Recent statements from senior politicians in the ruling Labour Party point towards closer alignment with the European Union (EU).

➣ The UK finance minister, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has said that “There is now a strategic imperative for deeper integration between the UK and EU”.

➣ Meanwhile, the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, has said the government should rejoin the single market before the next election.

As the UK Government wishes to move towards alignment with the EU across sectors, rail cannot be treated as an exception.

In passenger rail, this raises a simple question: will the UK align with Europe’s model – or deliberately move further away from it, as is proposed in the Railways Bill currently going through Parliament?

The railway reforms proposed by the UK Government are completely at odds with EU principles of market opening.

While calling for closer integration with the EU, the UK is at the same time:

➣ Blocking EU operators from most UK rail public procurement, while the EU market remains open.
➣ Replacing most competitive tendering with direct awards;
➣ Vertically integrating infrastructure and operations, with preferential treatment for the in-house operator.

This is a stark contradiction with EU law.

The creation of Great British Railways (GBR) is being advanced without clear KPIs or quantified benefits. No evidence has been provided as to how or why GBR will deliver better outcomes.

Only this month, Rachel Reeves also spoke of the need for “tight fiscal discipline”. Against that backdrop, setting-up a taxpayer-funded centralised body without any measurable outcomes is a high-risk strategy and will fail.

By contrast, a recent European Commission study has shown that market opening has led to:

➣ Lower fares (up to –40%)
➣ More passengers (+50% and beyond)
➣ Reduced reliance on taxpayer subsidy

ALLRAIL calls for a course correction:

➣ Competitive tendering for all Public Service Obligations (PSO) concession contracts;
➣ An extension of open access competition in long distance markets, which have been a huge success; and
➣ Unbundling of operator and infrastructure manager.

The United Kingdom is diverging from much of the rest of the world on rail market opening. It cannot converge with the EU while maintaining a closed, state-controlled rail market.

Alignment means alignment. Anything else is a contradiction.