Railways Bill 2024-26: Progress of the bill

The Railways Bill 2024-26 was introduced into the House of Commons on 5 November 2025. Second reading took place on 9 December 2025. Committee stage took place between 20 January 2025 and 10 February 2026. A carry-over motion was agreed following second reading, and the bill was reintroduced to the Commons on 14 May 2026. Report stage and third reading are scheduled to take place on 10 June 2026.

The bill would create Great British Railways (GBR). This will bring together into a single organisation most passenger train operators in England and Network Rail, which operates and manages most railway infrastructure in Great Britain. It would also create a strengthened passenger watchdog and a new regime for access to railway infrastructure which will be operated by GBR.

The bill, explanatory notes and associated documents are available on the bill’s page on the Parliamentary website. The House of Commons Library published a briefing on the bill, in advance of its second reading, on 4 December 2025.

Second reading

Introducing the bill’s second reading, Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, said that GBR would replace the fragmented railway in Great Britain. She highlighted significant changes to the structure of the railway industry that the bill would make, in particular:

• GBR would take access decisions across its network to make the best use of capacity
• the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) would be able to hold GBR to account for the decisions it makes on access and charging
• the creation of a passenger watchdog, which would advocate for the rights of passengers

During the second reading debate, issues raised included:

• the lack of a target for growing passenger numbers
• enforcement mechanisms, including the appeals role of the ORR and the independence of the passenger watchdog
• the level of autonomy GBR will have to operate the railway, and the extent to which the Secretary of State could intervene in this
• how GBR would balance its duties as set out in the bill, including the duty to promote the interests of disabled passengers

A programme motion, money motion and carry-over motion were all agreed following second reading.

Committee stage

A public bill committee took evidence and examined the bill across 14 sittings between 20 January 2025 and 10 February 2026.

A total of 329 amendments were tabled to the bill in public bill committee. All the government amendments (55 of them) were agreed to by the committee. All other amendments were either withdrawn, not moved, or disagreed to in a division of the committee.

Significant changes to the bill following amendments and new clauses at committee stage included:

• Station and network operators being able to charge for removing road vehicles that are obstructing railway land.
• The Secretary of State, Scottish Ministers and Welsh Ministers being able to transfer property, rights and liabilities in relation to GBR via transfer schemes.
• GBR being required to co-operate with Transport for London in relation to GBR’s statutory freight functions.

Major themes that led to significant debate during committee stage included:

• The lack of a target for increasing the number of passengers using the railway.
• The potential limiting of the Secretary of State’s powers to issue directions and guidance to GBR, to avoid the government “micro-managing” the day-to-day running of the railway.
• The requirements for GBR to set out how best use can be made of its infrastructure and, when issuing contracts for access to its network, to retain sufficient capacity for its own services.
• The principles under which appeals about GBR’s access and use policy and charging scheme for non-GBR train operators using its infrastructure could be made to the ORR.
• The stability of five-year funding settlements for infrastructure, and misaligned funding cycles for passenger train operations and infrastructure.

Reaction following second reading and committee stage Transport Committee Inquiry

The Transport Committee held an inquiry into the Railways Bill. This scrutinised three aspects of the bill: passenger experience; the role of devolved government and authorities in running railways; and non-GBR train operators’ access to the rail network.

The committee published its report on 10 February 2026. It recognised the need for structural change on Great Britain’s railways, and supported the main purpose of the bill, the creation of GBR. However, it also made a number of recommendations, including:

• Publishing a comprehensive list, with target dates, of decisions, key documents and planned consultations leading up to the establishment of GBR and in its first year of operation, before the bill reaches report stage in the Commons.
• Amending the bill to require that use of the power of direction by the Secretary of State must be necessary and proportionate.
• Amending the bill to include a duty on the Secretary of State to set a passenger journey growth target.
• Amending the clause 18 duty on GBR, the ORR and the Secretary of State, and the clause 36 duty on the Passengers’ Council, to require these bodies to exercise their functions in a way that improves accessibility of the rail network.
• Publishing at least an initial draft of GBR’s licence before the bill’s report stage, so that the draft can be subject to scrutiny by the House of Commons.
• Amending the bill to make it clear that the capacity duty does not apply until after an infrastructure capacity plan has been developed.
• Amending the bill to give freight operators the ability to appeal access decisions to the ORR on additional grounds to judicial review principles.

The government published its response to the committee’s report on 24 April 2026. It disagreed that it was necessary to amend the bill in the ways recommended by the committee, but said that it would aim to publish a policy document on the contents of the draft licence for GBR before Commons report stage. It also agreed to publish a list of key documents and target dates in spring 2026.

Reacting to the government’s response, Transport Committee Chair Ruth Cadbury MP (Lab) expressed concerns that the government said that it was not necessary to amend the bill to achieve the outcomes recommended by the committee, and noted that that future governments and ministers may not share the same view about these issues as the current government.

Other stakeholders similarly characterised the government’s proposed approach as relying on licences, business plans, guidance and memoranda of understanding, rather than adding further requirements to the bill.

Industry reaction

Stakeholders have broadly welcomed the continued progress of the bill, as well as the commitments to increase the amount of freight carried by rail and to give strategic authorities more say over local rail services.

Issues raised by stakeholders include:

• the stability of five year funding settlements for infrastructure
• the different timeframes for funding for infrastructure and passenger train operations
• the grounds on which decisions made by GBR about access to its network can be appealed to the ORR
• the uncertainty about what would be included in partnerships with strategic authorities, and
• the lack of a passenger growth target

The bill’s publications page has lists of all amendments, including those tabled for report stage, in various forms and as of various dates.