Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024

Key Points

• Brings passenger railway services into public ownership and sets out how they are to be run by a public body.
• Covers funding, planning and operation of passenger services to improve reliability and accountability.
• The bill passed through both Houses with broad cross-party support, but several committee amendments were defeated.
• Lords Amendments 1 and 2 were disagreed by the Commons.
• It has now received Royal Assent and become law.

Progress

The bill has completed its passage and received Royal Assent; it is now law.

Voting

In the Commons, the Second Reading was won 351-84 and several committee amendments were defeated (e.g., 82-360, 113-372, 111-362). The Lords amendments were opposed by the Commons in votes of 350-108 and 344-172. Party positions varied within larger parties, with Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, DUP and others backing the bill overall, while Labour and Conservatives showed mixed levels of support.