I enthusiastically welcomes the Williams-Shapps Plan to entirely reform and improve the railways in this country.
I commended the Secretary of State for Transport in my statement today (20th May) for his ambitious plans. I believe that the plan will sort issues of through-fares, and connect areas that geographical franchises have previously blocked.
Crucially passengers are what drive the railways, and they are the reason trains run. It is about time that rail reform puts passengers at the very centre, putting first their needs and their convenience. Poorly run franchising over the past years has turned the current rail network into a huge drain on taxpayer money when it need not be – this Plan will address that, by increasing private sector innovation and competition while making sure that there is a central body in Great British Railways that they all answer to.’
