C2C upcoming nationalisation.

[swt_passenger]

Can't say I've seen any further signs of GBR in the last few days.

What were you expecting? As I noted on page #1, nothing’s happened on SWR after the initial PR.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Surprised it hasn't leaked on here.

c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail (Anglia Region) will be brought together under one team and then formally merged in 2027.

It will act as a quasi-merged organisation in the meantime led primarily by the GA leadership team.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

So a region, rather than a sector, structure for the rest of GBR looks pretty much nailed on then? Good! XC and Thameslink to be divvied up accordingly?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

So a region, rather than a sector, structure for the rest of GBR looks pretty much nailed on then? Good! XC and Thameslink to be divvied up accordingly?

Yes, although sector/region are being used interchangeably in some circles - but yes, essentially aligned to the existing Network Rail regions with some tweaks.

I cannot officially provide a source for it at present, but XC will likely be more of a multi region cooperation agreement/concept rather than a standalone TOC, potentially for a separate discussion.

 

[StephenHunter]

I don’t know what’s happening to the unit (720601) that’s holding the GBR vinyl’s ? haven’t seen it out on the network for about 3 weeks.

In the East Ham sidings.

 

[Skimble19]

This makes a lot of sense, but Great Northern (whatever bits don't end up in London Overground) should also join the Anglia region. Especially at the King's Lynn end, it really does seems separate in the most artificial way possible.

The only part of Great Northern that’s within the Anglia region is Royston - King’s Lynn. The vast majority is LNE / Eastern region.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

I have shared my source with one of the long-standing forum administrators/mods as it would be unwise to post it in full on a forum.

I am rather surprised it hasn't leaked already to be fair.

I would expect any stations within the Anglia region which are currently GTR managed to transfer to the region - even if that region's trains aren't serving it routinely. Not that passengers will see any difference as it will all be GBR outwardly.

 

[JonathanH]

c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail (Anglia Region) will be brought together under one team and then formally merged in 2027.

Presumably that is just an operational split within one overall GBR though, rather than a legal division?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Presumably that is just an operational split within one overall GBR though, rather than a legal division?

I suspect it will be a seperate legal entity of its own, GBR (Anglia) Limited or some such description, a subsidiary of GBR plc.

(Obviously some artistic license with names here to make the point!)

The Anglia one will be called Anglia Railway as a brand, in the interim.

Has the benefit that you can potentially let the whole region thing out as a future franchise or concession if something goes wrong or politics shift.

Merging all of the organisations into one could be an admin nightmare otherwise.

 

[Clarence Yard]

I don’t think that separate legal entities are the current plan. It’s Region/Route management structures under one GBR legal entity.

Anglia isn’t currently a NR Region - it is a Route within NR Eastern Region. The 2027 date is key because that is when GBR will come into being so any staff or functional transfers within the Anglia route area before 2027 have to be done by putting them into one of the three constituent entities. Getting senior management savings out of merging the senior posts in all three organisations is but the first step.

How quickly GBR completes its own organisational restructure is currently being debated. Some want it to happen asap after GBR is formally constituted, others say it has to take a little longer. But the Treasury are after savings out of all this and they want their wedge sooner rather than later.

There is currently a very strong political steer not to leave any wriggle room in the GBR structure to allow services to be easily contracted out by a future Government.

 

[StephenHunter]

Reform UK's main railway policy can be found here (page 19 of the PDF):

Our Contract with You

If you don't want to risk reverse peristalsis, here are the relevant bits.

Scrap HS2

Save £25 billion by scrapping the rest of this bloated vanity project.

Accelerate Transport Infrastructure

Focus on our coastal regions, Wales, the North, and the Midlands. Improve existing rail and road links. Integrated services are critical.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

May as well post this now. Other sources not available to be published here for the moment.

It has been confirmed that a new integrated railway combining the strengths, skills, and expertise of GA, c2c and Network Rail Anglia - known as Anglia Railway - will launch by the end of the year after Greater Anglia has transferred into public ownership.

It has also been announced the Managing Director (Designate) for Anglia Railway will be Jamie Burles, our former MD here at Greater Anglia. He will assume that role on 1 September and start planning for the establishment of a unified Leadership team to manage the network and be fully accountable for all aspects of train and track operations, once Anglia Railway is formally launched.

Clearly, c2c and Network Rail Anglia are already in public ownership, whereas we will transfer on Sunday 12 October, as previously outlined, after which we can expect to hear more about how the process will work and when the formal launch of Anglia Railway will take place.

However, we can confirm that everyone working in the integrated Anglia Railway will continue to be employed by their current business - be that GA, c2c or Network Rail - until such time as Great British Railways is established, likely some time in 2027.

 

[dk1]

As expected contractual wise. Nothing can interfere with current rail staff working agreements just as has happened throughout the privatisation process almost 30 years ago.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Aug 2025 ==

Current and retired staff at GA were emailed this morning to confirm that all free travel within their respective TOCs will continue as now until at least 2027.

 

[StephenHunter]

As expected contractual wise. Nothing can interfere with current rail staff working agreements just as has happened throughout the privatisation process almost 30 years ago.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Aug 2025 ==

Current and retired staff at GA were emailed this morning to confirm that all free travel within their respective TOCs will continue as now until at least 2027.

It's called TUPE - Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). It's happened to me in fact in a past role.

There was of course an Anglia Railways in the early privatisation era.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There was of course an Anglia Railways in the early privatisation era.

Whose branding was a wonderful nod to the former Anglia Television branding...

 

[danielnez1]

Whose branding was a wonderful nod to the former Anglia Television branding...

I don't remember a Knight or the equally iconic (IMHO) Martin Lambie-Nairn designed flag ident. AFIK The Anglia TOC logo was IIRC a BR shadow franchise creation that was carried forward.

 

[dk1]

It's called TUPE - Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). It's happened to me in fact in a past role.

There was of course an Anglia Railways in the early privatisation era.

I know. I worked for Anglia Railways after starting with BR in 1984. We went through that, NXEA and then onto I think three forms of GA. Everything except the uniform and train livery stayed the same

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Aug 2025 ==

I don't remember a Knight or the equally iconic (IMHO) Martin Lambie-Nairn designed flag ident. AFIK The Anglia TOC logo was IIRC a BR shadow franchise creation that was carried forward.

The lettering style was very similar. Our livery at Anglia Railways and style of customer service I always found was based on a mini GNER. Just the base livery with a stripe but no crest.

 

[YorkshireBear]

May as well post this now. Other sources not available to be published here for the moment.

Pleasing that the GA MD continues as certainly from afar seemed he was doing a good job.

Lots of regions like this starting to take shape now, but it will be interesting to see what happens with the more complex areas.

 

[dk1]

Pleasing that the GA MD continues as certainly from afar seemed he was doing a good job.

Lots of regions like this starting to take shape now, but it will be interesting to see what happens with the more complex areas.

Jamie did leave us last year. Martin Beable has been the recent MD.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Jamie did leave us last year. Martin Beable has been the recent MD.

Ahhh got myself mixed up thanks for the correction. Was probably in the stars when he moved from GA to NR!

 

[Harpo]

Inevitable but somewhat sad to see the LTS/C2C revert to being a secondary GE route much like it was under BR.

Glass half full view, hopefully GA’s progressive thinking adds to the C2C legacy.

Glass half empty view, let’s hope GA doesn’t fix its 720 error by sending half of them to C2C when the (now 25 year old) 357s die.

 

[357]

let’s hope GA doesn’t fix its 720 error by sending half of them to C2C

This has been on the table for five years.

 

[Mikey C]

Both GA and C2C have been well run anyway. Neither franchise were the reason why GBR and nationalisation happened.

 

[720144]

Glass half empty view, let’s hope GA doesn’t fix its 720 error by sending half of them to C2C when the (now 25 year old) 357s die.

This is why the repainting programme down at Ilford has come in handy for the 357 workhorses.

 

[stadler]

Surprised it hasn't leaked on here.

c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail (Anglia Region) will be brought together under one team and then formally merged in 2027.

It will act as a quasi-merged organisation in the meantime led primarily by the GA leadership team.

How exactly is that going to work once the merge in completed in 2027 in a few years? Does that mean getting rid of the C2C or GA branding and livery and running it all as one brand and livery? Or will it be like GTR (with their GN and GX and SN and TL brands) where it will be one overall company but with multiple brands and liveries? So one company but with separate C2C and GA brands and liveries?

It seems a bit pointless to merge them when C2C is almost an entire self contained network with very little interaction with the GA network. It would make more sense to leave C2C as its own operation. It is very separate to the GA operation. I could understand this if they were planning to merge all state owned TOCs in the UK in to one British Rail style company but just merging C2C and GA seems a bit pointless and could potentially make things worse.

 

[StephenHunter]

In terms of branding, you could have a Double Arrow combined with Anglia Railway, like the practice under the Regions.

 

[357]

It seems a bit pointless to merge them when C2C is almost an entire self contained network with very little interaction with the GA network. It would make more sense to leave C2C as its own operation. It is very separate to the GA operation. I could understand this if they were planning to merge all state owned TOCs in the UK in to one British Rail style company but just merging C2C and GA seems a bit pointless and could potentially make things worse

C2C does too many things differently to the rest of the industry for no apparent reason, and much of the management levels will no longer need to be duplicated across both TOCs.

It's a good idea and a massive money saver, while bringing C2C into line with the rest of the industry in various ways.

 

[StephenHunter]

C2C does too many things differently to the rest of the industry for no apparent reason, and much of the management levels will no longer need to be duplicated across both TOCs.

It's a good idea and a massive money saver, while bringing C2C into line with the rest of the industry in various ways.

Isn't that going to mean redundancies though?

 

[JonathanH]

Isn't that going to mean redundancies though?

Natural wastage, voluntary retirement and redeployment are also options.

However, one of the things that is often cited is that the current railway has unnecessary duplication and costs because of its fragmented nature. That is akin to saying it employs too many non-frontline people doing the same job.

 

[Mag_seven]

OK with the countdown now over and C2C now in public hands its time to bring this thread to a close.

I've split off a couple of speculative posts about the challenges of reorganising services within the GBR operation to a separate thread which can be found here:

Challenges of reorganising services within the GBR operation

Moderator note - split from: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/c2c-upcoming-nationalisation.289318/ Surprised it hasn't leaked on here. c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail (Anglia Region) will be brought together under one team and then formally merged in 2027. It will act as a...

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