LONDON — The British Government has announced plans to create a single national ,government-owned rail company to run the railway network and, via mostly private contractors, operate most passenger trains in the UK.
That such a move is planned, reversing decades of complex privatization is remarkable, but even moreso is that the government is from the same Conservative Party that introduced privatisation in the first place. (The Conservative Party is normally seen as pro-private enterprise and on the center-right of politics, the closest thing in British politics to the U.S. Republican Party).
A detailed analysis has been published that is, for a government document, remarkably open to criticism of what only months ago was government policy. Following its recommendations, new legislation is required to make the bigger changes.
The starting point was a review by Keith Williams, former Chairman of British Airways, who was asked to look at the entire UK rail industry following a botched national timetable change in 2018. The change led to large-scale disruptions; in some cases, more trains were being planned than routes had the capacity to handle. The resulting document, which had been due for publication in 2020, was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, which saw rail travel plummet because of stay-at-home orders. Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps has taken close interest in the report, and the document, published earlier this month, carries his name as well. This suggests he will try to make the report’s recommendations happen. The full report is available here.
New company to be named Great British Railways
The new national rail company…