Overview of the Act
- The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act ("the Act") is a short Act amending specific provisions in the Railways Act 1993 ("RA93") to remove the presumption in favour of private sector operation of franchised passenger services to facilitate the Government’s commitment to bring such train operations back into public ownership when current franchise contracts end.
- It enables the Secretary of State, the Scottish Ministers and/or the Welsh Ministers (as the appropriate franchising authorities) to secure the provision of designated railway passenger services via contracts with public sector operators (referred to in the Act as "public sector companies"); and to commence the transition to public sector operation as current contracts reach their end date or contractual break point. The Act also disapplies the requirement (under regulation 22 of the Public Service Obligations in Transport Regulations 2023/1369 ("the 2023 Regulations")) to give at least 12 months’ notice before awarding such contracts to public sector companies.
- The Act removes the power to award franchises to private sector operators via a competitive tendering process and the requirement to publish a statement on how that power will be exercised. However, the Act enables the Secretary of State to make short further awards or extensions to existing incumbent private sector operators where satisfied that, at that time, it will not be reasonably practicable to provide or to secure the provision of the railway passenger services by awarding a contract to a public sector company.
