The Railways Bill will soon have its Report Stage and Third Reading in the House of Commons – the final chance for MPs in the Commons to amend and vote on the Bill before it goes to the House of Lords.
We’re calling on MPs to ensure Passenger Rights and Public Interest Duties are established as the founding principles of Great British Railways. This can only be done by amending the Bill’s most important Clause – Clause 18 on General Duties of Ministers, Great British Railways GBR) and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which sets the criteria for how every decision on rail will be made – for decades into the future.
The most important amendments are 29, 30 and 33 which would establish strong duties for passenger and disability rights; socioeconomic value; environment; climate; accessibility; affordable fares; and transport integration. No amendments yet tabled would have such a transformative effect on the public interest.
Please help by writing to your MP and asking them to sponsor amendments 29, 30, 33.
Strong Passenger Rights and Public Interest Duties
Tabled by Chris Hincliff MP, the amendments to Clause 18 have the support of a wide civil society coalition and have proven very popular with MPs, with over a dozen already co-sponsoring.[1] They also provide answers to the Transport Committee’s demands in its landmark ‘Access Denied’ report of 2025, which demanded a complete overhaul of laws and regulations to ensure the rights of disabled people.[2]
Passenger and Disability Rights Duty (Amendments 29 and 33)
The Passenger and Disability Rights Duty would ensure rights-based standards from Ministers, GBR, ORR and the Passenger Watchdog, solving the worst effects of deregulation found elsewhere in the Bill. This means that all future standard-setting would be based on legal rights such as the Equality Act 2010, Consumer Rights Act 2015 and data protection legislation, rather than weaker standards set by regulatory bodies.
“so as to protect and promote the rights and interests of users and potential users of railway passenger services, including in particular the rights and interests of disabled persons.”
Applying to Clause 18 and 36, the amendments strengthen the language of the Bill’s current ‘Passenger Duty’ from ‘promoting needs and interests’ to ‘protecting and promoting the rights and interests’ of passengers and disabled people. Additionally, the language is also made unconditional, ensuring that passenger rights cannot be traded off against other duties, such as cost-cutting or promoting competition.
Public Interest Duties (Amendment 30)
Amendment 30 establishes socioeconomic value, environment, climate, accessibility, affordable fares, and transport integration as core duties for Ministers, GBR and the ORR. Due to its central position in the Bill, it would also provide powers for the government to create integrated investment funds for public interest objectives, speeding up progress and increasing the value of public money.[3]
“(g) so as to maximise, so far as practicable within the resources available, the social and economic benefits resulting from the operation of the railway network in Great Britain,
(h) having regard to the effect the provision of railway services has on the environment,
(i) so as to increase the use of railways relative to other modes of transport,
(j) so as to achieve targets towards the full accessibility of the rail network,
(k) so as to secure the affordability of fares,
(l) so as to improve connectivity between rail and other forms of transport.”
This amendment makes many improvements to Clause 18. Socioeconomic value and environment are given much more weight than their currently weak status; a duty is added for the accessibility of infrastructure – which would ensure a shift to target-based policymaking; and a duty is added for modal shift to public transport – the single most important climate objective in the UK, where transport is the highest emitting factor (see also Sian Berry MP’s Amendment 49).
The amendments also ensure core duties towards affordable fares and transport integration, the two main levers for passenger and revenue growth as well as equality and socioeconomic value. These are urgently required to correct the deregulation of fares in the Bill,[4] and the loss of the Railways Act 1993’s duty for transport integration (see also Alex Mayer MP’s Amendment NC20).
How you can help
Please help by writing to your MP today and asking them to support amendments 29, 30 and 33.
Personalised emails are most effective. If time is short, We Own It has provided a template letter to MPs, which takes just two minutes.
[1] The latest amendment paper for the Railways Bill is available here. See amendments 29, 30 and 33 to check the names of MPs currently co-sponsoring.
[2] Transport Committee, Access Denied: MPs call for overhaul of laws, strategy and attitudes to get transport working for disabled people (2025). Amendments 29, 30 and 33 solve two of the report’s headline demands: relating to ORR’s lack of enforcement and rights-based regulation (eg the two-hour booking period preventing Turn Up And Go); and the governments lack of investment planning for accessibility (eg the fragmented and discredited Access for All fund).
[3] Our amendments are not just about passenger rights and public interest. They are also important technical changes, because all areas of passenger-facing services are currently subject to competition law and subsidy controls that will severely restrict policymaking and the value of public money. This is due to the effect of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 on GBR’s functions (Schedule 2, Part 3, applying to Clause 3(1)(b-g)); and the precedence of competition regulation above all GBR’s duties (Sec 67(3) of the Railways Act 1993). For example, Schedule One of the SCA22 requires that public subsidies are ‘proportionate to their specific policy objective and limited to what is necessary to achieve it’; the ‘least distortive’ policy for competition‘; and ‘designed to achieve their specific policy objective while minimising and negative effects on competition or investment‘. Furthermore, Sec 29(2) SCA22 requires public authorities to be ‘satisfied that the amount of the subsidy is limited to what is necessary to deliver the SPEI services, having regard to – (a) costs in delivering the SPEI services, and (b) reasonable profits to be made in doing so.’ In other words, GBR will have to actively restrain its own profits, and all future policies relating to rail passengers will be decided according to competition risks, rather than policy objectives.
Our amendments for strong passenger rights and public interest duties are strongly legally justified because they use the exclusions that already exist in competition law for such purposes, for example Schedule Three, Para 5 of the Competition Act 1998, which allows exemptions for policy-making if in compliance with other legal obligations. This is especially the case in regard to rights with a strong, pre-existing legal status, such as the Equality Act 2010 and Climate Change Act 2008.
[4] All areas of fares and ticketing are subject to competition regulation and subsidy control rules, with the Bill failing to create any exemptions or exclusions. (Effect of Schedule 2, Part 3 on Clause 3(1)(b-g)).
[Please Note: The Railways Bill Report stage and Third Reading debates were postponed since the publication of this blog post. An earlier version stated that the debates would be held on Wednesday 3rd June.]
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