Member

To address head-on the questions posed by the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, it will not surprise him to learn that the Government have no intention of delaying public ownership until our longer-term reform plans have hit the statute books and been fully implemented. I have explained in response to other amendments why we need to get on with that as soon as possible. Given that we intend to give local leaders and their communities a stronger say in how their local railways are run in the future, I would expect there to be less appetite for services to be devolved than there was before.