Railways Bill

Transport Committee Open Inquiry
Opened: 5 Nov 2025 Parliament page
The Government has introduced the Railways Bill to Parliament to legislate for its commitment to unify network operations with infrastructure management under a single organisation – Great British Railways. The Bill is expected to go through ‘line by line’ scrutiny by a Public Bill Committee, which is separate to the … Read more
22 Recommendations
11 Conclusions
1 Report
4 Oral sessions
5 Letters
4 Events
Activity timeline 15 events
24 Apr
2026
Report published
10 Feb
2026
Report published
28 Jan
2026
Correspondence
7 Jan
2026
Oral evidence
7 Jan
2026
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
17 Dec
2025
Oral evidence
17 Dec
2025
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
10 Dec
2025
Oral evidence
10 Dec
2025
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Wilson Room, Portcullis House
4 Dec
2025
Correspondence
26 Nov
2025
Oral evidence
26 Nov
2025
Correspondence
Oral evidence sessions 4 sessions
7 Jan 2026
View on parliament.uk
Jeremy Westlake · Network Rail Lucy Ryan · Department for Transport Richard Goodman · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities The Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill CBE · Department for Transport
17 Dec 2025
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Bill Reeve · Transport Scotland Fiona Hyslop MSP · The Scottish Government Jamie Ross · Liverpool City Region Jason Prince · Urban Transport Group Mal Drury-Rose · West Midlands Rail Executive Peter McDonald · The Welsh Government
10 Dec 2025
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Alex Campbell · Transport Focus Alex Robertson · Transport Focus Anthony Smith · Independent Rail Retailers Ben Plowden · Campaign for Better Transport David Pitt · SilverRail Technologies UK Ltd Emma Vogelmann · Transport for All John Davies · Trainline Sue Sharp · Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee
26 Nov 2025
View on parliament.uk
John Larkinson · Office of Rail and Road Maggie Simpson OBE · Rail Freight Group Nick Brooks · AllRail Stephanie Tobyn · Office of Rail and Road Steve Montgomery · FirstRail
Title HC No. Published Items Response
8th Report - Railways Bill HC 1472 10 Feb 2026 33 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
Clear
2 Conclusion Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
The Railways Bill provides a partial framework, pending essential details in unpublished future documents.
Understandably, and as with previous railways legislation, the Railways Bill gives a partial picture of the framework for a new regime under Great British Railways. The Bill is designed to last a long time and is accompanied by various additional … Read more
Government Response
The Government notes the recommendation and agrees that departmental select committees can be a valuable and important part of the scrutiny process, stating that they are pleased to continue engagement with the Committee.
Department for Transport
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4 Conclusion Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
Departmental select committees provide important, specialist scrutiny of legislation and policy implementation.
Departmental committees have an important contribution to make to scrutiny of legislation, being less adversarial and more specialist than Bill committees, and being able to continue scrutiny of the policy implementation long after the legislation is passed. (Conclusion, Paragraph 9) … Read more
Government Response
The Government welcomes the conclusion drawn by the Committee that the clarity provided by a Long Term Rail Strategy (LTRS) will have benefits in terms of efficiency, planning for rail infrastructure and clarity for the wider economy.
Department for Transport
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6 Conclusion Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
Clause 7's broad power of direction risks permitting micromanagement of Great British Railways' operations.
The Government intends that Great British Railways should be a responsible guiding mind: to achieve this, it requires independence and protection from political interference in its day-to-day operations. Clause 7 as currently drafted would permit a future Secretary of State, … Read more
Government Response
The government notes this recommendation, welcomes the Committee’s support for an aligned set of duties across key industry bodies within the Railways Bill, and disagrees with the need for the Secretary of State to provide statutory guidance.
Department for Transport
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8 Conclusion Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
The Bill's Long Term Rail Strategy provision offers significant benefits for clarity and efficiency.
We welcome the Bill’s provision for a Long Term Rail Strategy. The more clarity that can be given to both the public and private sector about the long-term strategic aims for the railway, the greater the benefits will be in … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the committee that increasing passenger numbers is important and that GBR must actively work to attract passengers to use our railways.
Department for Transport
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12 Conclusion Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
Ensure statutory guidance includes details on how ORR should balance GBR duties.
There are benefits to unified duties but the Bill is insufficiently clear on how they will operate in decision-making, in particular the weighting to be assigned to each factor. The Office of Rail and Road will enforce GBR’s business plan … Read more
Government Response
The government welcomes the Committee’s support and notes the recommendation, highlighting the duties in clause 18 and clause 36 for promoting the interests of disabled passengers.
Department for Transport
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15 Recommendation Acknowledged
8th Report - Railways Bill
Amend Bill to include a mechanism for assessing GBR's passenger interest duty.
We are concerned that there is no specific mechanism to assess GBR’s performance against the passenger interest duty placed on it by the Bill. The standards set by the Passengers’ Council will be part of GBR’s licence, enforced by the … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the recommendation, stating the duty at clause 18(2)(a) of the Bill will require the sector bodies to promote the interests of passengers. It notes that accessibility duties will support some of the requirements under the reasonable adjustments duty at section 20 of the Equality Act 2010.
Department for Transport
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Government Response AI assessment · 33 of 22 classified
Accepted 4
Accepted in Part 14
Acknowledged 6
Deferred 1
Not Addressed 3
Rejected 5
Total 22 recs + 11 conclusions
Correspondence 5 letters
28 Jan 2026 To committee Letter from the Minister for Rail, Department for Transport relating to the Railways Bill, dated 21 January 2026
Parliament page
4 Dec 2025 To committee Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Welsh Government relating to the Railways Bill, dated 26 November 2025
Parliament page
26 Nov 2025 To committee Letter from the Leader of the House relating to the passage and scrutiny of the Railways Bill, dated 11 November 2025
Parliament page
12 Nov 2025 To committee Letter from the Secretary of State for Transport relating to the introduction of the Railways Bill, dated 5 November 2025
Parliament page
30 Oct 2025 To committee Letter from the Chair of the Committee to the Leader of the House relating to the Rail Reform Bill, dated 28 October 2025
Parliament page