The Department for Transport (DfT) has unveiled plans to overhaul the management and operation of Britain’s rail network off the back of findings from the Williams Review.
Under what has been termed the Williams-Shapps plan, a new arms-length public body similar to Transport for London, called Great British Railways will be set up. It will oversee both track and services across the network, meaning it will own the infrastructure, collect fare revenue, run and plan the network, and set most fares and timetables.
The franchising system is to be scrapped in favour of new contracts with private operators. Simpler ways of paying for train travel will also be introduced.
Ramsey Prison Unit: The terror of Texas
By Nanon M. Williams
Nanon Williams was arrested in 1992 at age 17 for capital murder and spent years on death row. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled people under 18 could not be sentenced to death. His sentence, along with 70 others, was commuted to life and he is still fighting to prove his innocence. He has earned two associate degrees, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree; he was about to finish his second master’s, when the prison declared no one could earn two masters.
Nanon Williams with his mother, Lee Bolton, when she visited him on death row in 1998.