Update: Passenger rail renationalisation begins

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

LNER no longer sell return tickets and have changed the pricing structure so you should have done unless someone else is paying.

Someone else pays. I use it for business to and from London and the business pays.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Someone else pays. I use it for business to and from London and the business pays.

The only thing that would make my dream job even dreamier would be some occasional expenses-paid rail travel.

---------- Post added at 16:20 ---------- Previous post was at 16:14 ----------

On the subject of LNER though, the East Coast Main line is a relatively straightforward piece of infrastructure with very fast line speeds. Inter City services on that line ought to work well whoever’s running them. That’s ironically the common factor in all its commercial failures - GNER, National Express and Virgin/Stagecoach all over-bid and over-promised to get their hands on what they thought was a cash cow. They all failed and were stripped of the franchise.

[Sephiroth]

The railways should never have been privatised. The profit element is the opposite of providing a good service when there is a monopoly. The government got that entirely wrong and prolly for the wrong reasons too.

BUT - now that rotten government instead of lowering fares, want to keep that profit element, such as it may or may not be, to fill its coffers.

We can't win.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The railways should never have been privatised.

Thatcher didn't want to. It was her successor John Major who pushed it through and it's evolved from there.

Few would disagree with selling off the cafes, hotels, ferries, train manufacturing and perhaps the freight operators too.

Selling off the network infrastructure itself was clearly wrong.

The passenger train operators have been a very mixed bag ranging from the very good at GNER and Chiltern through to the appalling at Connex and Trans Pennine Express.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Thatcher didn't want to. It was her successor John Major who pushed it through and it's evolved from there.

Few would disagree with selling off the cafes, hotels, ferries, train manufacturing and perhaps the freight operators too.

Selling off the network infrastructure itself was clearly wrong.

The passenger train operators have been a very mixed bag ranging from the very good at GNER and Chiltern through to the appalling at Connex and Trans Pennine Express.

I would disagree about selling of the hotels. The Midland in Manchester, the Adelphi in Liverpool, the Queen's in Leeds plus a few more I stayed in back then were top notch - which they aren't now imo.

Of course my remarks are predicated on the railways never having been privatised, which they weren't (not privatised).

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The railways should never have been privatised. The profit element is the opposite of providing a good service when there is a monopoly. The government got that entirely wrong and prolly for the wrong reasons too.

BUT - now that rotten government instead of lowering fares, want to keep that profit element, such as it may or may not be, to fill its coffers.

We can't win.

On this l heartily agree with your sentiment.

[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

It would definately be a good thing if the railways were nationalised again.
There would need to be someone in charge who does it for the people, not for the money which is basically what every private firm has ever done.

I agree. As far as I'm concerned the railways were STOLEN. The public owned them. Same for water, has and electricity.

[Ms NTL]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The railways should never have been privatised. The profit element is the opposite of providing a good service when there is a monopoly. The government got that entirely wrong and prolly for the wrong reasons too.

BUT - now that rotten government instead of lowering fares, want to keep that profit element, such as it may or may not be, to fill its coffers.

We can't win.

No argument here!

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

I agree. As far as I'm concerned the railways were STOLEN.

Well, they were sold.

[tweetiepooh]

I think that privatisation should have worked, the rail system was built that way. But one big problem was measuring each company individually without thought of a national system. As a result, companies running one service would not wait even if they were effectively running a connecting service to a late running train. It's fine having individual companies running different sections but where routes utilised multiple companies there needed to be an overall plan too.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

I think that privatisation should have worked, the rail system was built that way. But one big problem was measuring each company individually without thought of a national system. As a result, companies running one service would not wait even if they were effectively running a connecting service to a late running train. It's fine having individual companies running different sections but where routes utilised multiple companies there needed to be an overall plan too.

A key issue is that unlike the Thatcher privatisations, a lot of the railway system is loss-making so you can't just privatise and regulate or they would go to the wall.

However, they do bring a lot of economic and sustainability benefits so someone in government or in a government agency needs to decide where the subsidies should go.

[thenry]

South Western Railway (SWR) has been renationalised this weekend as part of the government's transition towards Great British Railways.

https://news.sky.com/story/first-ren...hoped-13373360

I use public transport I don't own a vehicle. I feel joy that the government want to take control of the railways. I don't feel the current set up as failing I just feel as though under government leadership we can take back pride in our railways.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by thenry

I use public transport I don't own a vehicle. I feel joy that the government want to take control of the railways. I don't feel the current set up as failing I just feel as though under government leadership we can take back pride in our railways.

you're talking about labour here not a credible government

[thenry]

They are all crooks. It's better the devil you know. Those pay rise stumbling blocks are easily navigated under labour.

[Pierre]

If they are, ………they aren’t any better.