The new Initial Industry Plan (IIP) suggest that £1.3bn can be saved each year on the railway through greater efficiency and collaboration across the industry. It also promises a reduction of taxpayer contributions to rail.

Obviously, they had to say that – the public spending context, and the McNulty report, were always going to set the tone for this document.

Also unsurprising is the positive tone: and this is not a criticism, there is plenty to be positive about. Indeed, critics of all sorts of aspects of railway operations at the moment are often silenced at the simple fact that passenger numbers and revenue keep shooting up.

We have to wait to see how the Department for Transport treats the IIP. Hammond came into office as a deficit hawk, having originally been intended to be the Treasury ‘axe man’ as chief secretary, before the Coalition negotiations meant that role had to go to a Lib Dem. But since he came in, despite his reputation as a friend more of the motor industry than the rail – reinforced by his move this week to up the motorway speed limit to 80mph – he has not gone on a cutting frenzy. There will be retrenchment, but nothing like what some feared, and clearly this message that investment is still allowed has made it through to the industry. The IIP still contains dramatic, big-ticket items and suggests an industry confident in itself and where it is going, despite the pressures to cut unit costs, delay-per-incident, and all the rest.

The changes in the railway network over the coming decades will be something to behold.