[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Osem

Some people really do see through rose tinted specs

Yeah things were sooooooo much better then.... If more of those lefty loonies who bang on about BL cars actually put their money where their mouths were at the time maybe they'd have survived a bit longer.

As for British Rail - I remember countless cancellations, disgusting trains/stations, numerous strikes, etc. etc. Yes they were indeed the glory days of train travel in the UK.

As opposed to now where it's cheaper to fly than get the train in many cases

---------- Post added at 01:55 ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Because the profit incentive produces innovation and efficiency. Come on ... This was one of the key ideological arguments of the 20th century. News flash: Statism lost.



It's not an issue of "track quality" - incidents at Ladbroke Grove, Potters Bar and Greyrigg demonstrated chronic safety issues, both in terms of the physical state of the track and the safety culture - or lack thereof - of those who were supposed to be responsible for its maintenance. These issues stretched back well before privatisation (see: Clapham Junction) but if the involvement of private companies is what it took to force the issue up the agenda, then that's all to the good.

A state owned and operated railway will always have to fight for an allocation of cash in the government's annual planned expenditure, and is as vulnerable as anything else that relies on same, namely everything else overseen by the DoT, the home office, foreign office, DfE ... You name it. Contractual obligations to third parties is what has allowed our railway network to first of all overcome its chronic safety issues, and now, to begin to address chronic capacity issues.



This is nonsense. The Great Western and West Coast franchises outperformed East Coast in terms of passenger satisfaction and other key measures throughout its stint under DOR control. In any case, the best comparison will be between DOR and the next five years performance under Virgin, as there was not another operator running like for like services on the same track at the same time. Comparing DOR with a prior franchise whose operator conceded had failed is somewhat pointless. The fact is, national rail franchises do not routinely fail. This was exceptional, and comparing an exceptional and rare private failure with a brief period of state control in which nothing went wrong, but in which nothing was spectacular either, tells us nothing useful.



See above. Give people a profit incentive and they operate more efficiently and innovatively. The market, regulated where necessary, works. Simple as.

Or profit incentive could lead to job cuts, gross underinvestment in infrastructure, larger bills and debt leveraged against companies as with the water companies.