The transport secretary has launched Labour’s plans for a single ‘directing mind’ that will bring together responsibility for Britain’s rail network and publicly-owned passenger services.
Heidi Alexander said a new Railways Bill – ‘a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the fundamental rules, structures, and bodies that make up our rail industry – will enable the Government to establish Great British Railways (GBR) and give it the authority and autonomy it needs to run the network in the public interest.
In the foreword to a consultation on the plans, she pointed out that the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 already allows Labour to deliver on its manifesto commitment to bring services back into public ownership.
She described public ownership as a ‘necessary first step towards ending fragmentation, resetting the culture of the railway, and rebuilding trust’ but added that it is ‘just one piece of the puzzle’.
She said: ‘From the structure of the industry to the roles, responsibilities, and incentives that underpin it – more fundamental change is sorely needed.’
Ms Alexander described GBR as ‘a single directing mind bringing together responsibility for the rail network itself, and for the publicly-owned passenger services that run on it'.
'This will be a new organisation with a new customer-focussed culture, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the network, and directly accountable for improving its performance,’ she added.
The concept of a GBR as single directing mind was first put forward by the previous Government under the Williams-Shapps plan for rail, although the Tories would have kept franchises in private hands.
The Bill will also create a new watchdog ‘to act as an independent voice and champion for passengers’ – a role that Transport Focus (and TravelWatch in London) is currently meant to fill.
Regulator the Office of Rail and Road will have ‘a more focused role centred primarily on safety and efficiency’.
The consultation also promises a statutory role for devolved governments and mayoral strategic authorities ‘in influencing and scrutinising GBR’, which will also work with and alongside the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales, ‘preserving existing devolved responsibilities while ensuring they also have the option to benefit from seeking further collaboration and integration between GBR and devolved operators’.
Although Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham ostensibly welcomed the announcement, which he described in a Department for Transport press release as a once-in-a-generation ‘opportunity’ to overhaul how the railways run’, he has previously called for metro mayors to be given more control than just ‘influencing and scrutinising’.
He said: ‘We look forward to helping shape the Bill, with a statutory role for mayors and city regions in making the railways work for everyone.’
