As the UK finally gets on track to create a working train network, what future for digital ticket operators like Trainline?

Anyone who’s had to use a train in the UK will know what a soul-destroying and essentially utterly broken experience it can be. From the the 1970s days of the state-owned British Rail through to today’s disjointed network run by competing privatized operators, the problem has gone from being a national joke to a national nightmare, with complicated pricing schemes that can render journeys by train with the UK more expensive than long-haul air flights.

Something, as politicians of all hues are wont to declaim, must be done and that something finally took shape this week with the text of an Act of Parliament being submitted that will create a new Great British Railways (GBR), a election manifesto commitment of the current Labour administration. According to the UK Department for Transport said:

GBR will be accountable to passengers, freight customers and taxpayers and will drive a relentless focus ...