Tap and go payment for rail travellers arrives at 20 stations near London this Sunday - read why using it may be the expensive choice (and what you can do to reduce your costs):

Railfuture welcomes the plan in today's budget to introduce Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED), a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. We are less content with the decision to extend the fuel duty cut.

Railfuture was interviewed by the BBC in connection with today's fare freeze announcement - see that interview and read our "we welcome ... but" commentary at https://t.co/8tbRSWH3yq

Railfuture welcomes today's news that there will be more passenger services on East West Rail and also the arrival of Cambridge East station. Read on at

The Railways Bill will establish Great British Railways with the tools and authority it needs to make the railway deliver for passengers, freight and taxpayers but it is worrying that many politicians think that the job will be done when the law is passed.

House building must be sustainable, by being served by rail. All but one of the first 12 ‘new towns’ is already rail-served or the subject of rail proposals. Strategic planning, integrating land use with transport planning, is necessary to identify more.

Register your support for one of Railfuture's campaigns to receive our quarterly Chair's column by email, reviewing our campaigns and the state of the railway.

We were pleased to rail related investment in today's Government announcement. Read on for the detail and what we hope to see in imminent announcements: https://t.co/lwU583qPai

The expected U-turn on Personal Independence Payment benefits will cost the government approximately £2Bn per year. The Treasury loses the same amount each year through the 'temporary' 5p cut to fuel duty introduced in March 2022. Fuel duty hits the more affluent not the poorest

A day of two halves for us, so we have: 1) Thoughts on today's Spending review (...The devil will be in the detail ..): https://t.co/PlfKWipnS8 2) Commentary on Eurostar's plans for services to Germany and Switzerland: https://t.co/SRuIkhpy7i

Railfuture on Rachel Reeve's 'Biggest ever investment in city region local transport' .. Public transport as sustainable and sociable transport - especially rail whether mainline or light rail - is the great economic enabler and lifestyle liberator.. https://t.co/v7YjfTAdfF

See more at

We're expecting the unveiling of the first GBR liveried train today. Director Mike Southgate commented "On Sunday, all that is going to happen is that SWR will have a new shareholder ... Read on at: https://t.co/8TZxyYJW8k

And its not just about travel to/from London and the South East - this will be a national destination, indeed international as will be just one change of train from Paris, Brussels et al.

Read our views on tomorrow's Spring Statement from the Government. They're on LinkedIn, due to message length limits here:

Railfuture on telly: BBC One tomorrow, Morning Live between 9.30 and 10.45 will feature Railfuture and no doubt Dennis Fancett too, talking about reopenings. It was recorded before the good news about Portishead.

It's good to see the government trying to attract new rail passengers. The rail sale must be coupled with a survey to see what percentage are journeys that would not otherwise have been made by rail and whether new rail passengers will use rail again.

The Transport Secretary has announced the first 3 operators to be taken into public ownership. Any change greater than just a change of shareholder risks distracting management and disrupting passengers.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill is due to receive Royal Assent today. Chris Page, Railfuture Chair said: “The easy part is taking a Train Operator into public ownership. Then the heavy work starts.... Read on at: https://t.co/d2m4rqLbNi

Our day one conclusion on East West Rail: It's not about the region, it is about how the region connects to the nation. Read more at https://t.co/TnIjJjcpe8