Railtalk
At a recent rail conference, Transport Scotland’s Director of Rail Bill Reeve was asked what the impact of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail and the advent of Great British Railways would be on Scotland’s railway. ‘I’m looking forward to finding out’was his reply.
While Mr Reeve’s reply was primarily concerned with devolution, a matter we have already highlighted as something of a forgotten question in the rail reform agenda, we suspect he is not alone in being in the dark. While unveiled with much enthusiasm in May last year, there is so far very little evidence of any progress towards, and please excuse our use of management speak, the ‘key deliverables’of the Williams-Shapps Plan. To be sure, the Great British Railways Transition Team is buzzing around enthusiastically – but to what ends remains opaque as ever. At what point does the rail reform agenda stop being a useful objective and start becoming an unhelpful distraction?
Helpfully, the House of Commons Transport Committee convened a hearing about progress with rail reform on 30 March. Rail Minister Wendy Morton repeatedly stated her aim that GBR should be established by early 2024, with, of course, the caveat of needing to secur…
