Great British Railways Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Great British Railways

Lord Tunnicliffe Excerpts
Wednesday 28th June 2023

(1 year, 5 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Tunnicliffe Portrait Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab)
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My Lords, in May 2021, in CP 423, the Government set out their vision for Great British Railways:

“Under single national leadership, our railways will be more agile: able to react quicker, spot opportunities, make common-sense choices, and use the kind of operational flexibilities normal in most organisations, but difficult or impossible in the current contractual spider’s web”.


Given the delay since then, are the Government still committed to this vision, or do they accept the ongoing chaos that is the national railway today?

Baroness Vere of Norbiton Portrait Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)
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The Government remain committed to that mission. Indeed, so much of what we are doing with the railways at the moment is in pursuit of that mission. For example, the Rail Minister has asked the Great British Railways transition team to look at simplification of the railways—at how to simplify the complex rules and processes which exist in rail and which do not need to. That process will be completed later this year.