GBR legislation delayed while Trevelyan signals focus on “growth” and “green”

The new Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan revealed that legislation giving powers to the planned Great British Railways organisation is being pushed back.

Making her first appearance before the Transport Select Committee, Trevelyan confirmed that a Transport Bill announced at the State Opening of Parliament earlier this year will no longer be taken forward in the current session.

The Bill was set to give Great British Railways powers to take over the operation of track and infrastructure and set fares and timetables. It was previously expected to begin doing so from early 2024, but this is now thought to be unlikely.

Trevelyan blamed a lack of Parliamentary time for the delay and hinted that legislation relating to rail transformation will now come in next year’s session. “Because we can’t bring in this big all-encompassing piece of legislation immediately, we are going to take the opportunity to break it down to its constituent parts and work out how we can drive forward some of that modernisation more quickly,” she pledged.

In the meantime, the Transport Secretary told the committee that a “narrower” bill with a focus on the future of transport is being worked up which could receive Royal Assent before May. This, she explained, is expected to contain legislation on electric scooters and pavement parking policy.

The Transport Secretary explained that her key overarching priorities for the Department are ‘growth’ and ‘green’ and said, “I want everybody to be looking at every piece of work that we are doing with those two lenses, to the point that if they are not helping to drive those two critical agendas, we should be asking ourselves if they are at the top of our priority list.”