Renationalising the Railways

There are calls to renationalise the railways .
Personally I think they should have never been privatised .
The cost of travelling by rail is exhorbitant .

Re: Renationalising the Railways

The current situation would be slightly easier to stomach if we had a railway that was a source of national pride rather than the shocking mess that has been the case ever since Beeching did a favour for the then Transport secretary.
Years of underinvestment, a lack of will from successive governments to do anything to improve things, a privatisation that had the sole purpose of spreading the profits around as many private investors as possible, is it any wonder we are where we are. I expect there are some Tories who are already looking as the railway lines as a useful means of raising money via recycling, to be able to afford another tax cut for their chums.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

The reason why fares are increasing is simple,demand is more than capacity so higher fares exclude some from travel.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

Beeching, of course, made a big mistake. Removing the majority of our railway lines in the hope that everyone was going to use cars instead failed simply because our road network was inadequate to cope with the demand.

The next problem was that our road network was not expanded sufficiently to offer a suitable alternative. Look at a map of our motorway network and compare it to those of Germany and France.

In theory, privatisation of the railways should have worked if the companies were put in direct competition with each other, as was the case with the pre-war Big Four rail companies. As it is now, though, each of the main routes: north-east coast, north-west coast, Great Western, etc. have a monopoly in their own areas, so what incentive is there to compete with regard to fares and journey times? Moreover, they don't even have responsibility for their own tracks: these are maintained by a national company.

Of course, there is also the matter of lack of investment, but not only in rail travel but also in respect of roads. But, of course, lack of investment is endemic everywhere in the country and has been for many decades.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

I have always thought that instead of spending money on silly millennium projects (like the dome and other rubbish) money should have been spent on the railways to make them clean/efficient/more carriages and fares reduced to a reasonable level to make them attractive and get traffic off the roads.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

Yes, we have always been particularly good at wasting money and, no, I'm not joking. The list is endless.

We could have a go at creating an 'endless' list of wasteful projects. Apart from Meg's Millennium Dome, I'll begin with -

The infamous NHS computer system.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

The biggest problem with privatising them is they needed to have competition to make them want to attract customers but they have no competition and a captive customer base.

I think somethings should be owned by the state railways being one of them. My nephew tells me he was swanning around France recently, same journey that costs him £129 here only cost him £57 in France ! He also had a seat on the train and a very nice loo was provided at the station.

Re: Renationalising the Railways

Exactly my point. True competition usually benefits the consumer.

Germany is the same. Funny, isn't it, how other European countries seem able to provide efficient and relatively cheap transport facilities and, for that matter, better roads yet Britain cannot. Why?

Re: Renationalising the Railways

<wouldn't work>

Re: Renationalising the Railways

I doubt it could happen now. Arriva is a subsidiary of a German company, Deutsche Bahn. Deutcsch Ban have extended networks all over Europe, and apparently are likely to take over our rolling stock and networks. Unless , Brexit stops this, (which I doubt) we are screwed for eternity. HS2 is also stated to have been controlled by the EU and not our Government and has nothing to do with George Osborn.
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"However, following the European Commission’s proposals of 2011, Britain has no choice but to build the HS2 and then to bear the costs. Along with all the other Trans-European Networks, it is no longer a voluntary programme, but is obligatory".