Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 15
7th Report - Rail investment pipelines: ending boom and bust
Published 10 Feb 2026
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Rail investment pipelines: ending boom and bust All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The 2025 Spending Review has provided welcome clarity on what inherited enhancements the Department is proceeding with and those which it has decided to pause. Such announcements do not, however, provide 51 information in the format or detail necessary to populate a pipeline which can be traced clearly over time and which provides consistency of information to the rail sector. The outcomes of Spending Reviews, fiscal events and other Government announcements, insofar as they affect railway enhancements, should be reflected promptly in updates of the RNEP. (Recommendation, Paragraph 76)
From: Transport Committee, 7th Report - Rail investment pipelines: ending boom and bust (HC 575), 10 February 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 May 2026 (deadline 10 April 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government shares the Committee's ambition to reduce unnecessary volatility in rail investment, but does not accept that rail funding has been characterised by systemic "boom and bust" and partially agrees with or departs from several recommendations.
- On the independent review of Control Period 7, the Government partially agrees: it agrees the experience should be examined, but does not agree this "requires commissioning and publishing an independent review" before GBR is established, saying the work can use existing assurance and regulatory processes.
- On rolling stock, the Government agrees on the need for an aligned strategy and says the forthcoming Rolling Stock and Infrastructure Strategy, rather than the Long Term Rail Strategy, will set out a vision for simplifying the national fleet over time.
- On pipeline publication, the Government does not consider annual re-publication of a static RNEP document to be the most effective mechanism, and instead points to the National Infrastructure Pipeline, the Enhancements Delivery Plan and milestone announcements. It intends to establish a "potential pipeline" that will not be a funding commitment.
- On the Long Term Rail Strategy, the Government agrees on a statutory 30-year strategy and commits to publishing a discussion document alongside Bill passage through the House of Lords, and to laying a Written Ministerial Statement and a copy of the strategy in the library of both Houses.