My reading of the Williams-Shapps Plan is modified by profound doubts about the real reason for the document...and this reflects in the requirement for a new headquarters for Great British Railways.
A few senior civil servants in the Department for Transport (
DfT» ) have mentioned in the past that it has been asked to adjudicate on matters that really should not be in its remit, for example, decisions on the type and number of coffee cup holders in a new, or re-built, fleet of trains. This type of activity does not sit well with the DfT's overall job of setting strategy and funding for the railways and, reading the runes, my interpretation is that the senior management of the DfT would like to hive off the 'day-to-day' railways functions performed within the DfT. Essentially these are the activities concerned with monitoring and control of the Train Operating Companies whether as franchises or state controlled operators; details of the infrastructure side have generally always been handled at arms length.
I see it as a move to reverse the decision to wind up the Strategic Rail Authority (
SRA» ) made by Alastair Darling in 2006 which transferred the franchising functions (after the 1993 Act initially performed by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising) to the DfT. The effect was that more and more of the minutiae of railway operation required decisions to be made at the centre.
Not all of these were advantageous - think of the West Coast franchising fiasco; setting the frameworks for franchise bids but failing to check that the infrastructure could cope with the results; setting the rules for franchising the East Coast Main Line in such a way that it was uneconomic to run, not once but twice; trying to transfer so much risk to the potential train operators that most
UK▸ -based companies decided the game was no longer worth the candle; making timetable specifications part of the franchising contract and not being able to make quick decisions on contract changes which was part of the reason for the 2018 timetable melt down; having no plan fixed in advance for what it wanted out of the Great Western Electrification programme[1]; I won't mention the Intercity Express Programme...
As the body politic finds it so very hard indeed to say that it made a mistake I read the whole thing as a way for the DfT to get shot of the rump activities of the SRA so any future less than optimal decisions will not directly reflect on the Secretary of State. After all one of the main considerations in the Civil Service is 'Don't embarrass the Minister' and in future any awkward questions can be passed off to Great British Railways — 'Not me, Guv, try over there...'
So, basically, the train operating specifications and the infrastructure strategy will pass to the new body. Infrastructure is already devolved and day to day train operation always has been devolved for the past 180 years. So Williams/Shapps has in effect recreated the Railways Executive/British Railways and the top level organisation, the British Transport Commission/British Railways Board running trains, infrastructure, ships, hotels, workshops and a staff of half a million people, operated out of the Great Central Hotel at 222 Marylebone Road for many years.
Ships, hotels and workshops and most of the workforce are long gone - so all we need to look for is a smallish office building within walking distance of a station.
If the financial benefits being brought to a new location are seen as significant, then the headquarters staff is too big.
[1] This was in fact a logical decision as the National Audit Office strongly criticised the DfT's programme plan and handling of the West Coast Route Modernisation so it decided not to give another hostage to fortune and not have a plan at all for the Great Western.