The Government has today, Tuesday, 18th February, announced plans for a landmark bill that will completely overhaul Britain’s railways and create a passenger watchdog to provide a voice by which passengers can hold train operators to account.

The bill will establish Great British Railways (GBR), which is a new body bringing track and train together to deliver reliable services and act as a catalyst for growth across the country.

An eight-week consultation into the plans will look at how to overcome a broken rail system and how passengers can be at the forefront of all decisions made on the railways, avoiding the major failure and disruptions resulting from the 2018 timetabling crisis.

Following the consultation, the Government will work with industry to overhaul the railways and bring trains and tracks back together.

It will end the outdated and inefficient processes that have resulted in poor performance, timetable chaos, and complex fares and ticketing.

Devolved leaders will have more input into the services that directly impact their towns and cities, and enable integrated transport to make travel easier and attract more people to the railways.

The new independent watchdog will ensure Great British Railways addresses those issues that result in most passenger complaints, and eliminate the problems that cause poor journeys.

It will also ensure passengers are provided with clear information when they travel, and get rid of the current maze of confusing rail fares and tickets.

The watchdog will also hold operators to account on behalf of passengers, and arbitrate when a complaint has not been resolved to passengers satisfaction.

It will also have the powers to set standards on things like journey information and assistance, investigate persistent problems, publish reports on poor service, and refer poor passenger experiences to the railway regulator for enforcement action.

Great British Railways will work closely with the private sector to create jobs and drive investment and innovation by investing billions of pounds in the private sector supply chain.

It will ensure a more coordinated view of improvements to the network which gives a longer-term assurance to businesses, whilst a long-term rail strategy will give industry certainty on what to expect, including a long-term plan for rolling stock.

There will be a continued place on the network for open access services where they encourage growth, improve connectivity, and provide more choice for passengers, provided costs to the taxpayer do not outweigh their benefits or impact their performance.

“Passengers have put up with broken railways for far too long. This landmark reform will sweep away decades of failure, creating a Great British Railways passengers can rely on. We re giving passengers a powerful voice with a new watchdog dedicated to addressing their biggest concerns, building railways people can trust, improving our services and boosting the economy in the process the priority in our Plan for Change.”

Heidi Alexander,Secretary of State for Transport