How refreshing, then, to hear this from the minister who is directly in charge of the railways: transport secretary Mark Harper. Last night, delivering the George Bradshaw Address in London, he spelled out the ramshackle nature of train travel and promised to improve it.
"The railways need fundamental reform and that is what we will deliver," he vowed. Instead of civil servants at the Department for Transport (DfT) directing every aspect of train operations, a new "guiding mind" known as Great British Railways will run the show. "It is not the role of ministers to pore over operational decisions," he says.
Crucially, Mr Harper wants to rationalise tickets - untangling the anomalies that successive governments have allowed to build up with no fewer than 55 million different fares on offer. So, what will you notice? The briefing provided to The Daily Telegraph at the weekend had heralded the abolition of return tickets with a long-overdue move to single-leg pricing.
This story is from the February 08, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the February 08, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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