Great British Railways should be the start of a new era for our country’s transport network

22 July 2024, 10:00 | Updated: 22 July 2024, 12:50

I won’t have been the only pissed-off rail passenger cheering last week when the King’s Speech announced plans to bring the private train operators back into public ownership when their current contracts end – and to create a new public body ‘Great British Railways’ to plan and coordinate our national rail network in the public interest.

It’s been obvious to most people who’ve tried to catch a train in our country over the last few decades that rail privatisation was a mad idea. We’re the ones who’ve had to navigate the confusing array of tickets on offer, stump up for extortionate fares and endure the delays and blame-game that result from having so many competing private companies running different parts of the network.

Even Margaret Thatcher herself knew the policy would never work, which is why it was only pushed through by John Major’s government after she’d left office. Re-unifying the system as Great British Railways isn’t even Labour’s idea. It was named by the former Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in 2021 when his ‘Plan for Rail’ was published as a result of a 3-year review by former British Airways chief Keith Williams. They vowed to establish the new public body to “end three decades of fragmentation” and “make the railways easier to use by simplifying fares and ticketing”. Bravo!

But it’s the new Labour government that is now making this plan a priority. And what’s interesting about the transport policy in Labour’s 2024 manifesto is that it features not in its own transport section but instead as a central part of their number one ‘mission’ to “Kickstart Economic Growth”. This is an important acknowledgement that public transport is an essential public service. It exists to facilitate the smooth-running of the national economy – enabling people to get to work, education, or travel for leisure easily and affordably – and not as cash-cow for private companies in its own right.

But what’s different now from the old days of British Rail (before privatisation in 1993) is the vital role our railways must also play in meeting climate targets. We need a world-class, fully integrated public transport network where trains, buses and trams are planned and coordinated to work together seamlessly (like those in most European countries that never pursued such extreme forms of privatisation) to encourage more people to make sustainable travel choices. We must ensure everyone has access to a realistic alternative to driving before car reduction measures (like Low Emission Zones) can be introduced equitably.

Like most policies announced in last week’s King’s Speech – this change won’t happen overnight. It will take the best part of the next parliamentary term to fully establish Great British Railways, but it will be worth the wait.

And while we do, we can all enjoy the demise of some of Britain’s most hated private rail companies one by one. Come 1 April 2025, commuters across the southeast can celebrate when Govia Thameslink Railway’s contract ends. The company, which runs services on Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern, is part-owned by Go-Ahead Group and Keolis (co-owned by France’s state-owned rail operator SNCF), caused chaos for passengers on Southern Rail in 2016. Back in public ownership under Labour’s plans, many of these commuter services can finally be properly integrated with Transport for London’s network.

And I’m sure there will be dancing in the street come 18 October 2026, when we finally wave goodbye to Avanti – the private operator of our West Coast mainline (co-owned by FirstGroup and Trenitalia, Italy’s state-owned rail operator), which has caused so much misery for passengers in Glasgow and North West England over the last few years.

For me, this has always been about accountability. With a simple structure, we will sweep away the labyrinth of myriad foreign-owned companies that have flourished under privatisation. Instead, it will be our railway again, owned by the British people and run in our interests. If something goes wrong, we’ll know who to go to—Great British Railways. With control over all aspects of the network, it should be much easier for Great British Railways to resolve.

--

Ellie Harrison is the founder and co-ordinator of the Bring Back British Rail passenger pressure group.

LBC Views provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk