On 20 May 2021, the government published its white paper for the railways in Britain after an 18-month delay due to the pandemic - ‘Great British Railways: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail’ (the Plan).

The government dubs it the biggest change to the railways in 25 years. The Plan promises 10 outcomes achieved through meeting 62 commitments. At this early stage, the BCLP rail team pick out some of the numbers and statistics from the Plan to trace the thread behind the government’s thinking, and offer some initial analysis.