New competition to find first HQ of Great British Railways

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announces a competition to provide the national home for Great British Railways (GBR), bringing jobs and investment outside of London

new Transition Team launched to drive forward reforms and create the new public body responsible for running Britain’s rail network

Transport Secretary sets out commitments that define GBR, including a passenger focus, bringing back accountability and driving towards net zero by 2050

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has today (4 October 2021) announced that a competition will be run to identify the headquarters for Great British Railways (GBR), the single, accountable public body responsible for running Britain’s railways.

As part of major reforms designed to ensure decisions about the railway are brought closer to the passengers and communities they serve, GBR will require a new national headquarters alongside regional headquarters.

The government will soon launch a competition by welcoming expressions of interest with a commitment that the national headquarters will be based outside of London – ensuring skilled jobs, investment and economic benefits are focused beyond the capital.

The competition will recognise towns and cities with a rich railway history that are strongly linked to the network ensuring the first headquarters will take pride of place at the heart of a new era for Britain’s railways.

The Transport Secretary also announced today the creation of the GBR Transition Team under the leadership of Andrew Haines, who will continue to work as CEO of Network Rail.

The Transition Team will now be responsible for driving forward reforms and creating the railway’s new guiding mind. They will initially focus on driving revenue recovery efforts post-pandemic, bringing a whole industry approach to tackling cost and promoting efficiency and establishing a strategic freight unit to boost the sector.

The Transport Secretary has also set out the core goals that will define GBR, including:

changing the culture of the railways not simply creating a bigger version of Network Rail

thinking like our customers, both passengers and freight, and putting them first

growing the network and getting more people travelling

making the railways easier to use

simplifying the sector to do things quicker, driving down costs and being more accountable

having a can-do, not a can’t do culture

harnessing the best of the private sector

playing a critical role in the national shift to net zero

GBR was commissioned in May 2021 as part of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, focused on delivering sweeping reforms that create a truly passenger-focused railway.

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