Great British Railways news
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Rail Business UKCall to retain cash payment at stations
UK: Great British Railways must retain cash payment options, watchdog Transport Focus has said, because some passengers in the most deprived areas could be disadvantaged if they had to use other payment methods. In its Is Cash Still Important On Today’s Railway? report, Transport Focus says ...
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Rail Business UKGovernment introduces bill to take passenger train operations into the public sector
UK: The legislation envisages that the direct award of a contract to a public sector operator would become the default, rather than a last resort.
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Rail Business UKRail sector responds to Labour general election win
UK: Organisations from across the rail sector have responded to the outcome of the July 4 general election, which saw a landslide victory for the opposition Labour over the previous Conservative government.
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Rail Business UKGovernment is not putting passengers and taxpayers first, says Public Accounts Committee
UK: The government has made little progress in implementing its plans for rail which are now largely on hold until the next parliament, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says in its report into rail reform which was published on May 27. In particular, PAC ...
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Rail Business UKWales ready for rail reform
UK: Speaking to the UK parliamentary Transport Select Committee on May 21, the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for North Wales & Transport, Ken Skates, set out his three requests from the Westminster government as part of the emerging reform programme to establish Great British Railways. Skates called ...
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Rail Business UKOperator of last resort holds key to Labour’s rail renationalisation aspiration
UK: Rail Business UK has been speaking to industry leaders as they start to digest the rail policy proposals set out by the Labour Party ahead of the forthcoming general election.
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Rail Business UKMixed response to Labour rail proposals
UK: Organisations across the UK rail sector have broadly welcomed the reform proposals unveiled by Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh on April 25. Entitled ‘Getting Britain Moving’, the Labour Party policy committed to introducing new legislation to establish Great British Railways early in the next Parliamentary ...
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Rail Business UKWilliams Review author backs Labour plan to adopt Great British Railways reforms in full
UK: Sir Keith Williams has lent his backing to plans by the Labour Party to implement a standalone ‘guiding mind’ for the rail sector if it wins the upcoming General Election.
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Rail Business UKRail reform makes limited progress with unclear plans
UK: The government’s rail reforms are facing delays and there are long-standing issues that need to be addressed including financial sustainability, according to a National Audit Office report published on March 8. After the white paper on rail reform was published in May 2021, the Department ...
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Rail Business UKTransport Committee invites feedback on draft rail reform bill
Source: Mary R Smith/Pixabay UK: The House of Commons Transport Select Committee has launched its pre-legislative scrutiny of the government’s draft Rail Reform Bill, inviting experts to share their views. The Committee will examine the draft bill’s proposals and make recommendations to the government on how ...
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Rail Business UKUK government publishes Draft Rail Reform Bill
UK: The government has published its Draft Rail Reform Bill, to give parliamentarians and the industry an opportunity to provide feedback. Legislation is needed to implement the government’s rail reform proposals, including the creation of Great British Railways. However, a bill is unlikely to pass before ...
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Rail Business UKWest Midlands and Greater Manchester smart fare capping planned for 2025
UK: Stations across the West Midlands and selected routes in Greater Manchester are to be equipped for tap-in and tap-out payment with ‘best fare’ capping from 2025, Rail Minister Huw Merriman confirmed on February 1. Meanwhile, the Great British Railways Transition Team is working on the ...
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Rail Business UKRail freight sector responds to government’s 75% target for growth
UK: The rail industry has welcomed the government’s announcement of ‘a top-level ambition’ to grow freight tonne-km by at least 75% by 2050, but says more work is needed to identify actions implement this. The target announced by Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper on ...
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Rail Business UKPlans for centralised Great British Railways ticket sales scrapped
UK: The government has dropped plans to create a centralised Great British Railways online rail ticket retailer, the Department for Transport has confirmed. The proposals were originally outlined by the in May 2021 as part of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail white paper. However, on December ...
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Rail Business UKLive broadcast: Britain’s railways in a state of flux
UK: Britain’s rail sector is in a state of flux. In Railway Gazette Group’s forthcoming interactive live broadcast on November 22, a panel of industry leaders will assess the outlook in the wake of the scrapping of the remaining legs of High Speed 2, ongoing pressure on day-to-day operating budgets, question marks over plans to establish Great British Railways as a ‘guiding mind’ for the industry and the uneven picture of devolution.
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Rail Business UKDisappointment as railway reform bill now unlikely before election
UK: The government’s decision to publish a draft rather than full railway reform bill is a missed opportunity, rail industry bodies said following the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament on November 7. The government said that given the scale and complexity of the planned ...
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Rail Business UKRail bodies get busy on Bee plans
UK: Transport for Greater Manchester and the Great British Railways Transition Team have formally begun developing plans for a more locally accountable and integrated local rail network, supporting the Trailblazer Deeper Devolution Deal agreed between Greater Manchester and the government in March. The work which got ...
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Rail Business UKRail leaders court Labour as fears of ‘managed decline’ grow
UK: Amid mounting concern about potential cuts to rail provision, senior leaders in the passenger and freight markets have begun to engage more closely with the Labour Party ahead of a likely general election in 2024.
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Rail Business UKRailway 200 looks to the future as well as the past
UK: Inspiring the next generation will be a key focus for a year-long programme of events being planned to mark the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on September 27 1825. That event is described as ‘the birth of passenger train ...
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Rail Business UKInterview: ‘You can’t innovate as a monopolist’
UK: Avanti West Coast and c2c parent Trenitalia is ready to make significant investment in Britain’s railways, mirroring its recent expansion in Spain. But this is contingent on the government relaxing its grip on the industry, the company’s UK Managing Director Ernesto Sicilia explains to Nick Kingsley and Sophie Burton.