| The opportunity that GBR offers Posted by grahame at 07:32, 13th September 2026 |     |
From Andrew Stephens on LinkedIn - 3,000 words precised down to about 100 in my review
A few days ago I wrote an article about Great British Railways that was, if I am being generous to myself, sceptical.
[snip]
The infrastructure will still need maintaining. Trains will still need servicing. Drivers will still drive them, signalling will still need operating, stations will still require people, electricity will still need buying and, unless somebody in Whitehall has been keeping a particularly exciting technical breakthrough quiet, rails, bridges, tunnels, embankments and overhead lines will continue to deteriorate when exposed to weather, weight and time.
[snip]
Perhaps the real opportunity is not in who owns the railway at all. Perhaps it is in finally removing some of the extraordinary amount of friction involved in running it.
[snip]
The infrastructure will still need maintaining. Trains will still need servicing. Drivers will still drive them, signalling will still need operating, stations will still require people, electricity will still need buying and, unless somebody in Whitehall has been keeping a particularly exciting technical breakthrough quiet, rails, bridges, tunnels, embankments and overhead lines will continue to deteriorate when exposed to weather, weight and time.
[snip]
Perhaps the real opportunity is not in who owns the railway at all. Perhaps it is in finally removing some of the extraordinary amount of friction involved in running it.
I think he is right in his identification of the opportunity. The question is ... will the opportunity be taken?
