Lord Hendy was the special guest on the Urban Transport Group’s podcast – as the Railways Bill, which will lead to the creation of Great British Railways (GBR), makes its way through Parliament.

The Rail Minister spoke to Jason Prince, Director of the Urban Transport Group, as part of a wide-ranging conversation on rail, as well as mass transit, bus and international best practise.

Speaking about the Railways Bill, Lord Hendy said:

“The railway industry doesn't work like it should. It's not good enough at the job it should do of connectivity - either for passengers or goods - and it's a break to economic growth and jobs and homes… so I'm passionate about change because change is absolutely necessary.

“I am absolutely committed to the railway being organised at a level where somebody can be responsible for bits of it and get their arm around it in a way that hasn't happened for over 30 years.”

Asked about the role of Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSA) and devolution in the success of the railways, Lord Hendy commented:

“As England goes towards more Mayoral Combined Authorities... the railway is of course an integral part of the total transport solution.

“If the Mayor knows what they want out of the railway, the railway's job is to do it so far as it can. And if the Mayor wants an integrated multimodal transport system with a consistent fare strategy, providing it can be paid for by somebody, that's fine.

“But what you need is an intelligent client for the Mayor or the Combined Authority or Transport Authority, and an intelligent supplier in the railway who recognises that that's a collaborative exercise and not a dominance exercise.”

On the topic of mass transit and light rail, the Minister said examples like Metrolink in Greater Manchester have “proved that light rail is an integral part of an urban transport solution”. He added “…light rail is only going to be affordable when you can justify the significant infrastructure costs” and that bus rapid transit schemes, like Translink’s Glider, offered alternative mass transit solutions.

Lord Hendy, who was President of UITP from 2013 to 2015 whilst he worked at Transport for London, also described the international transport community as “a very rich source of both inspiration and knowledge” and an important forum to learn about both successes and failures of transport projects.

You can listen to the full ‘Urban Transport Next: A railway fit for the future’ episode below.

The Urban Transport Next series is supported by AtkinsRéalis.