Member

To that end, our first amendment also proposes a follow-up report in five years’ time, which would articulate the actual impact of these reforms. That is not a lot to ask, so I hope the Government will seriously consider the amendment. Passengers and taxpayers deserve to know what difference this change is likely to make, and then what difference it has made—to services and costs, to what their money will buy and how wisely it has been spent—and to be able to compare the impact of the choices this Government are making with those made by Governments across Europe. As I said, several of those Governments are reforming railways in the other direction by unwinding their public models and introducing more private provision into their networks.