CECA members were recently joined by Olly Glover MP, a member of the Transport Committee and transport spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, for a roundtable discussion focused on the Railways Bill and plans to establish Great British Railways (GBR).
In this short blog, Ben Goodwin, CECA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, provides some background to GBR and reflects on the key talking points from the session.
The Railways Bill was introduced to Parliament in November 2025 with the primary aim of establishing GBR to bring infrastructure operations and passenger services together. In effect absorbing the functions of Network Rail, alongside those of the train operating companies into a single entity.
The Bill is currently at its report stage in the House of Commons and therefore some way off becoming an Act of Parliament. Once the Bill concludes in the Commons it will go through several stages in the House of Lords before achieving Royal Assent.
Much of the commentary around the Bill, and establishment of GBR, has understandably been focused on how it has been set up to improve passenger experience, create greater access for freight operators and to ensure that the right balance between national and local decision-making is achieved.
Key within all of this though, is ensuring that the arrangements for how the development and delivery of investment programmes to maintain and enhance the rail network are designed in a way that enable the contracting community to engage effectively with GBR.
It’s for this reason that CECA brought members together with Olly Glover MP – to discuss what’s needed to ensure CECA businesses are positioned at the forefront of the railways revolution that the Government is seeking to deliver.
Olly opened the session with reflections on the need to alleviate the stop-start nature of investment in UK rail. The adverse impact of this on the ability of CECA members working in the industry to effectively devise and deliver business plans is plain to see.
The Liberal Democrats transport spokesperson was hopeful that the requirement in the Railways Bill for a long-term strategy for rail spanning 30 years will help to address this challenge, but the extent to which the mechanics of the legislation will actually improve pipeline certainty for enhancements is not clear.
For example, the Bill contains no provision on electrification, which coupled with a lack of ambition around delivering passenger growth is not sending the right signals to the civil engineering contracting market.
CECA members gathered at the roundtable agreed and there was consensus that it will be a missed opportunity if the legislation is unable to deliver a regulatory system that enables longer term planning and investment to become part and parcel of the rail industry.
Other discussion points that were raised included the opportunities and challenges of linking investment to inflation, as well as the potential of the Bill to legislate for guaranteed volumes of work to be awarded to smaller contractors.
There was also strong sentiment that the Bill should go further to ensure that regional tiers of government in England have a greater say in decision-making and that the legislation creates the best conditions for joining up investment in rail between the nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
As the Bill continues its passage there will be further opportunities for CECA members to engage with the key parliamentarians that are working on it. If you would like to get involved please contact us at enquiries@ceca.co.uk.