Lower cost to taxpayers

By bringing a ‘one railway’ perspective to the industry’s finances, and to how we attract more passengers and freight customers to use the railway, we are contributing to reducing the cost to taxpayers of running the railway.

This single perspective on the industry’s costs and revenue will be a crucial part of how Great British Railways (GBR) will the railway more efficient and creates a new culture where track and train work better together.

Joining up financial information to aid better decisions

By creating the ability to view all of the industry’s finances together we will be able to foster a more cost-effective railway. We will give a clearer picture of cost and revenue locally, regionally and nationally, to improve decision making, leading to better investment outcomes that mean fare payer and taxpayer funding is used more effectively.

Bringing profit and loss together across track and train at a national level to inform smarter investment decisions for operators, government and Network Rail, which has so far identified more than £100m in cost reductions.

Our new financial tools are helping operational decision-makers make better, more informed decisions across the whole rail system.

Encouraging more people to take the train

Our work aims to grow revenue by coordinating private sector operators and sharing best practice. Grounded in insight and analysis, we will give operators the tools they need to get customers to choose rail, including through innovative cross-industry efforts like the Great British Rail Sale, which brought together the Department for Transport (DfT), Rail Delivery Group and 16 train operators to deliver a consistent, national offering.

This will help more people to travel by rail, attracting customers to the network in an efficient way and reducing public subsidy.

We have already generated more that 2 million+ extra journeys and £109m in additional revenue through leadership of initiatives like the Great British Rail Sale.

Plan for sustainable revenue growth

Shaped by insight and cross-industry engagement, we want to break down the barriers putting people off choosing rail over car and air, to create modal shift and go for growth on Britain’s railways.

Working together with train operators, Network Rail and the DfT, we are creating a framework for prioritising investment where it can have the biggest collective impact on mode shift and passenger revenue growth.

We’ve engaged across the industry to come to a greater shared understanding of the sort of growth rail is aiming for and, rooted in insight, where we should focus our collective efforts to get there.