Railways Bill Committee – the fight for the future of our railways is now on

19th January 2026 | News

This week the Railways Bill – which will establish Great British Railways (GBR) – enters its Committee stage at the UK Parliament. A group of 21 MPs have been selected to scrutinise the legislation line-by-line.

We are working with our friends at the Association of British Commuters and We Own It to raise alarm bells about the key issues with the Bill.

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Although the Government claims “GBR will end years of fragmentation and will have a relentless focus on driving up standards for passengers, including simpler fares and ticketing” – this will not happen if the current legislation is allowed to pass.

The Bill actually maintains much of the competition framework from the 1993 Railways Act, which was responsible for the fragmentation and inefficiencies of the privatisation era.

Instead of having one vertically-integrated public body which is responsible for all aspects of the railway and is run this the public interest, this legislation is designed to put the commercial interests of private companies first (open access operators, third-party ticket retailers and rolling stock companies).

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