GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS UNVEILED

IN May 2021, the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail revealed the Government’s longer-term proposals for Passenger Service Contracts (PSC), to be awarded to private companies by Great British Railways. In the interim, the ERMAs would be replaced by National Rail Contracts, such as those awarded in September to Abellio-owned Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains. The principle of the PSC is similar to the concession model already in use for TfL Overground and Merseyrail, as well as on some routes in Germany and Sweden.

Privatisation retreated a little further during the year as two more operators returned to the public sector. Transport for Wales came under Welsh government control in February, in recognition of the increased state support required during the pandemic. Less felicitously, the Govia-owned operator Southeastern forfeited its franchise in October because it had failed to declare some £25 million of historic taxpayer funding. Previously handed back to the state were LNER and Northern, and plans were underway for ScotRail to come under Scottish Government control in March 2022.