Great British Railways

Great British Railways
Type	Government-owned company
Industry	Train services and infrastructure management
Predecessor	Network Rail ; Passenger train companies ; Rail Delivery Group ; DfT Operator
Headquarters	Derby, United Kingdom
Area served	Great Britain
Products	Public Transport
Owner	British Government

Great British Railways (GBR) is a planned state-owned railway company that will oversee railways in Great Britain, most train services in England and fast services to Scotland and Wales.

It will take most rail functions of the Department for Transport and Rail Delivery Group, including services and setting fares. In addition, it will absorb Network Rail to become the operator of most rail infrastructure across Great Britain.^[1]^[a] The powers of the UK's devolved administrations will not be affected.^[1]

History

The railways of Great Britain were originally built by private companies, but after the Transport act 1947 it was nationalised and was run by British Railways until the railways become privatised, which begun in 1994 and finished in 1997. The rail infrastructure, passenger and freight services were separated at the time.

In 2024, the Labour government of Keir Starmer announced that the railways would be re-nationalised. Passenger services will return to government ownership as their franchises expire. This began on 25 May 2025 with South Western Railway. Re-nationalised services will be run initially by DfT Operator and then be integrated into GBR when it is established.^[2]^[3]

Constituent parts

The following entities will be integrated into GBR:

Network Rail
DfT Operator
Rail Delivery Group (National Rail)
Office of Rail and Road (some functions)

Great British Railways Media

Former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and broadcaster Michael Portillo promote the national competition to host the headquarters of Great British Railways
The British Rail Double Arrow, designed by Gerry Barney in 1965