Reforms & Changes Coming to UK Rail Network

There will be no meaningful change and certainly not anything that's going to be noticeable for the average tourist. The changes are aimed primarily at those who commute regularly by train and with promises of a saving of UP TO £300 per year on hugely expensive season tickets it's not really something that's going to get commuters excited about

I agree with JC.

The more I look at it, the more I realize that it will be effectively stealth nationalization without having to pay any compensation to the companies, and will almost certainly give very little to the consumer, but allows the government the chance to blow its own trumpet.

I'm from the rail industry and I keep my finger on the pulse, and there are several things about the Shapps programme which bother me a lot. Not least of which is the very highly trumpeted so called flexible season ticket. Look very very carefully at the detail before jumping off the dock. And with only centralized pricing and ticketing that can only mean one thing. Watching Shapps' lips moving this morning - talking about how non train users should not pay for trains in taxes - I was worried. I remember the bad old days of the end of British Rail and the lack of investment.

This is not all politics, just to paint a picture...

In the short term for the traveling public and tourists and readers of this Forum in particular, I agree with JC that the travellers will see little if any change. In the long term I think there will be a winding down of investment and prices will go up and service down. We'll see....

So tourists should watch from the sidelines and not worry....

Catchy name though - full of easily perceived irony - The Great British Railway.