Great British Railways (GBR) offers significant benefits. It will bring together the control of costs and income at an operational level, remove contractual barriers, and should ensure that strategic decisions consider the whole railway system.
In his interview with Rail Engineer, Network Rail’s CEO, Jeremy Westlake, explains how GBR will also benefit rail engineering. This includes better sharing of data, optimised tyre turning to increase track life, and better use of service trains for infrastructure monitoring. He also considers that the new integrated regional business units’ whole system approach is already delivering significant benefits.
Creating GBR is a huge task. Its Bill is currently receiving detailed Parliamentary scrutiny and should receive Royal Asset this year. GBR is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2027. By then, two key strategies will have been published. The Long-Term Rolling Stock and Infrastructure Strategy (LTRS&IS) is to be published very soon. This will be followed a year later by the Long-Term Rail Strategy (LTRS) which will specify GBR’s strategic objectives over a 30-year period.
