George Bradshaw address 2023
The Transport Secretary affirms his commitment to the rail sector and outlines plans to modernise the industry.
Good evening and thank you to Andy Bagnall and his team at Rail Partners for organising this event. And for inviting me to deliver what is my first rail speech since becoming Transport Secretary.
What a fantastic setting this is: surrounded by reminders of Britain바카라 사이트檚 glorious engineering history. And Bradshaw, in whose name we meet today (7 February 2023), whose timetables brought order to the chaos of the Victorian network, is as much a part of rail바카라 사이트檚 story as Stephenson, Brunel and others honoured throughout this building.
I would also like to pay tribute to Adrian Shooter who sadly passed away in December. Over the past 30 years, few have played a bigger role in the growth and modernisation of the railways. And I바카라 사이트檓 sure he바카라 사이트檚 missed by many a friend and colleague here today.
I realise I바카라 사이트檓 the second Transport Secretary to give this prestigious address. And I바카라 사이트檓 pleased to see Patrick in his seat. But me and Lord McLoughlin, Patrick as we all know him, or Chief as I used to call him, have a bit more in common. We both hail from working class backgrounds: my dad a labourer, his a coal miner. We both grew up in historic railway towns: Swindon in my case and Stafford in his. And we were both promoted from the whips office to running the Department for Transport. Though admittedly, he was a bit faster than me; I spent a 6-year interlude on the backbenches
Now, 6 years may not seem like a long time but, as Andy says, during that period we바카라 사이트檝e since left the EU, emerged from a global pandemic, had 2 general elections and my party may have had one or two changes in leadership. Yet the more things have changed outside the railways, the more they seem to have stayed the same inside.
Patrick바카라 사이트檚 2016 Bradshaw Address was a passionate call for a more flexible, more accountable and more joined-up railway. That still rings true today. As do the reflections of previous Bradshaw speakers. Lord Hendy바카라 사이트檚 case for a whole system railway in 2018. Keith Williams, a year later, with his relentless and right focus on passengers. And even Rick Haythornthwaite바카라 사이트檚 warning, at the inaugural Bradshaw Address in 2011, of a disillusioned public not trusting the way our railways are run. Those all sound eerily familiar.
So, I바카라 사이트檝e spent my first few months in this job listening to the experts, indeed to many people in this room, drawing on my experience in government and many years in business, to understand what바카라 사이트檚 holding back meaningful change and how we move forward.
Modernisation
There바카라 사이트檚 clearly a lot of frustration in the industry. There바카라 사이트檚 a widespread desire to end the sense of drift. By moving on from re-diagnosing the industry바카라 사이트檚 ills to getting on with fixing them. The government바카라 사이트檚 policy is clear. The Plan for Rail has already been announced to the House of Commons in May 2021. So delivering that policy, moving from the words to action, that is my priority.
Because the railways, quite frankly, aren바카라 사이트檛 fit for purpose. We바카라 사이트檙e mired in industrial action, which lets down passengers and freight customers. And historically unable to deliver major improvements at good value for the taxpayer. Britain is yearning for a modern railway that meets the needs of the moment. One reliable enough to be the 7-day-a-week engine for growth businesses expect. Nimble enough for post pandemic travel, whilst allowing more flexibility for freight. And efficient enough when public spending is rightly scrutinised like never before.
The railways need fundamental reform and that is what we will deliver. And what I will try to set out this evening is how we re-energise that process. Freeing reform from the sidings and getting it back onto the mainline.
Context
But first, I must provide some important context. In putting an end to last year바카라 사이트檚 unwelcome political and economic turbulence, this government promised to be straight with the public about the difficult choices ahead. We set out a plan to restore economic stability and that plan is working.
We바카라 사이트檝e seen a significant settling of the market, we바카라 사이트檝e reassured investors, calmed the markets and strengthened the currency. It바카라 사이트檚 a strong base from which to deliver the Prime Minister바카라 사이트檚 2023 economic priorities: halve inflation, growing the economy, and reducing debt.
It is testament to this industry바카라 사이트檚 huge economic potential that even amidst a challenging fiscal climate we gave full backing to the 拢96 billion Integrated Rail Plan.
The largest single investment ever made in our railways will take HS2 from Euston to Manchester. Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines. East West Rail between Oxford and Cambridge. And that has the Chancellor바카라 사이트檚 full support.
We바카라 사이트檙e not wasting any time. In December, I saw the huge construction effort underway at the site of in Birmingham. It will be the first new intercity terminus built since the 19th century. Attracting tens of thousands of jobs and sparking housing and commercial regeneration across the city.
Don바카라 사이트檛 take my word for it. Go and talk to Andy Street and you바카라 사이트檒l get a very passionate case about the transformation that HS2 is bringing to his city.
Broken model
But we risk wasting that future infrastructure spending if our railway model is stuck in the past. And thanks to Keith바카라 사이트檚 painstaking work, we know what the underlying issues are. A fragmented structure that quickly forgets the customer. Decision making with too little accountability, but with too much centralisation. And a private sector rightly criticised for poor performance but with too few levers to change it. An industry in 바카라 사이트渘o man바카라 사이트檚 land바카라 사이트� as Andrew Haines correctly described it in his .
And in the end it바카라 사이트檚 rail바카라 사이트檚 customers that suffer. Like on the East Coast Mainline, where passengers still await the full benefits of billions of pounds in taxpayer investment and years of infrastructure upgrades. I know this first hand. As a backbench MP, when I was trying to get a Sunday train from my constituency to London, I remember constantly refreshing the First Great Western timetable to find half the trains weren바카라 사이트檛 running. Like many passengers, I had no choice but to give up and take the car instead.
Andrew, who was then running First Group, probably remembers my rather irate emails from the station platform, interrogating him about why the service was so unreliable. Four months into this job, I now know why. I possibly owe him an overdue apology. It wasn바카라 사이트檛 entirely his fault. Because Sunday services are essentially dependent on drivers volunteering for overtime. Which means, despite best efforts, we can바카라 사이트檛 run a reliable 7-day-a-week railway on which customers can depend. It바카라 사이트檚 why I and the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, have been clear throughout this period of industrial action that modernising working practices must be part of reform.
Pandemic impact
Finally, the pandemic has made a bad problem worse, a lot worse. Thanks to hybrid working, an economic model dependent on 5-day commuting is out of date. Take season ticket sales, which are at just .
Unsurprisingly, and you don바카라 사이트檛 need a chartered accountant like me to tell you this, the impact on the industry바카라 사이트檚 bottom line has been stark. Revenue is around 拢125-175 million lower each month and costs keep rising year on year.
Any other industry would have collapsed years ago but the railways have only survived because of the taxpayer and the public purse. The source of over at a cost of .
I won바카라 사이트檛 mince my words: operating the railways is currently financially unsustainable and it isn바카라 사이트檛 fair to continue asking taxpayers to foot the bill. Most of them don바카라 사이트檛 regularly use the railways, including plenty of my constituents in the Forest of Dean. But they find themselves subsidising an industry that delivers between only 1.5% and 2% of all journeys that are taken by the public. That disproportionately serves commuters in the south-east and whose funding comes at the expense of other vital transport upgrades. At a time when sacrifices are being made across the economy, we must be aware of the trade-offs when it comes to public spending and remind ourselves, as Patrick rightly said in his address, that the Department for Transport isn바카라 사이트檛 the 바카라 사이트淒epartment for the Railways바카라 사이트�.
So, we have a broken model. Unable to adapt to customer needs and financially unsustainable. Left untreated, we will drive passengers away with poor performance, that will lead to fewer services, that will drive more passengers away and so on and so on. Only major reform can break that cycle of decline and Keith바카라 사이트檚 blueprint is the right place to start. So yes, we will create a more customer focussed and joined up railway. But we want to go further. I want to go further. And actually enhance the role of the private sector. Not just in running services but in maximising competition, innovation, and revenue growth right across the industry. Benefits the private sector has delivered time and again.
Customers
Let me start, however, with customers. To raise revenue, we must instil a customer first culture. That means reliable services, comfortable journeys and accessible stations. But it also means tackling the issue which tops passenger lists of biggest concerns, which is fares and ticketing. With how can anyone feel confident they바카라 사이트檙e getting the best value for money? Ticketing should be hassle free. Something you barely have to think about. Which is why, today, I can confirm the extension of Pay-As-You-Go ticketing: with 52 stations across the south-east set to be completed this year including on Chiltern, London Northwestern, and C2C services.
Ticket prices should also be fairer. But often there is little difference between the cost of a single or a return. Operators are often unable to significantly reduce prices on quieter services. So, after LNER바카라 사이트檚 successful single leg pricing trial, we바카라 사이트檒l extend it to other parts of the LNER network from the spring and then carefully consider the results of those before extending more widely. It means a flexible single fare will always be half the cost of the equivalent return 바카라 사이트� giving passengers more flexibility and better value. This is not about increasing fares. I want passengers to benefit from simpler ticketing that meets their needs.
We바카라 사이트檙e also going to learn from the aviation sector and better manage capacity, as well as raise revenue, by trialling demand-based pricing on some LNER services too.
Yet, passengers aren바카라 사이트檛 the industry바카라 사이트檚 only customers. Carrying tens of billions of pounds worth of goods, we cannot overstate rail freight바카라 사이트檚 untapped potential for green growth. So I intend to create a duty to ensure the new industry structure realises that potential. With a dedicated Strategic Freight Unit tasked with creating better safeguards, more national coordination and, later this year, listening to what was said earlier, setting a long-term freight growth target.
Structure
However, turning towards customers requires us to turn away from the current industry structure. So, we will establish Great British Railways, or GBR. As we prepare for that, we바카라 사이트檒l pick up the pace of reform. I am pleased to announce that the winner of the GBR HQ competition will be revealed before Easter. And by the summer, we will respond to the consultation on GBR바카라 사이트檚 legislative powers.
The industry has long called for a guiding mind to coordinate the network so GBR will be responsible for track and train, as well as revenue and cost. Which means finally treating the railway as the whole system it should be rather than a web of disparate interests that it바카라 사이트檚 become. Passengers won바카라 사이트檛 longer face the excuse-making and blame-shifting of years past. Instead, GBR will be wholeheartedly customer-focussed, serving as the single point of accountability for the performance of the railway. And crucially, following ministerial direction, the GBR Transition Team will develop the guiding long-term strategy for rail, which we will publish later this year, and I hope will provide strategic direction to the sector.
Yet there remains a lot of misinformation about GBR. So let me tackle some of these myths head on.
This is not going to be Network Rail 2.0, nor a return to British Rail. Taking politics out of the railways is the only way to build a truly commercially led industry and, for me, that is non-negotiable. That바카라 사이트檚 why GBR will be an arm바카라 사이트檚 length body ensuring a balanced approach to both infrastructure and operations. With both sides getting a seat at the table and both sides delivering an efficient, high performing railway for customers.
The role of ministers is to provide strategic direction and be accountable to Parliament. It is not the role of ministers to pore over operational decisions. For example, I shouldn바카라 사이트檛 need to approve whether a passenger train ought to be removed from the timetable to allow a freight train to run instead, as I was doing earlier today. That will be left to industry experts in 5 regional GBR divisions working in partnership with regional bodies such as the Greater Manchester and the West Midlands Combined Authorities.
[Political content removed]
Similarly, we can바카라 사이트檛 take the other extreme view. Public oversight of our critical infrastructure is needed. Especially to support those passenger services that don바카라 사이트檛 turn a profit, yet still play an important economic and social role. That바카라 사이트檚 why we need a pragmatic partnership between state and industry: harnessing the necessary oversight of the state with the dynamism, innovation and efficiency of the private sector.
This integrated model works, and not just with the railways. That was how we achieved one of the quickest and most successful COVID vaccine rollouts in the world, and it바카라 사이트檚 what we need to do in the railways.
Private sector offer
Which brings me to the final area of reform. To enhance the role of the private sector, which I see as central to the future of the railways. Under privatisation, and thanks to a resilient and world class supply chain, by the eve of the pandemic. With over the past 10 years.
I don바카라 사이트檛 want to turn my back on that commercial expertise. The National Rail Contracts and current overcentralised approach are temporary. A short-term fix that has helped steer the industry through the pandemic and this will be phased out.
I want the private sector to play its most important role in our railways yet. To reinvigorate the sector, drive innovation and most importantly, attract more customers to the railway. It will do so in partnership with GBR. GBR will help set the right commercial conditions across several key areas.
There will be new Passenger Service Contracts that will balance the right performance incentives with simple, commercially driven targets. But they won바카라 사이트檛 be a one-size fits all approach. In the past, we know some operators took on more financial risk than they could handle. So, now that risk will sit where it is best managed and that includes with operators, but only where it drives the best outcomes for passengers and taxpayers. We shouldn바카라 사이트檛 be afraid to let managing directors of train operating companies actually manage and direct their operations. Which is not what they바카라 사이트檙e able to do at the moment.
We바카라 사이트檒l also open up railway data and systems, whilst lowering barriers to entry for the industry. For ticketing, that means a more competitive retail market and I will welcome new players to spur more innovation and give passengers the services they need.
We will expand commercial opportunities around land and property near stations. In Japan, rail companies take full advantage of these investments, generating even more income for the railways and we should look to do the same.
And finally, we will support more open access services where it benefits passengers and taxpayers. We바카라 사이트檝e seen this work well with Hull Trains and Grand Central as well as with Lumo on the East Coast Mainline. All offering passengers greater choice and more direct links. Open access operators will play an important role in the industry바카라 사이트檚 future, especially as we grow new markets and make best use of spare capacity on the network.
Conclusion
Let me finish by saying that despite being the second Transport Secretary to deliver this address, I바카라 사이트檓 probably the first to be given a biblical nickname. Modern Railways Magazine described the rail industry as waiting for 바카라 사이트淢oses Harper to come back from the mountain with tablets of stone.바카라 사이트� Whilst I바카라 사이트檓, of course, flattered by that comparison, unlike Moses, I do plan to live long enough to reach the promised land of rail reform. And whilst my words this evening have not been divinely inspired, they do have the full support of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, which, in politics, is the next best thing.
As a whole government, we are pressing 바카라 사이트榞o바카라 사이트� on rail reform. Day-to-day work will be ably led by the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, who바카라 사이트檚 here tonight and has long championed the need for a reformed railway, including when he was Chairman of the Transport Select Committee. He will provide the stability and leadership needed, while also giving the industry freedom to deliver meaningful change. And I hope you will all rise to the challenge:
- to put customers first
- to realise the benefits of GBR
- to help enhance the role of the private sector
Because only then can the railway earn the public trust it needs to grow.
As we look ahead to the industry바카라 사이트檚 200-year anniversary in 2025, this is our chance to resurrect some national pride in our railways. A chance to harness the political will that is there, the economic imperative and I believe the industry buy-in to build the modern railway Britain deserves.
It바카라 사이트檚 a chance we cannot waste.