The long-awaited White Paper in response to the Williams Rail Review was finally published on 20th of May 2021.
Here is our view of the 5 things you need to know:
1. Simplification not nationalisation
The railways haven't been renationalised but a new State body – Great British Railways, with the familiar old British Rail logo – will take over timetabling, setting fares, owning and managing stations and infrastructure, track access, and procuring most passenger services (the latter through new Passenger Service Contracts).
The structure of the rail industry will be simpler, with an overriding duty on all parties to cooperate to achieve the best outcome for passengers.
The new Passenger Service Contracts will replace franchises. They build on the National Rail Contracts that are being put in place to support the train operators through the COVID-19 pandemic. They will operate as concessions, with GBR setting the fares and paying train operators a fee. There may be potential for revenue sharing on more profitable routes. The contracts will be much more flexible in size and length, to encourage a wider range of bidders and to reflect the types of service being offered.
2. Long term certainty
There will be a new 30 year strategy and a 30 year environmental plan for the rail network. Long term vision has been limited in recent years and this should give confidence to get some big electrification and capacity enhancement projects up and running: needed if the rail industry is to meet its net zero target. Five yearly Control Periods will still continue allowing a level of funding certainty for multi-year projects.
3. Regionalisation
GBR will be split into five regions, mirroring Network Rail's current regional routes. These regions will partner with local leaders in some areas to shape and draw up contracts. This is an area we will be watching closely as it's not clear from the Plan exactly how the regional and national aspects of GBR will work together, particularly with respect to cross regional services; nor how much say local and regional transport bodies will get (an important aspect when looking to integrate different local transport modes).
4. Freight
It is good to see freight's contribution to the economy and to decarbonisation being recognised in the Plan. GBR will have a statutory duty to promote freight and will set a growth target for freight, like in Scotland. A national freight coordination team in GBR will help to embed freight into decision making. It's not clear how the regionalisation mentioned above will work alongside national freight routes and where priority of services will lie. Freight is an open access service and GBR's remit to let passenger concessions may lead to tension with this.
The role of freight fits well with the long term environmental commitments of the Plan. What will be of interest is the extent to which GBR is involved in supporting intermodal freight interchanges and infrastructure enhancements which primarily benefit freight flows.
5. Open Data
The passenger (and freight user) is at the heart of these reforms. The railway needs to be more attractive than the car. Journeys need to be seamless. That needs an 'open by default' approach to data. This opens up new opportunities for passenger-facing apps to provide new, personalised services to passengers, and to give an unprecedented understanding of individual travel needs. As an example, Transport for London's open data is now used by over 600 apps. Imagine the uses for national travel data!
NEXT STEPS
Implementing these reforms will take time (and legislation) so there won't be many immediate changes. One key change arriving more quickly and reflecting the effects of COVID-19 is a new flexible season ticket allowing 8 journeys in any 28 day period, which will go on sale on 28 June.
We'll be looking at the Plan in more detail over the coming weeks so look out for more detailed analysis from us on these 5 areas as well as some of the other aspects of the Plan.
