It was taken back into government control after the previous incumbent turned round and said it could no longer afford to pay for the franchise. It is likely to be offered up again at some point in the future.
Step One, Pull out of the EU. It is this capitalist club that state ownership.. Unless you are France or Germany.
In principal - yes. But interesting what other people have said about how likely or possible it would be to do it. The issue to me is not necessarily who runs it but how it's being run. I didn't realise until the news about the West Coast franchise being lost by Virgin that it actually worked that way. I thought when they privatised the railways it was to open them to competition, so Virgin could run trains on a route but so could another company and compete on the same route. Instead what they've done is replace a nationalised monopoly with a privatised one. Where is the competition? Travel on Northern Rail on the routes served from Barnsley and you get sub-standard trains with no heating in the winter. Yet they are allowed to put ticket prices up by well above the rate of inflation. If we could see evidence that the money was being used to invest in the railways it might not be so bad.
Actually, could we get the Swiss or Germans in to run our railways. They seem to have made a good job of their own. Even the French running it would be an improvement. Apparently at the last tender, Virgin lost the Cross Country franchise, which was allegedly a government decision to give it to anyone but Virgin. Basically, each TOC has to pay the government an amount of money to run the trains. All rolling stock is leased, and the stations and track are owned by another company.