A Bill to authorise the creation of Great British Railways is expected to be included in the Queen’s Speech this morning at the State Opening of Parliament. The government’s plans will be announced by Prince Charles, because his mother’s health is preventing her making the speech in person for the first time since 1963. The Bill will give GBR the powers it will need to take over the management of passenger service contracts from the Department for Transport as well as transferring the railway’s infrastructure from Network Rail to the new body.

However, the RMT is critical, saying that the new structure will ‘only award private operators’. The union is currently balloting its members over a national rail strike in protest at predicted job losses in the industry and what it sees as the erosion of pay and working conditions.