Industry Commercial

Enabling the best of the private sector to transform our railways.

Private sector partners make a huge contribution to the rail industry, running and improving services and upgrading infrastructure.

We are working with these partners to design a guiding mind that empowers businesses to bring the best of their problem-solving prowess, as well as innovative new ideas – to make rail more relevant to the way people live and work today and put industry finances back on a more sustainable footing.

Creating Great British Railways (GBR) will mark the end of decades of fragmentation. This new guiding mind will provide strategic direction, clear leadership and whole-system thinking, opening up exciting new opportunities for collaboration and innovation with the private sector.

With the big gap in rail’s finances following the pandemic, we need to unlock the full breadth and depth of expertise in the private sector as the industry looks to become more efficient and more relevant to the way people live and work today.

What are we doing?

We’re designing a Great British Railways that can support all types of private sector involvement and innovation, while optimising the use of the network as the integrated system that it is, putting the interests of the customers and communities rail serves first and developing truly collaborative relationships with delivery partners.

Private train operators already play, and will continue to play, a key role in a reformed industry. New contracts will see them receive commercial returns for successfully delivering a service for the public good. We’re working closely with the Department for Transport to establish an attractive offer that spurs strong competition for passenger service contracts – recognising that one size won’t fit all, and working within an environment that supports the innovation and commerciality of freight and open access operators.

Looking more broadly, we have taken the time to understand the barriers to getting the best value and innovation from the rail supply chain who say rail is too siloed, too slow and too prescriptive today. With reform, we have an opportunity to fix that.

In spring 2023, we set up a Commercial Partnerships Sounding Board to share and seek feedback on our emerging thinking around this design as it relates to commercial and procurement functions. A summary of meetings with the first cohort is now available.

With the big gap in rail’s finances following the pandemic, we need to unlock the full breadth and depth of expertise in the private sector as the industry looks to become more efficient and more relevant to the way people live and work today.