The Department for Transport (DfT) has published a briefing paper outlining the proposed structure of a Long-Term Rail Strategy (LTRS) that will guide rail investment and development across the UK over the next three decades.

Prepared for the House of Lords, the document sets out five objectives for the strategy:

• Supporting long-term economic growth
• Ensuring financial sustainability and value for money
• Reducing regional and national inequalities
• Meeting future passenger and freight demand
• Supporting environmental sustainability

The LTRS will provide the “overarching direction” for the railways set by the transport secretary and delivered by Great British Railways (GBR). Described by government as a “once in a generation overhaul”, GBR will bring track and train together, delivering reliable services for passengers and catalysing growth across the country.

The final strategy will be developed through further analysis and stakeholder engagement ahead of expected publication in autumn 2027.

The DfT stressed that the LTRS will serve as a strategic framework rather than a details plan or pipeline of projects. Individual schemes and funding packages which will “remain a matter for GBR to develop” in response to the strategy. The LTRS to provide a long-term view setting out future challenges the railway will face, such as climate change, and the  outcomes it will be expected to achieve, such as supporting economic growth in the long-term.

While the LTRS will apply across the UK, the paper acknowledges the devolved responsibilities of Scotland and Wales and highlights the need for close collaboration between GBR, devolved administrations and Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs).

According to the DfT, long-term pressure on public finances will require “hard choices” adding that there needed to be “clearer choices, stronger prioritisation and a sharper focus on outcomes, value for money and affordability”.

The paper also calls on GBR to prioritise lower-cost interventions before pursuing major infrastructure schemes. Measures such as timetable optimisation, rolling stock deployment, digital signalling and operational improvements should be exhausted first, it says.

Successfully integrating committed schemes such as HS2, East West Rail and the TransPennine Route Upgrade will also be critical to the railway’s long-term success.

The progress of GBR continues with Chiltern Railways becoming the latest train operator to enter public ownership. The operator, which runs rail services connecting London Marylebone with communities across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands, on Sunday (20 September) transferred in to public ownership -  following Govia Thameslink Railway services which made the move in May. Great Western Railway’s services will be the next to transfer on 13 December 2026.

Click here to read the full Long-Term Rail Strategy House of Lords Briefing Paper