Great British Railways

In September 2018 businessman Keith Williams was appointed by the government to inquire into the structure of the railways.

He concluded that there were too many separate organisations, and that the lack of a ‘guiding mind’ had led to major problems, such as the disruption which followed the introduction of new timetables in May 2018.

An inquiry was launched into these problems, and in September 2018 the Office of Rail and Road said: ‘The three-month inquiry found that Network Rail, Govia Thameslink Railway, Northern, the Department for Transport and the Office of Rail and Road all made mistakes, which contributed to the collapse of services, particularly on the GTR and Northern routes.’ Its final report was published in December.

In February 2019, in a speech to the industry , Keith Williams said he had discovered ‘fragmentation and short-termism, lack of accountability, flexibility and joined-up thinking, conflicting interests within the structure of the railway, and the need for leadership throughout the system’.

His findings and conclusions were published in May 2021 in the form of a Department for Transport policy paper. The transport secretary Grant Shapps endorsed the report, and the title became the ‘Williams-Shapps plan for rail’ .

It proposed the creation of a ‘guiding mind’, to be called Great British Railways.

GBR would be responsible for awarding and managing Passenger Service Contracts with operators as well as maintaining and improving the infrastructure, effectively absorbing Network Rail and inheriting most of the powers of the Department for Transport, which would continue to set broad railway policy.

A Great British Railways Transition Team has been set up, under the leadership of Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines. The Conservative government under Rishi Sunak introduced a Draft Rail Reform Bill in February 2024, which would have paved the way for creating an Integrated Rail Body, described as the ‘franchising authority’.

A general election was called for 4 July, and the draft bill had made no progress before Parliament was dissolved.

Meanwhile the Labour Party had published its own proposals in April 2024 entitled ‘Getting Britain Moving’. This time, Great British Railways was to be established as the industry’s ‘directing mind’ rather than the ‘guiding mind’ envisaged by Keith Williams. It would not be a franchising authority but instead would take control of passenger operators as their contracts expired, renationalising the main passenger railway.

Further open access services operated by the private sector would also be considered where they ‘added value’.

The Labour Party was elected, and three railway Bills were included in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024. The first of these, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, removes the requirement set out in the 1993 Railways Act to use private sector passenger operators. Instead, public ownership is to be the default. This Bill received its First Reading on 18 July.

A more complex Railways Bill is under preparation, and this will establish Great British Railways as the ‘directing mind’ and operator of most passenger trains. It will also have the infrastructure responsibilities which have been managed by Network Rail since 2001-2.

The third Bill is connected with the development of a railway between Birmingham and Manchester that would replace the former HS2 sections 2A and 2B. It is entitled the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill. It does not reverse the decision to cancel this part of HS2, but provides ‘powers to construct and operate rail projects which improve east to west connectivity across the north of England’.

There may be a standard Great British Railways livery for rolling stock and other elements of the visual identity, which will feature ‘Rail Alphabet 2’, a redrawn version of British Rail’s lettering from 1965.

Rail Alphabet 2

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