Brown review aims to put rail franchising back on the right track

Richard Brown has recommended a set of reforms to the way the Government conducts rail franchising in the wake of the West Coast franchise debacle. Andrew Forster outlines some of the key changes

Major reforms to the way rail franchising is conducted are recommended in the final report of the Brown review for the DfT. Richard Brown (pictured), the Eurostar chairman, was commissioned by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin to review the franchising system following cancellation of the West Coast franchise last autumn.

Brown concludes that franchising is fundamentally sound, pointing to the 92% growth in passenger numbers since privatisation in the mid-1990s and improved punctuality and...

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