instead. The re-nationalised rebrand will come into effect at 1:59am on Sunday, May 25, with the first scheduled train of the morning the 2:27am service from Guildford to Waterloo.
Early-rising passengers hoping to mark the occasion by jumping onboard the operator’s maiden journey have been met with a message that the departure has been cancelled, with a rail replacement bus on-hand instead. Tickets for the SWR’s next train, scheduled to depart from Woking at 5:36am, are still on sale, but travellers have been warned that the journey could also be impacted by bank holiday engineering works.
Labour is hoping to include all British train services under its new Great British Railways brand (Image: Getty)
While not necessarily surprising given the disruption commonplace for commuters across the UK’s train network, the cancellations have cast something of a shadow over Labour’s triumphant re-nationalisation project.
The Government has pledged to eventually bring all of Britain’s train operators under public ownership, with C2C set to be nationalised in July and Greater Anglia to follow suit in October.
South Western Railways, which provides services to and from London Waterloo, will initially come under the control of a Department for Transport subsidiary before being transferred into Great British Railways through legislation set to be introduced later this year ahead of its planned formation in 2027.
Announcing the news, transport secretary Heidi Alexander described South Western Railways’ transition as “a watershed moment in the government’s plan to return the railways to the service of passengers”.
She said the change would “end 30 years of fragmentation and deliver on our manifesto commitment to bring passenger services back into public control”.
“Public ownership with ensure services are run in the interest of passengers, not shareholders, and is a vital step in enabling the government to bring track and train together,” Ms Alexander added.
Labour’s long-term plan is to run all British trains under Great British Railway branding, with the nationally-owned firm responsible for infrastructure and passenger services. However, the trains will need to “earn the right to be called Great British Railways”, according to reports, by meeting unspecified standards that could include fewer delays and cancellations.
Data published in March laid bare the UK’s railway crisis, with up to 22% of services cancelled at the worst-performing stations in the month to February 1.
A government spokesperson said: “This timetable was inherited from a failed Tory error of privatisation.
“Under Great British Railways, problems like this, which have plagued passengers’ lives for far too long. will finally be tackled and we will be one railway, with one team and one mission – great services for Britain’s travelling public.”
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The 2 UK killers last to be executed – historians say they were ‘unlucky’
The men were sentenced to ‘suffer death in the manner authorized by law’ (Image: Getty)
Fifty years ago, Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans killed a friend for money – and it resulted in the last ever executions in the UK. At 8am on August 13 1964, they were led from their cells to the gallows – and in ten seconds were dead, the last judicial executions to ever be recorded in Britain. At the time, public attitudes were shifting. Capital punishment was increasingly seen as outdated and unjust, and some historians and criminologists believe that, had there been even a few weeks’ delay, the pair might have been reprieved.
Barry Lees, a lecturer in policing at the University of Cumbria, said: “You could argue it was bad timing for them, there was a two to one chance of someone not actually hanging at the time. A few weeks later and their sentences would probably have been commuted to life in prison, they could both still be alive today.”
Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans were the last people to be executed in the UK (Image: Steve Fielding)
The pair were convicted of the murder of John Alan West, a 53-year-old laundry company driver who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death at his home in Cumbria on 7 April, 1964, which according to historian and author Steve Fielding, was “unremarkable”.
Twenty-four-year-old Evans, who was also known as John Robson Walby, and Allen, 21, had travelled to Mr West’s home in Seaton in a stolen car from Preston, Lancashire. Allen and Evans both had court debts to clear, and Evans knew the victim was a bachelor who lived alone after the death of his mother – making him an easy target.
Shortly after 3am BST, neighbours heard several thuds, a scream and the screech of a car being driven away, Mr West’s semi-naked body was found moments later. Allen’s wife and the couple’s two young children were also in the getaway car. With them, the murderers took a watch and two bank books from which they withdrew a total of £10.
The victim had suffered three head injuries and a single stab wound to the heart. The knife was ditched near Windermere as the attackers fled.
bags of sand weighing the same as the prisoner were used to practice the drop. (Image: Steve Fielding)
Police quickly connected Evans to the scene when his jacket was found hanging on West’s bannister, which quickly led to their arrest. Soon both would point the finger at each other over who struck the fatal blows, but it wouldn’t matter. The jury found both guilty of the capital murder of Mr West under the joint enterprise law. This law is a controversial one, currently being campaigned against by families who feel their loved ones have been sentenced harshly.
Although Evans and Allen were given the death penalty, the public’s attitude was turning against the practice and they both launched appeals hoping to commute the sentence to life in prison – however, both were denied.
Mr Fielding who has written more than 20 books about UK hangings, said: “Whether a man was reprieved or not was quite arbitrary, there were people who committed much more brutal murders who, after being sentenced to execution, were commuted to life sentences.
“It may even have come down to the fact that a prison hadn’t used its gallows for a while. There was no consistency.”
