UK: Sir Keith Williams, who led a review of the UK rail sector for the current government, has lent his backing to plans by the Labour Party to launch his recommended independent body Great British Railways if it wins the upcoming General Election.
The Williams Review was a root-and-branch analysis of the structure and performance of the industry commissioned by former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in the wake of the December 2018 timetable collapse across southeast and northern England. The review’s findings were formally issued as the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail in May 2021. However, since then progress in implementing the ensuing rail reform programme has been slow, with legislation now unlikely to be laid before parliament before the next election.
Both the government and opposition are broadly aligned on the need for a standalone body to better co-ordinate the operation and management of the rail network. However, since the Williams Review was concluded, the government has been reasserting the importance of enshrining a greater role for the private sector in the reform process.
Yet with Labour well ahead in the polls and a general election required to be held by January 2025 at the latest, Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh is now ready to lay out her party’s rail policy rail policy should they form the next government. Haigh’s proposals are expected to back the findings of the Williams Review in full, and commit the party to taking all of the remaining privately held train operating contracts back in-house as they expire.
Speaking on April 24 ahead of Labour’s policy announcement, Williams said he welcomed the party’s intention, ‘if they are elected, to take forward the substance of my recommendations to deliver a better railway for passengers and freight by creating a rail body with an integrated profit and loss account, at arm’s length from government. Running a better railway and driving revenue and reducing costs will deliver economic growth, jobs and housing by delivering better connectivity’, he added.
Whole-industry P&L
A Labour Party statement said its policy position, to be announced on April 25, would ‘create a unified, publicly owned, accountable and arm’s length body Great British Railways, which will be led by rail experts, not Whitehall. Operators will be folded into the new body as contracts expire. The plan endorses many of the key proposals made by Keith Williams.’
Meanwhile, the Great British Railways Transition Team led by Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines has already spent several months undertaking preparatory works ahead of the formal rail reform legislation being put before parliament. This has included development of an advanced data modelling tool intended to analyse in a standardised and consistent way the financial performance of the industry on a route-by-route basis. This has paved the way for creation of a whole-sector profit-and-loss account, as cited by Williams.
However, Rail Business UK understands from industry insiders in the train operating community that even if GBR is implemented in full by a Labour administration, they expect little to change in terms of the outlook for overall funding of the sector.
