Southeastern Trains nationalised over breach of trust

[1andrew1]

Joins LNER and Northern Trains in being run by the state.

Southeastern trains taken over by Government after £25,000,000 breach

Southeastern trains will be taken over by Government after a probe discovered that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash had gone undeclared.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that since October 2014, the company has not declared more than £25 million of historic taxpayer funding which should have been returned.

He described this as a ‘significant breach’ of the franchise agreement.

Fares, tickets and services will be unchanged for millions of commuters who use the service when the Government’s Operator of Last Resort (OLR) takes over....

The move will come into force on October 17.

Further investigations are being conducted and the Government said it will consider options for more action, including financial penalties.

Southeastern is run by Govia and operates services across south-east England, covering London, Kent, East Sussex and the High Speed 1 Lines.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/28/south...each-15327037/

[Mr K]

Maybe they could use the opportunity to tackle the absurd fare prices. Hardly encouraging anyone back to the workplace. Cheaper to fly from city to city in the UK.
Its what happens when profit is put before service.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Maybe they could use the opportunity to tackle the absurd fare prices. Hardly encouraging anyone back to the workplace. Cheaper to fly from city to city in the UK.
Its what happens when profit is put before service.

That could be tackled no matter who runs the actual trains - unfortunately even after the effective nationalisation of the railways last year, the fares still went up this year as part of government policy.

[mrmistoffelees]

I was looking at booking travel to go to our Paris office, until a confirmed covid case closed it.

It would cost me more (significantly more) For a return from Middlesbrough to London kings cross in cattle class than it would for me to get a Eurostar premier return from St P to Gare du Nord

Utterly ridiculous

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Maybe they could use the opportunity to tackle the absurd fare prices. Hardly encouraging anyone back to the workplace. Cheaper to fly from city to city in the UK.
Its what happens when profit is put before service.

The high fares are due to the government decision to cover the cost of railway modernisation partially through fares charged to the users of the service who will benefit from it.

Charges normally go down rather than up when they are privatised. That’s because the private sector can take a profit from efficiency savings and still have money left for price reductions.

Nationalised industries tend to be very inefficient because the financial discipline just isn’t there and jobsworths are tolerated.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The high fares are due to the government decision to cover the cost of railway modernisation partially through fares charged to the users of the service who will benefit from it.

Charges normally go down rather than up when they are privatised. That’s because the private sector can take a profit from efficiency savings and still have money left for price reductions.

Nationalised industries tend to be very inefficient because the financial discipline just isn’t there and jobsworths are tolerated.

There's not really much of a link between investment in rail and the fares box. The issues around fares are:
- Very confusing pricing offers.
- Historical fares structure built on BR's approach of having to up prices to reduce demand rather than investing in more capacity. Hence the cost per mile for tickets varies depending on the line used with the East Coast route the most expensive.
- Government decision to increase fares by 1% plus inflation to move cost of railways more towards passengers and away from taxpayers.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The high fares are due to the government decision to cover the cost of railway modernisation partially through fares charged to the users of the service who will benefit from it.

Charges normally go down rather than up when they are privatised. That’s because the private sector can take a profit from efficiency savings and still have money left for price reductions.

Nationalised industries tend to be very inefficient because the financial discipline just isn’t there and jobsworths are tolerated.

Yawn cry me a river. Never heard so much tosh in all my life.

Charges go down in industries where there is genuine competition. However for many fares on many routes all we have are regional monopolies. Anything squeezed out in profits follows the classic model of privatising the profits and nationalising the losses once TOC subsidies run dry.

[Halcyon]

All trains should be re-nationalised.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

All trains should be re-nationalised.

They have been / will be to a point but you'll still get private firms contracted to run the services on behalf of the government.

https://assets.publishing.service.go...n-for-rail.pdf

A new public body, Great British Railways, will run and plan the rail network, own the infrastructure, and receive the fare revenue. It will procure passenger services and set most fares and timetables. This will bring the whole system under single, national leadership with a new brand and identity, built upon the famous double arrow. This will mark the end of a quarter century of fragmentation.

Great British Railways will contract with private partners to operate trains to the timetable and fares it sets, in a similar way to London’s successful Overground service. The contracts will include strong incentives for operators to run high-quality services and increase passenger demand. Contracts will not be one size fits all, so as demand recovers, operators on long-distance routes will have more commercial freedom to help attract new passengers in partnership with Great British Railways. Freight is already a nimble, largely private sector market and will remain so. It will benefit from national co-ordination, new safeguards and a rules-based access system that will help it to grow and thrive.

It looks like a move towards something that looks more like a management contract model than a franchise.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

All trains should be re-nationalised.

Clearly, you weren’t around when the nationalised British Rail was operating their dusty old trains with British Rail turned-up sandwiches.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Clearly, you weren’t around when the nationalised British Rail was operating their dusty old trains with British Rail turned-up sandwiches.

I think there are a few commuters that would rather have a dusty old train than a 3 hour wait on a cold wet platform

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Clearly, you weren’t around when the nationalised British Rail was operating their dusty old trains with British Rail turned-up sandwiches.

Ah, the joys of privatisation…

Originally Posted by Hugh

Ah, the joys of privatisation…

Still less crowded than some Japanese commuter routes. At least we’ve never had to employ uniformed crammers to shove people into carriages.

[heero_yuy]

Ah yes the joys of the old slam door southern region carriages. The couldn't care less attitude of the staff and the dirty stations.

Do we really want to go back to that?