Transport Secretary sets out her vision for a reformed railway

Giving the George Bradshaw address 2026, the Transport Secretary sets out her vision for a reformed railway that's run by the public, for the public.

Thank you, Mark, for inviting me to speak tonight – it really is an honour to deliver this address. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to start with a thought experiment.

I wonder what Bradshaw himself would say about the 19th-Century railway.

Would he describe a fragmented structure, with many companies pursuing different incentives? Yes. I think he would.

Or a railway crossing the country with little accountability and coordination? Absolutely.

How about nimby-ism in the face of rail expansion? 100% yes.

Some of you will know where this is heading. If a week is a long time in politics, it seems 2 centuries is rather short in the rail industry.

Previous speakers at this event, from Keith Williams right through to our very own Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy, have all described an industry Bradshaw himself would likely recognise.

I'm obviously not saying there hasn't been any progress in that time. But my point is this. The challenge of taking a complex railway and turning it into something useful, something the public can depend on, isn't new. And Bradshaw, in his own way, serves as an inspiration.

Despite not laying a single line of track nor operating any new train, few have done more to bring the railway closer to the lives of ordinary people. His timetables were a Victorian guiding mind of sorts. Turning a disparate industry into a single railway. Creating order out of chaos.

For the first time, people could easily plan long-distance journeys for work or leisure – exploring not only the limits of the country, but the limits of their ambition and their imagination.

Soon, this engineering marvel, which grew from the pursuit of private profit, would become a social revolution, which began serving the public good. Victorian Britain was by no means fair, but I truly believe the railways and Bradshaw made it fairer.

So, as we stand at the cusp of the biggest transformation of this industry in over 30 years, we face a similar task.

How do we rewire the industry towards the public good above all else? And it starts, I'm afraid, by going back to basics. Asking ourselves what the railway is for. And who should it serve?

For me, the railway has always been about more than timetables and trains. More than simply getting people around, it's a means to get on.

The same railway that gave my dad his first job as an electrical apprentice now employs bright young apprentices in Newton Aycliffe, building the trains of tomorrow.

The same railway that shaped my hometown of Swindon 200 years ago – with workers' cottages and health centres built by the Great Western Railway later regenerated East London in the 1980s, thanks to the DLR and the Jubilee line. And that same railway is unlocking tens of thousands of new homes from Newcastle to Cambridge, transforming brownfield land near stations into vibrant communities.

And so, I think, an enduring truth emerges.

Across generations, rail has been a catalyst for social and economic change. And that impact stretches beyond this industry. It allows us to choose where we live. Choose who we spend time with. Choose what sorts of jobs we do. Choose how we raise our families. It gives us a sense of mastery over our own lives.

That's why I firmly believe when public interest is at the heart of the railway, we don't just connect people with places, we make everyone's lives a bit easier. We bring opportunity a bit closer and make the country a little bit fairer.

Broken contract

But over the last decade, this unspoken contract between the railway and the public has been broken.

I don't need to tell you this government inherited a railway that was, frankly, a mess.

Passengers paying spiralling fares for unreliable services. Taxpayers footing the bill for an industry not incentivised to work together. Rail staff hamstrung by rigid contracts and a toxic blame culture. Places held back by poor connections and even poorer infrastructure.

And all this matters because connectivity really does tilt the scale of life chances.

Whether it's the constituents of mine, in Swindon, who ask me, on an almost weekly basis, why it costs them over £80 more for a peak return to London than it would if they lived in Oxford. Or disabled passengers who board a service wondering if there will be a working accessible toilet. Or our northern mayors who, until last month, felt understandably aggrieved by the prospect of a permanent second-rate infrastructure for the communities that they represent.

All of this points to a railway on the wrong side of public aspiration.

Challenges

There are 2 examples I'd like to focus on this evening, which show not just the scale of the challenge, but the opportunity for change.

Let's take December's East Coast Mainline timetable change. Postponed for years and years under the previous government, it meant the benefits of billions of pounds of investment for new trains and infrastructure couldn't be realised.

After the 2018 fiasco, everyone was understandably cautious. And no one in the current system was able to take charge to act in the interests of passengers and taxpayers, to take a judgement about the overall public good. No one was able to bring the industry together to deliver this change with minimal disruption.

So, we ended up with a system where it fell to Peter Hendy, as Rail Minister, to press go on a decision that really should be taken by experts, not politicians. And while the early signs have been positive, with minimal delays and more services, this is no way to run a railway.

The Rail Minister should no more be making timetabling decisions than I should be coordinating airspace above Heathrow or directing traffic on the M6.

Peter stepped in to fill a vacuum. A vacuum of leadership that will be filled in future by Great British Railways (GBR).

But I will say this. I will always remember the smile on Peter's face when he sat down in my office before Christmas – shortly after the last readiness meeting – and said: ‘as someone who has spent decades in rooms of railway people armed with contracts, you can't believe how good it felt to be sat there with people who just wanted to make it work'.

We talk about the need for a guiding mind for the railways and I think the story of the East Coast Mainline timetable encapsulates it.

The second issue I want to talk about is cost.

Last year, taxpayers spent £12 billion on our railways. That's equivalent to £400 per household to just run the trains and maintain the track.

Let me be clear, I think this is unsustainable. I say this not because I think rail subsidies are inherently a bad thing. In fact, the opposite is true.

If we agree that rail – like healthcare and education – is a lifeline service that drives cohesion and growth. If we agree with Rick Haythorthwaite, who at the very first Bradshaw address, said: ‘there is a price for not investing in our railway', then we must show that rail makes a positive contribution.

That requires us to confront some uncomfortable truths – starting with the passenger experience.

Given we have some of the highest average fares in Europe, are passengers getting what they pay for? Do they easily engage with the railway, with clear expectations? Do they feel looked after when things go wrong?

Or let's take infrastructure.

We spend a similar amount per year to Germany and France. And yet, because we have a smaller network, our infrastructure costs per kilometre outstrip our European neighbours.

I believe there is genuine public support for a railway that delivers value for money for passengers and taxpayers. And I do believe we can change the national debate on rail – to stop it being an easy target for cuts, as we've seen over the past decade.

Vision

So, I'd like to propose a new vision for the industry.

Where its customers don't just have a better experience but where they become rail's strongest advocates. Where the railway strives to become boringly reliable – but attracting more people, carrying more goods and earning more revenue. Where stories are not about the difficulty of the journey, but about the excitement of the destination.

And what needs to happen to make that a reality is experts, not politicians, in the driving seat – taking responsibility and making long-term decisions, which put customers first. That is the modern, reformed railway Britain needs.

Progress

Now, the railway has had 30 reviews since 2006.

It's been 8 years since Keith Williams was asked to diagnose the industry's weaknesses.

And in the past decade, 2 serving transport secretaries have stood here, at the Bradshaw lectern, promising change.

Successive governments have all arrived at the same diagnosis, yet have been unwilling to administer the medicine. That changes now.

Nothing short of wholesale reform is needed to secure rail's future and this government started the work of change as soon as we were elected.

Within weeks, we ended 2 years of national rail strikes and introduced the landmark Public Ownership Bill.

Within a year, we approved dozens of rail projects previously in financial limbo – as well as being honest when projects were not affordable within our fiscal inheritance. And we lifted the veil on performance data – making it more transparent than ever before.

Within 18 months, we allocated £45 billion in a historic commitment for Northern Powerhouse Rail. We introduced the Railways Bill, followed by the launch of the new Great British Railways brand.

We are now seeing what happens when political will matches the industry's demand for change.

And green shoots are now visible.

Performance is improving.

DfTO operators are performing better on punctuality and cancellations than those yet to come into public ownership. They have added more than 76,000 extra seats per week, whilst Southwestern Railway (SWR) has quadrupled the number of new Arterio trains in service.

Ticketing is becoming simpler, with easy-to-understand fares in Manchester giving us a glimpse of the future. And passengers are keeping more of their hard-earned cash thanks to the first rail fares freeze in 30 years.

Of course, this is just the start. The journey to reform will have many stops along the way and I'd like to talk about 3 of them, starting with Great British Railways.

Great British Railways

GBR will be the directing mind the industry has long needed.

Ending fragmentation. Sweeping away decades of bureaucracy and waste. And guided by a single mission – a better, more reliable railway, for passengers and freight.

Caring about customers is one thing. Having the power to act in their interest, and their interest alone, is another. So we will give GBR the tools it needs for the job.

From a single profit and loss approach that drives value for money to a new simplified access rules that optimises capacity for passengers and freight. All told, the railway will start working for the public, rather than expecting the public to work around the railway.

But let me reassure everyone here tonight, we are not returning to the centralisation of the past. GBR won't be a Kafkaesque blob – a plaything of politicians who secretly want to run the railways. Instead, it will be agile, commercially focused and run by people who know the industry in their bones.

More decisions will be taken closer to local communities and thanks to strengthened partnerships with mayors and devolved regions, we will integrate rail into local and regional transport plans.

Finally, there will be no hiding place for failure. For the first time, one integrated business plan will set the direction of the railway and you have my word: GBR will be held to account for it.

First, by an independent GBR board, filled with the right expertise. And second by the ORR, which will provide independent advice to government on GBR's performance whilst also enforcing GBR's compliance with its licence, which we will consult on later this year.

Passengers

And if I might now turn to the most important people in all of this – the industry's customers.

GBR will be obsessed with passengers and freight. In fact, it will have a statutory duty to promote the interests of both.

And their experience will change beyond recognition.

As a passenger, you will no longer navigate multiple companies for different parts of your journey. Buying tickets in one place, checking timetables somewhere else and being pushed from pillar to post to get compensation if your train is delayed.

You'll now deal with one railway. One brand. One organisation in charge. With your entire experience starting and ending with 3 letters: GBR.

And you'll have a strong champion when things go wrong. The Passenger Watchdog will ensure the passenger is always front of mind when decisions are made. It will set tough consumer standards, with powers to investigate issues and demand improvements.

So, if your train is late, if you experience shoddy customer service, if you're let down by Passenger Assist – the new watchdog will fight your corner.

We're also dragging fares into the 21st Century. Because if we are to drive passenger growth, buying a ticket should be effortless. That's why a new GBR online retailer will simplify ticketing, ensuring you get the right fare every time with no booking fees and ending the surreal situation where 14 different operator websites and apps all offer the same fare – or worse, different fares for the same journey!

And we'll continue to roll out Pay-As-You-Go to make train travel even easier. That includes a further 20 stations in the South East later this year, followed by 90 stations across the West Midlands and Manchester.

Freight

Of course, passengers aren't the only customer. And I've heard concerns the Railways Bill will lead to worse outcomes for the freight sector.

So let me set the record straight. Moving more goods on our railways makes both economic and environmental sense.

Yet to date, freight providers have had to find ways to work around a complex system not set up for them.

We're changing that. And I am reassured to see the 30 bi-mode GBRf locomotives starting to be introduced – showing it's not all doom and gloom!

The growth of the freight sector will be written in to the DNA of GBR. It will ensure freight paths for future growth are in the timetables of the future. The GBR board will include a member with responsibility for freight, championing your interests from within.

There will be more flexibility to lower charges for new services. And faster, more transparent decision making will give businesses the confidence to invest and grow.

We have a bold ambition to increase freight by 75% by 2050 and I'll set out further targets over the coming months to help deliver that goal.

New railway culture

Finally, I'd like to speak about a new culture for the railway.

I know many rail staff get up each morning ready to serve the public, knowing they deliver a service that millions rely on each day. It's a vocation.

Yet I see that sense of pride has steadily been chipped away. Because instead of fixing problems and making things better for passengers, staff and managers are sometimes encouraged, even contracted, to look the other way if it's technically someone else's responsibility. To make money out of failure.

It's why operators aren't incentivised to invest in making it easier to clear leaves off the line. Why it takes multiple contractors to fix a broken light bulb. And why staff shortages lead to cancellations – because there's no single body that looks long term at our workforce needs. I say enough is enough.

We are building one railway with one team – where each problem is everyone's problem. And we're already moving closer to this future.

Integrated leadership teams are now in place on South Eastern and South Western, and the Anglia region following soon. So, when problems arise anywhere in that part of the network, Jamie, Lawrence and Steve will be empowered to knock heads together to fix it.

But this sense of collective ownership must apply everywhere, right down to the station floor. I want more decisions made closer to the passenger, where GBR staff are entrusted to act when they see something going wrong.

At the heart of this new approach will be pride in service and trust in the people who deliver it.

Diversity in the railway sector

Now, I realise I am the first woman to deliver the Bradshaw address. So, I do feel it's incumbent on me to use the little time I have left to talk about diversity.

Some of you will be familiar with the Dave Test – where you check if your team has less women than it has men, called Dave. Don't worry, I'm not going to apply it here tonight! But what started out as a joke to mock Silicon Valley's gender gap now reflects a sad reality across our economy.

And it may not surprise you that the RDG board, as recently as last year, failed the Dave Test. Unfortunately, this disparity plays out across rail, where only 19% of staff are female.

This is about more than just representation. Because if rail is closed off from the full spectrum of talent available, this moral issue will turn into an existential crisis.

At current rates, 68,000 rail staff are projected to leave the industry by 2030. There are gaps in critical areas like signalling and systems engineering. We cannot afford to keep our heads in the sand.

It's why today we laid legislation to lower the minimum train driving age from 20 to 18, bringing us in line with the likes of Germany and Australia.

Thousands of young people can now leave school and immediately take the first step on their rail career. But we must do more.

So tonight, I'm setting a clear expectation that GBR will be as much a champion of diversity inside the railway as it will be a driver of social mobility outside.

That means flexible working opportunities that are attractive to all, including those who have long struggled to access the labour market.

That means ensuring we have the right skills in the right places.

It means taking long-term investment decisions on workforce planning and training. And it means building diverse leadership teams, ensuring multiple perspectives to help us see around the corner and confront the challenges of tomorrow, today.

Building a railway that reflects the society it serves is a personal mission of mine and it will be GBR's too.

Conclusion

I'd like to end by borrowing a phrase from a former leader of my party: ‘the opportunity to serve is all we ask'.

The railway now has an opportunity to serve the public in a way it hasn't been able to for the last 30 years.

The past 18 months show that we can change the railways.

None of the progress so far would have happened without some brilliant people, many of whom are in this room. And I'm determined this change will not happen to you, but with you.

Right now, you are helping design the future of GBR. You are shaping the long term rail strategy. You are working with my team as we steer the Railways Bill through parliament. And I need you to work relentlessly for better performance, revenue growth and cost reduction.

Together, we can make GBR a world class public body. A driver of living standards and opportunity. A symbol of quality and high standards for its consumers. An employer of choice, open to every community. A boringly reliable railway.

But a railway of which we can all finally be proud.