The Government has announced its plans for the transformation of Britain’s railways.
The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail fully reflects the independent recommendations of Keith Williams, and will see a shake up of the current system which the report said faced serious issues facing the railways before Covid struck
The pandemic has exacerbated some of these and added more says the report
The proposals will end decades of fragmentation by bringing the railways back together under a new public body with a single, national leadership and a new brand and identity, built on the famous double arrow. Great British Railways (GBR)
It will run and plan the network, own the infrastructure, and collect most fare revenue. It will procure passenger services and set most fares and timetables.
The railways will beeasier to use by simplifying fares and ticketing, providing more convenient ways to pay with contactless, smartphone and online, and protecting affordable walk-on fares and season tickets.
Rail services will be better coordinated with each other and better integrated with other transport services such as trams, buses and bikes.
WGBR will contract private partners to operate the trains to the timetable it sets. These contracts will include strong incentives for operators to run high-quality services and increase passenger demand.
The contracts are not one-size-fits-all, so as demand recovers, long-distance routes will have more commercial freedom to attract new passengers.
Freight is already a nimble, largely private sector market and will remain so, while benefiting from the national coordination, new safeguards and rules-based access system that will help it thrive.
The Government promised to grow, not shrink, the network, continuing to invest tens of billions of pounds in new lines, trains, services and electrification.
Simpler structures and clear leadership will make decision-making easier and more transparent, reduce costs and make it cheaper to invest in modern ways to pay, upgrade the network and deliver new lines.
The adversarial blame culture will end and everyone across the sector, including train operators, will be incentivised to work towards common goals, not least managing costs.
The Government promises that changes will transform the railways for the better. They will also make the sector more accountable to taxpayers and government.
Government ministers will have strong levers to set direction, pursue government policies and oversee delivery to ensure the railways are managed effectively and spend public money efficiently. Great British Railways will be empowered – a single, familiar brand with united, accountable leadership.
Responding to the report Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:
“I broadly welcome these reforms and believe they could bring some much-needed sense and stability to what has felt in recent times like a chaotic railway. Rail privatisation as we have known is over and there won’t be many tears shed in Greater Manchester about that. But we do have concerns that this move back to a centrally-controlled railway could weaken the powers of the North over our railway and we are seeking reassurances from the Transport Secretary that this will not be the case.
“It is important to remember that Northern Mayors and Leaders led calls for change following the timetable chaos in May 2018. We said enough was enough, demanded a better rail service here and this is a significant response to that call. While these changes are clearly a sizeable step in the right direction, they do appear to fall short of what the Prime Minister promised at the Convention of the North in 2019 – notably devolved control of services and stations. In Greater Manchester, we want that local control so we can deliver a London-style public transport system by the end of the decade. We hope that these proposals will not cut across that vision and want to work with the Transport Secretary and the new Great British Railways to deliver it.”
