Six locations shortlisted to be Great British Railways headquarters

UK: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced a shortlist of six locations for the future headquarters of Great British Railways.

A total of 42 bids were submitted, with Birmingham, Crewe, Derby, Doncaster, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and York being shortlisted.

The final decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Transport later this year.

Ministers and GBR Transition Team representatives will visit each bidder to gain a greater understanding of each place, while a public vote which opened when the shortlist was announced on July 5 and runs until August 15 will be used to measure the level of support for each place and will be considered as part of the decision making.

‘I’m calling on people across the country to play a key part in this once-in-a-generation reform and vote for the new home of our railways’, said Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps.

The government specified that the GBR headquarters should be outside London, and the bids were evaluated against six key criteria:

• alignment to ‘levelling up’ objectives;
• connected and easy to get to across the UK;
• opportunities for GBR;
• railway heritage and links to the network;
• value for money;
• public support.

The building site will preferably be either publicly owned or already part of the public sector rail estate, although alternative proposals may be considered.

‘Since the competition was launched it has been great to see the interest from towns and cities across Britain who believe GBR’s home should be with them’, said Leader of the GBR Transition Team Andrew Haines. ‘I am really looking forward to the next step and seeing which town or city has the honour of being the home for GBR.’