By Heidi Alexander

Let’s be honest: for too long our railways have been a mess.

A story of delayed services and spiralling costs. A story of commuters squeezed sardine-like on rush hour services. A story of passengers and taxpayers paying more and more but getting less and less.

But this Government is writing a new chapter for rail. And my message to passengers is simple. The days of you being at the mercy of poor reliability, confusing fares, and a railway not run in your interest are numbered. Better times and better trains lie ahead.

Now, I know I’m joining a long line of politicians who’ve promised to fix our railways. I’m sure my predecessors meant well, but they were always destined to fail.

Because if you look at the railway today, you’d struggle to design something more resistant to change, improvement or innovation.

It’s a Frankenstein’s monster. A 30-year experiment that clumsily cobbled together dozens of organisations: each with their own incentives, no common sense of purpose, and all ready to point the finger when things go wrong.

Nothing short of root-and-branch reform will do. And that’s exactly what we’re........

© LBC