It
is
09.00
on
Friday
5
July
2024.
The
decision
has
been
taken
by
the
people,
and
two
large
removal
vans
arrived
in
Downing
Street
an
hour
ago.
Rishi
Sunak
is
expected
to
travel
to
the
country
house
of
Chequers
in
Buckinghamshire,
which
is
customarily
put
at
the
temporary
disposal
of
an
outgoing
Prime
Minister.
Sir
Keir
Rodney
Starmer
is
preparing
to
get
into
a
car
which
will
take
him
to
Buckingham
Palace
within
the
hour,
where
the
King,
also
according
to
custom,
will
ask
him
to
form
a
government.
From
that
moment,
the
Labour
leader
will
become
Prime
Minister
and
First
Lord
of
the
Treasury.
Meanwhile,
newly-arrived
officials
in
the
Department
for
Transport,
some
of
whom
are
a
little
bleary-eyed
after
sitting
up
late
to
watch
the
election
results,
are
carrying
out
the
instructions
to
be
followed
in
the
event
of
a
Labour
win.
Messages
go
out
from
the
DfT
to
Network
Rail,
the
Office
of
Rail
and
Road,
the
Rail
Delivery
Group
and
the
Great
British
Railways
Transition
Team.
Each
organisation
is
told
that
morning
that
they
must
start
preparing
for
substantial
changes
to
the
railway
industry.
The
DfT,
Operator
of
Last
Resort
and
Network
Rail
are
being
instructed
to
work
closely
together
from
now
on
by
forming
a
partnership
which
is
to
be
led
by
a
new
team
at
the
temporary
headquarters
of
the
shadow
Great
British
Railways,
alongside
Derby
station.
They
must
have
a
functioning
organisation
within
six
months
–
in
other
words,
by
January
2025.
Meanwhile,
Parliamentary
draughtsmen
have
been
working
on
a
new
Railways
Bill,
which
will
be
presented
to
the
Commons
in
the
first
session
of
the
new
Parliament.
The
draft
Railway
Reform
Bill
drawn
up
by
the
previous
government
is
now
dead
in
the
water:
no
public
Bills,
whether
draft
or
substantive,
survive
a
change
of
government,
even
though
the
Transport
Select
Committee
had
been
conscientiously
taking
evidence
about
it
from
key
railway
industry
figures
in
May.
Whatever
they
said,
as
well
as
the
text
of
the
Bill
itself,
will
now
be
placed
in
the
box
labelled
‘It
Might
Have
Been’.
Labour’s
new
Bill
will
be
different.
Great
British
Railways
will
not
be
the
‘franchising
authority’,
because
there
will
be
no
franchises
to
be
awarded.
It
will
not
be
a
‘guiding
mind’,
as
recommended
by
Keith
Williams
in
his
Rail
Review,
but
a
‘directing’
one.
Shares
in
several
transport
groups
have
been
falling
since
the
the
Stock
Exchange
opened
at
07.00
this
morning,
as
it
is
now
beyond
doubt
that
the
present
National
Rail
passenger
contracts
in
England
will
be
terminated
at
the
first
available
‘break
point’,
and
earlier
than
that
if
an
operator
‘fails
to
deliver’.
In
Scotland
and
Wales
there
are
none
to
surrender:
the
devolved
governments
had
already
taken
control
of
their
railways
while
the
Conservative
were
still
in
office.
There
will
be
no
chance
of
continuing,
because
the
train
operators
still
in
the
private
sector
on
election
day
are
destined
to
be
‘folded
in’
to
Great
British
Railways.
The
process
is
intended
to
be
inexpensive
and
relatively
painless.
Behind
closed
doors,
even
before
Sir
Keir
has
reached
the
palace,
some
transport
group
executives
are
discussing
at
hastily-called
meetings
whether
it
would
be
better
to
surrender
the
doomed
contracts
sooner
rather
than
later,
and
be
done
with
it.
Passenger
open
access
offers
one
way
for
the
private
sector
to
stay
on
the
rails,
at
least
to
some
extent,
and
several
transport
groups
have
been
industriously
applying
for
new
routes
and
paths
over
the
past
few
months.
Labour
has
said
open
access
‘will
remain
where
it
adds
value
and
capacity
to the
rail
network’.
But
the
Office
of
Rail
and
Road
has
yet
to
pronounce
its
verdicts
on
any
of
the
recent
applications,
and
before
that
happens
it
will
have
received
‘an
updated
framework
and
guidance’
about
open
access
from
the
new
transport
secretary.
No
one
knows
what
form
that
‘guidance’
will
take.