Rail reforms risk repeating mistakes of the past, says IEA

Commenting on the publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, Dr Richard Wellings, Head of Transport at free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

"While the devil is in the detail, the reforms will potentially create a worst-of-all-worlds model which repeats many of the mistakes made during privatisation.

"The new industry structure will retain a high degree of complexity and fragmentation, keeping costs high for taxpayers, but at the same time undermine the benefits of competition.

"Rather than imposing an artificial structure, the government should leave it to the market to improve the railways' efficiency.

"Train operators and other private firms should be free to take over the infrastructure, decide service levels and close loss-making lines, while the government's main focus should be phasing out the vast subsidies to the sector."