Who will benefit most from changing the rules on franchising – passengers or taxpayers? Or will it be operators who come out on top?

Philip Hammond hopes not. The Transport Secretary has said the new franchising arrangements, including the new programme of re-franchising announced today, represent a major culture shift, both for the Government and for prospective bidders. He has in the past stated that awarding longer franchises, as desired by operators, will have to be matched by real investment by them in services, quality and customer focus.

It’s also true that the future franchise situation is likely to see Britain even more dominated by foreign-owned (and foreign state-owned) operators: something which hasn’t really entered the public consciousness yet, unlike of course the disputes over where trains are made.

The Government has promised effective monitoring of franchises (which will still, counter-intuitively, be more flexible) to ensure that operators don’t take the longer contract periods as an excuse to rake in profits at the expense of customer satisfaction.

What was not discussed in today’s announcement was making the whole system of subsidy payments more transparent, as demanded by the McNulty value-for-money study. Such a move would probably show starkly the money that regional operators depend on, compared to those who run inter-city and commuter routes – but it would also make it far easier for passengers to make real judgements about the companies they choose to travel with.