Policy paper: Railway passenger services designation

Sets out how the Secretary of State for Transport will designate railway passenger services under the Railways Bill.

Draft passenger services designation letter

Details

Designation is the mechanism for assigning responsibility in running passenger rail services, set out in clauses 25 to 27 of the Railways Bill. It is high-level and does not set timetables or routes, but replicates how the railway system works today.

The Secretary of State for Transport, Scottish and Welsh ministers each have designation powers to set out services that Great British Railways (GBR) (or other public sector companies in the case of Scottish and Welsh ministers) may run.

The bill retains a power to allow services to be locally devolved via ‘exemptions' from designation – for example, this has been done for Transport for London (TfL).

Designation does not affect decisions on track access or ‘best use' of the network, which will remain the responsibility of GBR as the system operator.

This draft has no legal effect. The final designation will be published after the:

• Railways Bill becomes an act
• Secretary of State for Transport has formal powers to issue it