Great British Railways - Binned

[800001]

The Times are reporting that Rishi Sunak has binned GBR, and as a result will not be in the Kings Speech, and as such legislation can not be brought in.

It’s behind paywall so can’t read much detail.

 

[nanstallon]

What a waste of taxpayers' money.

 

[jfollows]

Thank you for the heads-up, here's the full article (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-boris-johnson-great-british-railways-rmnm23grx): essentially there's no parliamentary time available for it because Rishi Sunak doesn't think it's important enough, and it was after all one of Boris's ideas. The article goes on to say that a "shadow" GBR will be created, for all that's worth, since it won't have any powers. Given the deafening silence on the subject from all concerned, which the article acknowledges, I can't say it's all that surprising.
So DfT gets to keep the power ("the naysayers are the people who don’t want to relinquish power").
And legislation on self-driving vehicles is more important than trains.

Rishi Sunak drops Boris Johnson’s Great British Railways project

Ben Clatworthy

Transport Correspondent

Thursday May 18 2023, 6.30pm, The Times

Ministers have quietly scrapped plans for the biggest shake-up of the railways since privatisation, The Times has learnt.

Plans for the creation of Great British Railways (GBR), put forward by Boris Johnson as a way to fix Britain’s rail network, have been watered down by No 10.

Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) working on the new body, which was due to take over the running of the entire network, have been told it is not a priority for the government and will not be brought forward in the King’s Speech.

“Those working on it have been told it’s now unlikely to get a legislative slot,” a source said. “Without it they won’t be able to fully create the body, as it requires primary legislation.”

It is understood there is a battle between the DfT and Downing Street over its creation. Transport ministers are pushing for it to be given parliamentary time but there is pushback from Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, who does not consider the railways a priority for the final session of parliament before the general election.

A source said: “The simple fact is Sunak doesn’t see the railways as a priority. He was in the Treasury during Covid when all he saw was the railways costing eye-watering amounts of money. He’d ask why so much was being spent to ‘ship fresh air’ around the country.”

The creation of GBR was announced in May 2021 by Johnson and Grant Shapps, then the transport secretary, branded as the biggest shake-up of the railways since privatisation in the mid-1990s.

GBR, they said, would be introduced to run the tracks and trains, including setting timetables and collecting fares through a simplified ticketing system. Franchising would be scrapped in favour of passenger service contracts, with operators paid a flat rate to run a line and the revenue risk lying with the chancellor.

Its creation was included in the Transport Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech last spring but was then scrapped in October by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, transport secretary at the time, who said it would not go ahead in this session.

Insiders now believe a shadow GBR will be created — albeit without overall control of the railways, significantly watering down Johnson’s plans for modernisation.

Last month ministers suggested that if a bill on future transportation is included in the King’s Speech, which has been delayed until the autumn, it would be slimmed down to focus on self-driving vehicles.

Speaking at the launch of a new all-party parliamentary group on self-driving vehicles, Richard Holden, a transport minister, said: “This is the one thing which the department is putting ahead of anything else at the moment. If we do get a slot, it will be in this space because we know how critical this area is for UK industry.”

Rail industry sources said there had been “deafening silence” over the new body, despite Mark Harper, the transport secretary, pleading in February for its formation and an announcement in March that it would be headquartered in Derby. Officials are said to now be looking at a handful of rail reforms that could be achieved without a bill.

“There is still a decent amount of work that can be done without legislation,” a source said. “It will be more limited but GBR can effectively become a shadow organisation responsible for pushing through reforms [that don’t need legislation]. You remove some areas from DfT control, such as passenger service contracts, into GBR for closer management by a guiding mind in waiting. But without legislation you’d still have to have new contracts signed off by the secretary of state.”

Rail bosses insisted that the work of the Great British Railways Transition Team, created to work on behalf of the government to set up the new organisation, was ongoing and would continue “until told otherwise”.

MPs urged ministers to press ahead with legislation. The Tory MP Pauline Latham, whose Mid Derbyshire constituency was chosen as the new body’s home, said: “I would be incredibly disappointed if it [was] ditched, having not only gone through the competition but won it hands down. I will fight with ministers and the secretary of state to have the legislation passed, even if that requires a delegation of us to go and see Sunak.

“We promised it, and delivering it won’t be complicated. I think the naysayers are the people who don’t want to relinquish power but we need it. The current system, not least franchising and ticketing, is in dire need of reform.”

Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, said: “The Conservatives are out of ideas and out of time. Under this zombie government, the message is clear: our failing rail services are here to stay. The next Labour government will reform our railways, bring operators back into public ownership as contracts expire and build the infrastructure fit for the century ahead, unlocking jobs and growth.”

The DfT said it was committed to GBR and insisted legislation would be brought forward “when parliamentary time allows”.

 

[nanstallon]

I couldn't get past the Times paywall.

 

[jfollows]

I couldn't get past the Times paywall.

You probably just missed my post above. Or you tried the URL - that's just there to acknowledge the source which is, indeed, behind a paywall which is why I have extracted and posted the text as a quote.

 

[Trainguy34]

Does this means it won't be nationalised

 

[Gaelan]

Does this means it won't be nationalised

What'll happen now depends a hell of a lot on who wins the next general election.

In any case, GBR as originally planned wasn't really nationalization anyway - the trains would be centrally planned and branded but operation would still be contracted out to private companies.

 

[Trainguy34]

What'll happen now depends a hell of a lot on who wins the next general election.

I'm guessing if labour win, nothing will go amywhere

 

[gabrielhj07]

This is a shame

 

[Ediswan]

The Times are reporting that Rishi Sunak has binned GBR, and as a result will not be in the Kings Speech, and as such legislation can not be brought in.

As far as I am aware, there is no such prohibition.

https://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/p...ns-speech-and-the-state-opening-of-parliament

The Bills listed in the Queen's Speech are often the most high-profile and long-planned ones. However, at any time the Government may introduce Bills that were not listed in the Queen's Speech. There is no difference between the parliamentary procedure that applies to Government Bills that were included in the Queen's Speech and those that were not.

Not everything online has been updated from Queen to King.

 

[brad465]

What a waste of taxpayers' money.

IMO it was just one of Johnson's big project ideas that he has form for announcing without really going through with the delivery.

 

[jfollows]

As far as I am aware, there is no such prohibition.

https://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/p...ns-speech-and-the-state-opening-of-parliament

Not everything online has been updated from Queen to King.

Agreed, not being in the King's Speech means that it's not impossible to introduce legislation, but it pushes it down the priority stack and if there is competition for time the government will favour legislation which is included in the King's Speech.

 

[sprinterguy]

Exactly as I suspected, more or less when I expected it to (not) happen.

A lot of hot air, and consultants fees, for zero payoff.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Exactly as I suspected, more or less when I expected it to (not) happen.

A lot of hot air, and consultants fees, for zero payoff.

Whatever next? A road/rail tunnel under the Irish Sea?

 

[fgwrich]

So that’s potentially another £52M spent on… nothing?

 

[irish_rail]

So a man who prefers to commute by helicopter doesn't see the railways as a priority for him. What an utter melt. Oh well Rishi, your time is coming, won't be long and you will be ancient history. I was no fan of Boris, but GBR had potential to give a bit of integration to our fragmented railway. Hopefully Keir Starmer can address this when he gets into Number 10, but who knows....

 

[yorksrob]

As the article says, Sunak is the problem and Sunak needs to go.

 

[BJames]

So a man who prefers to commute by helicopter doesn't see the railways as a priority for him. What an utter melt. Oh well Rishi, your time is coming, won't be long and you will be ancient history. I was no fan of Boris, but GBR had potential to give a bit of integration to our fragmented railway. Hopefully Keir Starmer can address this when he gets into Number 10, but who knows....

Indeed. Helicopter, private jet, anything to avoid those 'empty' trains...

 

[Clarence Yard]

What'll happen now depends a hell of a lot on who wins the next general election.

In any case, GBR as originally planned wasn't really nationalization anyway - the trains would be centrally planned and branded but operation would still be contracted out to private companies.

No, that’s what Shapps said but the proposed legislation he announced would have allowed the DfT to determine what would be put out to market and allow GBR “in certain circumstances” to run the services themselves.

Shapps really didn’t know what his civil servants were up to!

What the private owning groups have done is said to the Government, “you do realise what the DfT is really up to, don’t you? It’s central DfT control by proxy” They have listened and there has been second thoughts. The DfT, with a General Election imminent, is now slow playing everything. Some people there think that there is a better chance of getting the GBR they want after a General Election.

It’s chaos.

 

[jfollows]

If GBR isn't going to happen, or won't have any power even if it does, where does this leave "fare simplification"? Who wants to push for this to happen and has the power to make it happen? It's all well and good messing around with fares on the ECML and claiming that these are the dawn of new simplified fares, but they're not, so does this leave any radical change in this area sent into a siding now? Or is there some body with power and interest to do something about it?

 

[Andyh82]

As it’s highly likely there will be a change in government after the next general election, surely it was very unlikely to happen anyway, there isn’t enough time to roll anything significant out?

 

[Richardr]

Rightly or wrongly, I've always felt that this is being pushed into the long grass whilst there are strikes ongoing, and the government are trying to distance themselves from the strikes. The actual nuances of who is controlling who is lot to most people.

 

[43066]

This has been on the cards for a long time, probably since Shapps left office as Transport Secretary.

It’s a huge scale project, which won’t be anything like implemented by the GE, so the government unsurprisingly wants to use what limited parliamentary time it has left to focus on easy wins.

 

[GalaxyDog]

For those wishing to bypass paywalls...get yourself a 12ft ladder.

Rgearding GBR, I am not surprised in the least.

 

[BrianW]

So that’s potentially another £52M spent on… nothing?

Reminder please of the source of that figure? Where did it come from; and where has the money gone?
What might this mean for the people/ voters of Derby and its part of the former Red Wall?

 

[fgwrich]

Reminder please of the source of that figure? Where did it come from; and where has the money gone?
What might this mean for the people/ voters of Derby and its part of the former Red Wall?

This thread with a report Fromm NCE detailing what has been spent so far. No doubt a lot of it on endless consultant fees, while little in actually progressing the omnipresent dead duck:

DfT has spent a total of £52.3M on transitioning Network Rail to Great British Railways so far

Article dated 10th May 2023 from New Civil Engineer website - it's behind a paywall so no point in linking it. I will quote in full: The Department for Transport (DfT) has spent a total of £52.3M setting up Great British Railways (GBR) to absorb power from Network Rail so far, a Freedom of...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Neo9320]

For those wishing to bypass paywalls...get yourself a 12ft ladder.

I was just about to mention this

 

[lachlan]

For those wishing to bypass paywalls...get yourself a 12ft ladder.

Rgearding GBR, I am not surprised in the least.

Using the Wayback Machine is also an option if 12ft fails

 

[Master29]

And all those daft adverts as well. Money well spent....NOT.

 

[Mikey C]

And all those daft adverts as well. Money well spent....NOT.

That's the sort of stuff which will continue, as it's easy, unlike trying to integrate all the railway operators.

As franchises get taken over by the DfT and not returned to full private operation, we've ended up a very very slow integration programme anyway