Is it time to bring the rip off railways back into public ownership?

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I remember British Rail and the early days of privitisaton when they still had the old culture. The service was abysmal. I remember one period of about 3 months when my train was never less than 20 minutes late into the station. There was also a perenial 5-10% discount on season tickets because the service was so crap.

Nowadays the service is much better. Very true that I pay through the nose for it but my trains are modern, (nearly always) on time and clean.

I could see how having some ATOCs as publicly owned would be a good idea, but I don't want them publicly run.

 

[Hotchilidog]

The state of the railways is a national disgrace. The rail-user is regarded as an inconvenience by the government and the TOC's. It is outrageous that the private companies who could not survive without the public subsidies make any profit at all. The abysmal First Group made a profit of £238m last year and Southern made £20m profit. A nice little earner for directors and shareholders paid for by the public purse.

In Switzerland around about 3000Fr will get you unlimited travel throughout the entire country for a year, and they have trains that run on time, even when it snows.

 

[User removed 4]

The state of the railways is a national disgrace. The rail-user is regarded as an inconvenience by the government and the TOC's. It is outrageous that the private companies who could not survive without the public subsidies make any profit at all. The abysmal First Group made a profit of £238m last year and Southern made £20m profit. A nice little earner for directors and shareholders paid for by the public purse.

In Switzerland around about 3000Fr will get you unlimited travel throughout the entire country for a year, and they have trains that run on time, even when it snows.

To be fair to southern, they dont seem to run a bad service in my experience, its the abysmal FCC who need sorting out.

 

[Hotchilidog]

To be fair to southern, they dont seem to run a bad service in my experience, its the abysmal FCC who need sorting out.

I'd actually agree with that, Southern and their normal trains are not actually too bad, and seem the best of the franchisees tbh. it is a shame they have to use the Gatwick Express rolling stock in the morning as it is complete and utter sh*tehouse.

FCC are beyond the pale in terms of service level and train quality.

 

[User removed 4]

I'd actually agree with that, Southern and their normal trains are not actually too bad, and seem the best of the franchisees tbh. it is a shame they have to use the Gatwick Express rolling stock in the morning as it is complete and utter sh*tehouse.

FCC are beyond the pale in terms of service level and train quality.

I am genuinely embarassed when i see foreign tourists joining an FCC train at gatwick in the morning , what must their first impression of our country be !!

 

[Uter]

The state of the railways is a national disgrace. The rail-user is regarded as an inconvenience by the government and the TOC's. It is outrageous that the private companies who could not survive without the public subsidies make any profit at all. The abysmal First Group made a profit of £238m last year and Southern made £20m profit. A nice little earner for directors and shareholders paid for by the public purse.

In Switzerland around about 3000Fr will get you unlimited travel throughout the entire country for a year, and they have trains that run on time, even when it snows.

FCC don't actually receive a subsidy. They are in the select group of TOCs that pay a premium to the treasury. Southern's subsidy has reduced steadily year on year and will probably have to start paying a premium in the next year or two.

I'd put FCC somewhere near the bottom of TOCs in terms of performance. Southern mid-table.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I don't know the answer but anyone who wants British Rail back obviously can't remember it - it was absolutely appalling, the staff were terrible. All is certainly not right now, but my Shoreham to London Bridge commute is much better these days. Southern definitely struggle when things go wrong, but most days it's fine. I pay a lot, over 4k a year now, but there's no local work for me

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

The state of the railways is a national disgrace. The rail-user is regarded as an inconvenience by the government and the TOC's. It is outrageous that the private companies who could not survive without the public subsidies make any profit at all. The abysmal First Group made a profit of £238m last year and Southern made £20m profit. A nice little earner for directors and shareholders paid for by the public purse.

In Switzerland around about 3000Fr will get you unlimited travel throughout the entire country for a year, and they have trains that run on time, even when it snows.

Scales here are far different. The swiss network has 824 stations while we have 2,516 stations. Also the punctuality thing is a bit of a myth. Latest figures show that Swiss trains are 87% punctual while Uk trains are 92% punctual.

 

[looney]

If costs a fortune to fill the pockets of private shareholders. Public ownership removes the gross profiteering that currently exists.

"public ownership" or nationalisation is a proven failure. Most companies privatised became better and profitable. with the railways its better and less of a loss.

Green taxes need to be abolished.

 

[glasfryn]

I voted yes but I am afraid some of us voted the robber barons in and now any public ownership is very unlikely

 

[Aadam]

From what I'm told, we're a lot better off privatised, although we're paying for that. I'd be happier paying more for a service that runs when it should than getting cheaper rail travel on a poor service. However, I don't see any justification for the increased fares this time?

 

[kano]

I dont understand why government run railways would cost us so much more?

If thats the case what is the motivation for these private companies to bid for the contracts? I cant imagine they are doing it out of kindness to help pay for the running of the country.

Just because in the past BR were shit and the railways didnt get the investment they needed doesnt mean it always has to be that way under public ownership?

 

[Hove Seagull]

Thatcher should be tried and imprisoned for the rest of her feeble life, for crimes against the people of this country.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Give it a few years and this will be a NHS thread.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Thatcher should be tried and imprisoned for the rest of her feeble life, for crimes against the people of this country.

She was a disaster for this country and set our society moving down the wrong path of privatisation. Everyone who voted her in, has to take a piece of the blame.

 

[Hove Seagull]

She created a society of selfish, selfish people. The parody being Harry Enfield's "Loadsamoney"

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The railways were an embarassing shambles when they were publically owned as well, so dont try to hark back to the halcyon days of clean efficient trains running on time, because it didnt happen

Maybe not as clean as the current rolling stock and I have no idea how efficiency compares but they were well priced, tickets were simple (6 types across the entire network apparently..now there are 6 types on some journeys alone), carriages were spacious, the staff on the trains, stations and platforms were generally enthusiastic helpful train spotter types with a wealth of knowledge and the service was integrated and trains and stations worked with each other as opposed to being in competition. We need to build on this with a few tweaks not destroy it which is what has happened. All we needed to do was add reliability and scrub the trains up and BR would have been a decent and solid service.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I am genuinely embarassed when i see foreign tourists joining an FCC train at gatwick in the morning , what must their first impression of our country be !!

Ditto.

 

[Uter]

She created a society of selfish, selfish people. The parody being Harry Enfield's "Loadsamoney"

She also famously wanted to rip up all the railways and convert them to roads.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

FCC don't actually receive a subsidy

It shows. Their service is appaling and on really dirty and shoddy trains.