Recommendation 25

The advent of Great British Railways provides a golden opportunity for decision-makers on the railway to approach investment planning differently. Successive governments must be prepared to commit to reaching a long-term consensus on which investments should be prioritised, and to following through on those decisions. While we accept the legitimacy of different political choices about how to allocate public resources, chopping and changing decisions on infrastructure investment is almost always an irresponsible use of those resources in the long term. It will require self-restraint from the politicians who oversee GBR long into the future to resist tinkering with pipelines to satisfy short-term goals, and to recognise the value of consistent investment over the long term. (Conclusion, Paragraph 118)