The new home for Great British Railways (GBR), a new public sector body for Britain’s railways, is set to be based in the East Midlands, according to reports from The Guardian newspaper.
Derby, home to the UK’s largest train factory – owned by Alstom – where around 2,000 people are employed. is expected to be announced as the location for the new headquarters.
The city reportedly beat the five other shortlisted locations including Birmingham, Crewe, Doncaster, Newcastle, and York by meeting selection criteria that included factors such as levelling-up alignment, transportation connections, railway heritage, and value for money.
Swindon did not make it into the final shortlist.
Six criteria were used for the selection process:
- Alignment to ‘levelling-up’ objectives
- Connected and easy to get to across the UK
- Opportunities for Great British Railways
- Railway heritage and links to the network
- Value for money
- Public support
The Department for Transport has not commented on the speculation but is expected to announce the decision shortly.
GBR is intended to simplify the rail network, improve services for passengers, and take on tasks such as issuing passenger service contracts to private companies to run trains by absorbing the state-owned infrastructure management company Network Rail and assuming many functions from the Department for Transport.
The original launch date of early 2024 has been postponed due to the Government prioritising legislation to deal with the energy crisis over introducing a Transport Bill.
