Government and industry reviews of the railways over the past two decades have identified similar problems to the Williams review.11 We asked the Department why these reviews had failed to lead to improvements. It said that reviews have not always looked at the whole of the railway in its entirety as a system and that, improving the performance of the railway, both financially and for passengers, requires an examination of the whole system, which is what the Williams Review did, and which is how its current reform programme is focused. The Department told us about its hopes that this is a sustained programme that will drive reform “to some genuinely significant outcomes for passengers and taxpayers”.12 Getting passengers and taxpayers a better deal