Yes and no. Just before the pandemic, a year ago, as Melancholy says the government renationalised North Rail and operated its services through a new publicly-owned company called Northern Trains.
Then once Covid got going and passenger numbers collapsed throughout the UK rail network, the government suspended all rail franchising and simply paid the train operating companies to carry on running their (mostly empty) trains. In other words, in effect the franchises were converted into concessions. But then later last year, the whole franchising system was officially abolished by the government. We don't yet know what will replace it. But for the moment, the entire network is, in effect, nationalised. Amazing!
