Grant Shapps made the rounds this morning to announce huge nationalisation plans for UK railways, with the government set to launch ‘Great British Railways’ in 2023 as the replacement for Network Rail. The new state-run operator will control ticket prices and timetables (although private companies will still operate most of the trains), and new flexible season tickets will be introduced next month to accommodate home working habits. The era of Big Government continues…

Speaking on Sky News this morning, Shapps said:

“We’re going to have one, single, familiar organisation called Great British Railways. It will run all the different aspects of the railway in order to bring the whole thing together. It’s three years to the week, actually, since that disastrous timetable change in May ’18 where the entire system melted down. And when people said ‘who’s got control of this’ the answer was no one. There was no guiding mind, there was no – as the media used to like to say – Fat Controller looking after the railway, and today’s reforms, what I’m announcing, takes care of all of that…”

Looks like Shapps is more than happy to assume the role…