A total of £52.3m has been spent by the Department for Transport in relation to establishing Great British Railways (GBR) so that the new body can absorb power from Network Rail. The spending was revealed after NCE submitted a Freedom of Information Request.

Previous Freedom of Information Requests revealed that £41.4m was spent on the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) between November 2021 to December 2022.  And from Sept 2018 to May 2021 another £10.9m was spent on the commissioning and publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.

Once the transition of GBR has been completely finalised and the powers switched over from Network Rail through Parliament then GBR will become the new acting government body.  The main purpose behind setting up GBR was to integrate the UK’s railways more efficiently and to end any fragmentation.  GBR will own the railway infrastructure, run trains, set time tables, collect fares and plan the network.  This will ensure that the UK’s railways become more financially sustainable and much more customer focused.  In March this year Derby was revealed as the new location for the GBR headquarters and is the only city in the UK to have manufactured rolling stock since 1840.  Something which is being continued today by Alstom building the new HS2 trains.

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