Some bold thinking... but too many serious gaps

摘要

IF you want to understand the intentions behind the Government's White Paper heralding the arrival of Great British Railways, look no further than its authors. We all know that The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail came out of the Williams Review, but that is now an irrelevance. It has been through radical changes, many instigated by the Treasury, but then taken over by the ever-ambitious Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, who ensured he would get equal billing with Keith Williams. After some further vetting by senior civil servants, the final version was produced by Andrew Gilligan, the ex-BBC journalist and Boris Johnson's transport adviser. It was finally given the go-ahead at a meeting attended by Johnson. In other words, this is not a Department for Transport document, or even a Treasury one. It comes directly from 10 Downing Street and must be viewed in that context. Consequently, it has all the strengths and weaknesses characteristic of the Prime Minister. It is very well-written, full of bluster and big ideas, but with no explanation of how it can be implemented, what the end game will look like, and crucially how it will fit in with wider considerations such as decarbonisation, devolution and what it calls"financial sustainability".