The Commons Transport Committee has called for assurances in the Railways Bill that there will no micromanagement of Great British Railways by the government, and that there will be no ‘potential tension’ between GBR and ministers.
Two new reports have identified gaps in the Bill’s provisions and also consider the prospects for railway investment.
Franchise holders sometimes complained during the privatisation era that ministers were interfering over minor matters instead of only making high level policy decisions about the running of passenger contracts.
The theory is that GBR will be the arms-length ‘directing mind’ for the industry, but the Committee has warned that the Bill leaves out many details, saying that ‘key policies, processes and decisions are awaited, and the timetable on which they will emerge is unknown or imprecise’.
In particular, the Committee wants to see a draft of the new licence which GBR will need to run passenger services and the infrastructure, saying that ‘The Department for Transport should publish a comprehensive list, with target dates, of decisions, key documents and planned consultations leading up to the establishment of Great British Railways and in its first year of operation’. It also says the new law should provide a passenger growth target, to be set by the transport secretary.
In a second report, published at the same time, the Committee has published its findings about investment in the industry, saying that it is time to leave the days of ‘boom and bust’ behind, a conclusion which has been welcomed by the Railway Industry Association. The report identifies the promised Long Term Rail Strategy and associated rolling stock strategy as ‘key to future certainty’ for the industry.
Committee chair Ruth Cadbury said: ‘The Railways Bill should usher in much-needed structural change for our railways, but we still need to know more about the route it will take and when its component parts will be coming down the track.
‘In our scrutiny of the Railways Bill, the Transport Committee has identified a host of key documents that are yet to be published, and we don’t yet know when they will emerge. On top of this, we found a lack of clarity over how Great British Railways will operate as an arm's-length body that is free from political interference and micromanagement by future secretaries of state.
‘The Committee was also surprised to see that the Bill does not have a target for increasing passenger journeys, which is surely fundamental to the purpose of Great British Railways. The Government should take steps to reassure both Parliament and the industry of movement on all these fronts.
‘What is clear is that we must get past the damaging “boom and bust” cycles outlined in our report about the pipeline of rail investment, with a radical new approach to certainty of spending on the railways. The advent of Great British Railways is a golden opportunity to get this moving, and the Committee looks forward to hearing more about the Government’s plans to reach its destination.’
Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan said: ‘The new reports are an important contribution on the need for more clarity around both the future of rail investment pipelines and more details around how Great British Railways will work.
He added that RIA has been arguing for ‘a clear and visible pipeline of work to be published ever since the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline was launched in 2019, so we welcome the Select Committee’s recognition of the “damaging uncertainty” this has caused to the UK rail supply chain and the need for “clarity to plan and invest”.
‘The MPs also acknowledge that many of GBR’s key policies, processes and decisions have yet to be determined, which adds to the current sense of uncertainty.’
Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Ben Plowden said the report on the Bill ‘offers a fair and balanced assessment of the opportunities and remaining challenges in delivering truly effective rail reform’.
He continued: ‘This is a hugely complicated process, with many strategies, policies and objectives yet to be determined, so it will be important to have clarity on the key milestones.
‘We are pleased that our views have been reflected in the report, and we particularly welcome the recommendation for a passenger journey growth target, which we believe should be a top priority for Great British Railways. Continued investment in network capacity and ensuring rail travel is affordable will be central to attracting more passengers to the rail network to help support a thriving economy, productivity, and regeneration.’
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