The Railways Act 2005 (c. 14) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning the regulatory structure for railways in the United Kingdom.

Overview

The bill was introduced and published on 25 November 2004 and received royal assent on 7 April 2005. The act implemented the institutional changes published in the Department for Transport's white paper on rail of 15 July 2004, principally:

Government defeat

During the final parliamentary stages of the passage of the Railways Act 2005, the government sustained a defeat in the House of Lords over an amendment which would have protected passenger and train operators against a diminution of infrastructure quality or performance – or being held rigidly to their contracts for the provision of railway services which assumed no such diminution - if the Secretary of State for Transport restricted funds available to Network Rail. However, the amendment was reversed the same day in the House of Commons with a much weaker provision substituted for it. The House of Lords did not insist on their original amendment, and the legislation was passed without the protections which the train operators needed. Critics regarded this as an unjustified interference in an inter-dependent contractual matrix, contrary to the legitimate expectations of private investors in the railway.

Section 60 - Short title, commencement and extent

The following orders have been made under this section: