Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
The only part of the national railway network that remains fully privately owned is the rolling stock. Nationalising that wouldn’t be cheap. The information is hard to come by, but the combined value of the three big rolling stock leasing companies seems to be in the region of £8-9bn. Government could simply stop placing new rolling stock orders through the ROSCOs and in recent years has indeed placed some orders direct with manufacturers. But when you consider how much ex-BR stock is still on the network, it’s clear that privately-owned and leased stock is going to be part of our railway for many years. The stuff isn’t going to wear out any time soon and it would be a work of ideological folly to compulsorily purchase it. How many hospitals can you build for £9 billion?
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Of course building hospitals with £9bn wouldn’t result in savings in the long run (rental costs of rolling stock). Although not rail PFI (both colours) has shown, ownership of assets (in this case the rolling stock) over the long run would provide better value to Government.
I do agree though a transitioned approach would be more stable.