Day: November 6, 2025

Journey to Great British Railways gathers steam with landmark legislation

RAIL REFORM and GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS

  • Government takes a major step forward with Bill to set up Great British Railways, owned by the public, for the public.
  • GBR will put passengers before profits with a strengthened passenger watchdog and ultimately a one-stop-shop app for simpler ticketing and customer services.
  • Measures unveiled to improve rail accessibility, including expanding disabled persons railcard eligibility, rolling out more Welcome Points.

Landmark legislation that will transform Britain’s railways was introduced yesterday (5 November), paving the way for a simpler, more reliable network which puts passengers before profits.

The Railways Bill will create Great British Railways (GBR) – a new publicly owned company which will bring together the management of passenger services and rail infrastructure.

GBR will be accountable to passengers, freight customers and taxpayers and will drive a relentless focus on responding to their needs. Responsible for co-ordinating the whole network: from track and train, to cost and revenue – GBR will deliver lasting change.

GBR, which will be headquartered in Derby, will create a simpler, more unified railway that delivers easier journeys and offers better value for money. This will include a new one-stop-shop app where passengers can check train times and book tickets.

The Railways Bill will also establish a strengthened passenger watchdog which will be a powerful new voice to investigate poor service and advocate for improvements.

Rail reform is a cornerstone of the Government’s Plan for Change, with GBR working hand in hand with the Government’s missions to drive growth and opportunity, such as housebuilding, creating jobs and boosting productivity.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Britain deserves a railway that is fit for the future – one that rebuilds the trust of its passengers, regenerates its communities and restores reliability and value for money.

“The introduction of this legislation is a major step towards a rail network that supports Britain’s businesses and delivers for the travelling public – paving the way for economic growth and access to opportunity across the country.”

Passengers are currently at the mercy of a complex rail system of over 17 different organisations, resulting in complex fares, delayed upgrades, disjointed timetables, and an industry with no single authority in charge.

The Railways Bill builds on the Government’s public ownership programme, which is already driving improved services. Southeastern and LNER are among the top five operators nationally for lowest cancellation rates.

South Western Railway has more than tripled the number of new trains in service since entering public ownership, offering more comfortable journeys, and passengers can now use tickets across publicly owned operators during cancellations – at no extra cost.

Major changes in the Bill include:

  • A strengthened Passenger Watchdog which will act as passengers’ champion and create a better, more inclusive railway for all. The watchdog will have powers to investigate poor service and demand improvements, as well as ensuring passengers have a clear and accessible service to escalate their complaints.
  • Fare and Ticketing reform – the Railways Bill will empower GBR to bring fares and ticketing into the 21st century. Passengers will ultimately be able to purchase tickets through a new GBR website and app, replacing 14 existing operator ticketing platforms. Tickets will be available to purchase at station ticket offices, via ticket vending machines and onboard trains, to ensure all passengers can purchase a ticket with ease and travel with confidence. GBR will also build on the expansion of successful Pay As You Go and fares trials, making travel more flexible and simpler.
  • Better business planning – the Railways Bill will place a duty on GBR to grow rail freight, meaning freight operators will benefit from a longer-term strategic approach to planning, including a new capacity allocation and timetabling process. This longer-term certainty for businesses will give critical stability to the railway’s supply chain and increase investor confidence and support the growth of the sector.
  • Localised decision making – the Railways Bill will give the Devolved Governments and England’s mayors a new role and a bigger say in how the railway is run in their patch to improve local connectivity.

In a further move to improve services for all passengers, the UK Government will today publish the Accessibility Roadmap, which provides immediate actions to improve services for disabled passengers in the lead up to GBR’s establishment.

Commitments in the Roadmap include expanded eligibility criteria for the Disabled Persons Railcard, planning for the wider rollout of Welcome Points across the network, more consistent training for staff, and improvements on installing and maintaining key infrastructure, like lifts and escalators so that people can travel with confidence.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates said: “I very much welcome the introduction of the UK Railways Bill which will improve rail services and deliver a more integrated, accountable, and passenger-focused railway across the UK.

“It is also a significant step forward in our collaborative approach to rail reform, and I am confident that our continued joint working with the UK Government will ensure the delivery of a modern, integrated railway that works for passengers in Wales and throughout the United Kingdom.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “The introduction of the Railways Bill to Parliament marks a pivotal moment for rail reform across the country.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make trains more reliable and tickets easier to use, with clearer accountability for passengers and greater confidence in every journey.

“In Greater Manchester, we’re already making progress by working with the government and the rail industry to connect trains, buses, trams, and cycling routes as part of the next phase of the Bee Network.

“We’ll keep working closely with partners to shape the new legislation, ensuring Mayors and city regions have a key statutory role in joining up the railways in their areas, making them work for everyone and unlocking rail as an engine of growth across the country.”

Ben Plowden, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: “An accessible, affordable and reliable rail network integrated with the wider transport system is key to delivering sustainable economic growth and improving regional productivity.

“Today marks another important step on the road to realising this vision and delivering a railway that works for passengers, freight operators and the country as a whole.

“We look forward to working with the Government, MPs and the rail industry over the coming months to make sure this Bill provides the right foundation for a reformed railway.”

Jane Gratton, Deputy Director of Public Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce said: “Businesses welcome plans for a more joined up rail system which gives regions a stronger voice in shaping services.

“An efficient rail network is crucial to unlock opportunities for investment, jobs and growth across the country.

“Great British Rail must deliver the certainty and connectivity that businesses are desperate for – with the needs of passengers and freight customers central to future decision making.”

TRANSPORT SECRETARY HEIDI ALEXANDER’s STATEMENT TO PARLIAMENT

Today (5 November 2025) I have published our consultation response: A Railway Fit for Britain’s Future and introduced the Railways Bill to Parliament.

Up and down the country and across all political parties, the consensus is clear: our railways need urgent reform. Passengers feel abandoned – forced to treat delays, cancellations and poor value for money as unavoidable facts of daily life. Meanwhile, a broken, outdated model is holding the railway back, stopping it from unlocking the growth our country needs and delivering the efficiency taxpayers rightly expect.

The need for change was laid bare in the thousands of responses to our recent consultation. The British public were unequivocal: we need an affordable, reliable railway that passengers can count on and that makes the most of every taxpayer pound invested. One that makes education, healthcare, public services and even just the support of family and friends more accessible to those who need them. A railway that backs our businesses and helps our communities thrive. A railway fit for Britain’s future.

So today I am bringing forward legislation that will pave the way for the biggest transformation of Britain’s railways in 30 years. Informed by the consultation feedback, the Railways Bill will give us the tools we need to create Great British Railways (GBR) – a new, publicly owned company to oversee the management of track and train.

Today’s passengers are at the mercy of a complex system of poorly coordinated organisations, all incentivised to look inward and outsource blame. GBR will put an end to this by bringing together the work of 17 different organisations – from train operators to public bodies, government, and the regulator – eliminating unnecessary duplication and creating a single organisation responsible for operating, maintaining and improving our railways.

Unencumbered by the bureaucracy and perverse incentives of the old system, GBR will have the tools and authority it needs to make the railway deliver for passengers, freight and taxpayers – and to be held unambiguously accountable for doing so. It will be the ‘directing mind’ for the network, responsible for improving performance and taking long-term decisions across the whole system to unlock growth, decarbonise transport, enable the construction of new homes and support a thriving supply chain. GBR will be underpinned by a clear set of statutory duties – including those relating to passengers and accessibility, rail freight and social and economic benefits – as well as an overarching strategic direction set by the government. This approach will enable GBR to make decisions with a whole-system view, optimising network use and utilising opportunities such as open access to make the most of constrained capacity.

GBR will create a new culture that prioritises passengers and their experience. It will simplify fares and ticketing, setting more transparent fares in line with parameters set by ministers. It will consolidate the ticket retailing operations of 14 separate train companies – each with their own websites and apps – into a single, straightforward GBR ticketing platform. A new GBR app and website will make it easy to purchase tickets, check train times, and access a range of support all in one place. Together, this will make it easier for passengers to understand the fares system, to know they are buying the right ticket and to be confident they are getting the best value.

The bill will pave the way for creating a powerful voice for passengers, with a passenger watchdog responsible for setting tough standards and, where these are not met, investigating issues and resolving disputes. It will protect and advocate for all passengers’ interests and rights, offer advice and independently monitor passenger experience, reporting on its findings publicly and transparently.

GBR will work in partnership with devolved leaders to create a national railway that serves local needs. Through a new statutory role for devolved leaders, national and local strategies will be factored into GBR decision-making ensuring communities across Britain feel the benefits of our reforms. England’s mayors will have a greater say in how the railways will run, enabling genuine local influence and laying the foundations for integrated public transport that meets the needs of the communities it serves.

Devolved ministers in Scotland and Wales will also have an enhanced role, with bespoke arrangements to ensure GBR is able to deliver an integrated national network across Great Britain.

I will publish a joint memorandum of understanding with Welsh ministers setting out how our continued collaboration will drive improvements to our railways across Wales and Borders.

Scottish ministers have a similarly strong settlement reflecting their role as funder of the railway, including powers of direction and guidance over GBR. This will be set out in a joint memorandum of understanding that will outline how GBR will work with Scottish ministers to maximise local opportunities and deliver for communities.

Whilst this bill will unlock the most significant set of reforms our railway has seen in a generation, we are not waiting for the creation of GBR to drive improvements across the rail network.

We have accelerated the roll out of pay-as-you-go and we are ushering in a new era of transparency with latest performance data now available at over 1,700 stations. We recognise that disabled passengers’ experience on today’s railway too often falls short. That is why today I have also published an Accessibility roadmap: a transitional plan focused on delivering immediate improvements while laying the foundations for longer-term transformation led by GBR.

This bill enters Parliament 200 years on from the birth of the modern railway. The first passenger train between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton in 1825 marked the start of a technological revolution that would change the course of world history and trigger an explosion of growth and prosperity across the country.

As this government continues its mission to deliver a decade of national renewal, the plans I am setting out today will ensure the railway is fit to drive economic growth in the 21st century as it has done in the past.

Land Reform Bill: Increasing land ownership transparency

Landmark legislation has been approved to help create new small landholdings to increase farming opportunities and bring agricultural tenancy law into the 21st century.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, passed by Parliament, grants greater protections for tenant farmers and small landholders and safeguarding fair compensation should they be removed from their holding.

The Bill will give Ministers powers to split up landholdings of over 1,000 hectares when being sold, provided that it is in the public interest to do so.

It also modernises how new small landholdings are created and operate, protecting their rights and helping new entrants and the next generation of farmers to get access to land.

A consultation about the powers of the Tenant Farming Commissioner and alternative options for dispute resolution will also be launched in the coming weeks as a result of the Bill.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Tenant farmers and small landholders are vital to the fabric of our rural communities, and these reforms will help them to make a decent living on their holding and make improvements on the land they work on.

“It will allow them to work in a way that promotes sustainable and regenerative agricultural production, and – possibly most importantly – be protected from being removed from their holding without fair compensation. 

“I am happy we are able to progress in consulting on the role of the Tenant Farming Commissioner so quickly and I would encourage all tenant farmers, small landholders and crofters to make their views known.

“Scotland’s concentrated patterns of ownership developed over centuries, with ownership and control of our nation’s land in the hands of the few for too long.

“In future, communities will have advance notice of sales of large land holdings and Ministers will have the powers to pause them to allow the option of a Right to Buy application to be explored.

“This is an important step in our land reform journey and I am grateful to all those who have worked with us through the Parliamentary process.”

JUNK LAW? Land reform legislation will create bureaucracy and confusion, not change, warns Scottish Land & Estates

Scottish Land & Estates, the rural business organisation, has issued the following statement following the completion of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill at the Scottish Parliament.

Sarah-Jane Laing, chief executive at Scottish Land & Estates, said: “Perhaps uniquely, this legislation has succeeded in uniting landowners, land reform campaigners, lawyers, property agents and accountants – all of whom recognise that, whatever your stance on land reform, this is junk law.

“The reality is that many of the Bill’s provisions are so badly drafted that it will take years of additional work by government and others before they can be implemented in practice – and some may never come into effect at all.

“No one emerges as a winner from this – not government, not landowners, not rural businesses, not communities, and certainly not the taxpayer who will bear much of the cost of the added bureaucracy. The only likely beneficiaries will be lawyers, as property transactions become more complex and the prospect of this Act being the subject of a challenge before the courts.

“The Scottish Government says it wants to empower communities, yet it overlooks the fact that extensive rights for communities to buy land already exist. These powers could be used more often, but the reality is that demand for community ownership is far lower than activists claim.

“We now face the extraordinary prospect of the Scottish Government effectively acting as an estate agent – deciding how property should be broken up before it even reaches the market. For taxpayers who have witnessed the government’s forays into ferries, airports and recycling schemes, that idea will seem utterly absurd.

“Farms and estates also face being saddled with expensive and bureaucratic Land Management Plans that will do nothing to support the prosperity or resilience of rural communities. Whilst we have been firmly supportive of increased transparency and engagement with communities, no other business type is being asked to justify its activities in such a way.

“The government has also missed a major opportunity to revitalise the tenanted farming sector. Instead of encouraging more people to let land, it has chosen to penalise them further by introducing new, financially punitive compensation measures. That approach risks delivering the final blow to a sector already in decline, as those with land to let withdraw in the face of the uncertainty and risk created by this Bill.

“This Bill could have been an opportunity to build consensus and deliver meaningful, practical reform that supports rural Scotland’s people, businesses and environment. Instead, it represents a missed opportunity – one that will create division, confusion and delay at a time when Scotland needs stability, investment and economic growth.

“We urge the Scottish Government to pause, reflect and work with all stakeholders to develop legislation that truly serves the long-term interests of our rural communities.”

Police and Fire Service praise Scottish communities for helping reduce Bonfire Night disorder

‘CONSIDERABLE REDUCTION IN SERIOUS DISORDER’

Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have praised Scotland’s communities for their support, following a considerable reduction in serious disorder over the Halloween and Bonfire Night period.

Between 31 October and 5 November 2024, Police Scotland received 1,317 calls requiring either a local, or specialist response. This year, 833 calls across the country were received – a decrease of almost 37 per cent.

There were no significant incidents recorded between 31 October and 4 November 2025, with only minor reports of antisocial behaviour and disorder reported in parts of Edinburgh and Midlothian.

On Wednesday, 5 November, police responded to incidents in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Clydebank and Blackridge.

At around 5.30pm Public Order Officers responded to calls relating to antisocial behaviour and youths throwing fireworks within the Calder Road and Sighthill Park areas.  Upon arrival of police, those involved dispersed and no further serious offences took place.

Local officers and members of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in Netherton Road, Glasgow reported fireworks being directed at their vehicles at around 7.05pm, resulting in the police car sustaining damage and requiring uplift.

Public Order officers then assisted local policing colleagues in Clydebank at around 8pm following incidents of fireworks being directed towards shops and vehicles within Dunbarton Road. One male sustained a minor injury to his shoulder as a result of a rear window of the vehicle he was travelling within being smashed by a firework. He did not require any hospital treatment.

A further report of an SFRS crew being attacked by projectiles was then received at 9.45pm in Blackridge, West Lothian.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service  dealt with almost 700 emergency calls throughout the evening.

Two people have been arrested so far, and inquiries are ongoing to identify individuals involved in the offences that took place.

To date, 25 Dispersal Orders were issued in Edinburgh, with a further 20 in Glasgow. Officers in the Capital also carried out 34 stop and searches under the Section 60 policing powers implemented for Bonfire Night.

There have been no reports of injury to police officers or other emergency service personnel over the last week.

Operation Moonbeam is Police Scotland’s public order response to addressing serious disorder over the Bonfire Night period and in 2025, more specialist resource than ever before was dedicated to help protect local communities from harm.

For the first time during Moonbeam deployments, various officers were equipped with Body Worn Video.

Over the past few weeks, police seized more than two tonnes of illegal fireworks that intelligence suggested were intended for use in disorder. 

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs, Gold Commander for Operation Moonbeam said: “First and foremost, I want to offer my thanks to the public across Scotland for their overwhelming support of our policing response and for working closely with us to make this a successful operation.

“While police were required to deploy into various areas and address certain incidents arising, there has been a notable and welcome reduction in both the number of serious disorder offences occurring, and the level of violence and hostility directed towards police officers, fire fighters, and ambulance crews.

“There will be follow-up criminal inquiries undertaken in relation to some of the offences that took place, and I want to make it clear again that the criminal use of fireworks will not be tolerated.

“What’s really encouraging is the level of positive engagement we’ve had with communities over the last few months, and this has helped shape our policing plans for Operation Moonbeam, as well as providing vital intelligence that has led to some significant fireworks recoveries in advance of the Bonfire Night period.

“I am grateful to all of the partners and stakeholders who worked alongside us in the planning and delivery of Operation Moonbeam and to each and every officer and member of staff whose dedication and professionalism have made this a successful policing operation.”

Deputy Assistant Chief Officer Kenny Barbour, SFRS Head of Prevention, added  “I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff, and all emergency responders across Scotland, for their tireless efforts during this busy and challenging period.

“The bonfire season is always our busiest period of the year and presents us with some unique challenges in terms of keeping our staff and communities safe.

“But that is why our preparatory work is so key and I would like to thank our partners for their continued support in this joint effort.

“Thank you also to our communities for following our key safety guidance and for respecting our staff. Their support is invaluable in allowing us to be there for those who need our help the most.”

Following months of hard work, Council Leader Jane Meagher has praised partners and communities for a successful Bonfire Night.

Responding to the success of Operation Moonbeam, Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “I’m pleased and relieved that Bonfire Night passed off without serious incident last night and that the vast majority of people celebrated safely and responsibly.

“It was wonderful to see so many families, friends, and communities coming together to have fun and enjoy the organised events on offer. It really did feel worlds apart from recent years – and I want to thank our communities for the part they played in that.

“Of course, I’m disappointed by the behaviour of a few mindless individuals and I hope they’re dealt with swiftly and appropriately. However, we only saw a fraction of the issues and disruption we’ve experienced in previous years and it’s such a relief that no one was hurt.

“I want to express my sincere thanks to Police Scotland for their swift action on the night and to everyone who played a role in keeping us safe.

“A huge amount of planning and hard work has gone in from by colleagues from across the Council – particularly in our schools – and from Police and blue-light services, Lothian Buses, and many other partners across the city.

“A standout for me was the genuine and constructive engagement with our young people over many months, with last month’s Youth Summit a particular success. It was so heartening to hear the impact this had on our young people and, also, how well attended last night’s activities were.

“To me, this feels like a great return on the investment we’ve made in our young people, many of whom had begun to feel demonised by the events of previous years, and it’s something we must focus on all year round – not just on Bonfire Night.

“Overall, this was a genuine team effort that represents the very best of partnership working in our city – and I know colleagues are already thinking about how we can use the lessons we’ve learned last night, and in the build up to it.

“I’m determined to make sure that every Bonfire Night is as positive and memorable for our residents an communities.”