CONTROL of trains and track will be brought under a new public sector body named Great British Railways (GBR) as part of sweeping reforms, the Department for Transport has announced. The organisation will own and manage rail infrastructure, issue contracts to private firms to run trains, set most fares and timetables, and sell tickets. It will absorb Network Rail in a bid to end the current “blame-game system” between train and track operations when disruption occurs. The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail has been published as a white paper. It is based on the recommendations of a review of the industry carried out by former British Airways chief executive Keith Williams following the chaotic introduction of new timetables in May 2018.
Published:
10:30 PM May 19, 2021
Paul Geater has been covering the rail industry in East Anglia since the 1980s.
- Credit: Sarah Lucy Brown
I ve covered rail stories in East Anglia since the mid-1980s, and I ve been passionately interested in the subject since I was a child - so I ve followed all the twists and turns of the industry very closely during that time.
The government s new structure does sound quite familiar. Drop the Great from the title and what have you got? British Railways.
Many people have been advocating the return of a nationalised passenger rail industry - and that is what we will have in many ways. The government will decide where trains run, when trains run, and how much we have to pay to use them.
The creation of a new public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways will simplify a system that is “too complicated”, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.
Great British Railways (GBR) will own and manage rail infrastructure, issue contracts to private firms to run trains, set most fares and timetables, and sell tickets.
It will absorb Network Rail in a bid to end what the Department for Transport (DfT) branded a “blame-game system” between train and track operations when disruption occurs.
Mr Shapps said during the 2018 timetable fiasco there was no “Fat Controller” in charge of the system, referencing the Thomas The Tank Engine stories.
Great British Railways will absorb Network Rail as well as being responsible for train services - and will issue its first operational contracts later this year, initially for two years while the new structure is set up.
One thing that will change soon is that GBR will start selling part-time season tickets to commuters who want to travel to work two or three days a week. The Department for Transport said this would offer savings of hundreds of pounds to part-time commuters.
It is a policy that South Suffolk MP James Cartlidge has been lobbying for ever since he was first elected in 2015.
The creation of a new public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways will simplify a system that is “too complicated”, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.
Great British Railways (GBR) will own and manage rail infrastructure, issue contracts to private firms to run trains, set most fares and timetables, and sell tickets.
It will absorb Network Rail in a bid to end what the Department for Transport (DfT) branded a “blame-game system” between train and track operations when disruption occurs.
Mr Shapps said during the 2018 timetable fiasco there was no “Fat Controller” in charge of the system, referencing the Thomas The Tank Engine stories.