“Proposals on railway reform will be brought forward.
”
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The Government will publish a White Paper on the Williams
Review recommendations later this autumn.
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Following the publication of the White Paper, the
Government will start implementing reforms from 2020,
prioritising improvements for passengers.
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In September, the Prime Minister announced plans to give
Northern leaders more of a say on how the railway is run across
the region. This proposal was based on the initial conclusions
of the Williams review set out in July.
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The Williams Review is the first comprehensive review of
the railway in a generation, with a clear commitment from the
Government to bring in root and branch change. The Review was
tasked with making ambitious proposals to reform the rail
industry and franchising model.
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The Review is focused on reforms that will put passengers
at the heart of the railway, provide value for taxpayers and
deliver economic, social and environmental benefits across
Britain. It will focus on five key areas:
o Trains running on time. A clear focus on
customer service excellence, driven by performance measures to
bring about genuine behavioural and cultural change.
o Simplified fares and ticketing to create a
modern railway to promote innovation and customer-focussed
improvements across the network, including the further roll out
of pay-as-you-go.
o A new industry structure, reducing
fragmentation, better aligning track and train, creating clear
accountability and a greater distance between Government and
running the day to day railway.
o A new commercial model that lets train
operators get on with running services in the interest of
passengers and allows greater flexibility and long-term
incentives for creativity and innovation.
o Proposals on leadership, skills, diversity
and increased engagement, to better involve the rail workforce in
the development of the sector in the long term, and to ensure the
sector reflects modern working practices.
Key facts
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In the last 25 years, demand for rail travel has grown
faster in the UK than other major rail networks in Europe. The
industry has achieved enormous success over the past decades,
doubling passenger numbers and running more trains than any
time in the railway’s history.
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However, the UK’s railway is one of the most congested in
Europe, and is twice as heavily used as the networks in France
and Germany. Only the very dense networks in the Netherlands
and Switzerland are more heavily used.
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The Government has responded by investing even more in
our railways - £47.9 billion will be spent by Network Rail on
the railway between 2019 and 2024 in England and Wales. We
currently invest more than any other EU country in our rail
network, with flagship schemes such as Thameslink, Crossrail
and HS2..
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Passenger satisfaction has significantly improved since
1999, but in 2018 was at its lowest in 10 years. However, the
UK’s satisfaction rates remain amongst the highest of the
larger European nations. In 2018, the EU’s Eurobarometer on
Europeans’ satisfaction with passenger rail services placed the
UK in the top quartile along with Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Portugal and Slovakia.
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In 2018, performance (measured by the Public Performance
Measure) also hit a 10-year low. In the first quarter of
2019-20, 87 per cent of trains were punctual, being less than 5
or 10 minutes late. In the same period, only 64.7 per cent of
trains arrived less than one minute late, using the new On Time
punctuality measure. However, performance challenges are not
unique to the UK: train performance for long-distance passenger
services in the UK is similar to levels seen in other rail
networks in Europe, but UK regional and local services perform
less well in comparison to other European countries.
