UK: The Chartered Institution of Railway Operators has called for a clearer and more coherent approach to rail reform, with strong leadership, operational autonomy and long-term whole-system thinking insulated from short-term politics.
CIRO’s formal response to the government’s A Railway Fit for Britain’s Future consultation draws on the operational and strategic experience of the industry leaders who make up its fellows.
CIRO calls for:
- Strategic clarity and operational autonomy: CIRO calls for clear boundaries allowing Great British Railways to make independent decisions based on professional judgement. CIRO notes that railways operate over decades, not election cycles, and frequent shifts in political priorities risk undermining essential long-term planning.
- Whole-system thinking to replace siloed decision-making: with a holistic approach to planning and operations that reflects the interconnected nature of infrastructure, services, customers and communities.
- Empowering industry expertise: CIRO says decisions relating to performance, access, safety and investment should be be informed by people with practical expertise. This would include involving rail professionals in the design of regulatory frameworks, incentives and performance management systems.
- Fairness and balance in network access: CIRO says government and GBR should ensure freight and open access operators are treated fairly and transparently, and that local political interests do not override national strategic objectives, especially where infrastructure is shared across regions.
- Stable, long-term investment frameworks: CIRO supports the concept of five-year funding periods, but says many enhancements require longer-term financial certainty. It wants to remove ‘artificial boundaries’ between renewals and enhancements.
- Skilled Workforce: CIRO emphasises the critical role of people in the success of GBR and broader reforms, highlighting its apprenticeships, university partnerships and MBA in Railway Operations Management.
‘We welcome the government’s direction, but structure alone won’t deliver success’, said CIRO CEO Phil Sherratt. ‘Great British Railways must have the freedom to operate with clarity of purpose, insulated from short-term political cycles. The railway is a complex, interconnected system — decisions must reflect that.’
