[Politics] Nationalisation of UK Railways in all but name.

[Bold Seagull]

So with everything else going on this has passed me by until last week on a Southern train to Three Bridges got chatting to a guard who went through all that had been happening.

Effectively our railways it would appear are nationalised in all but name. The franchise system is pretty much dead and was on it's way before the pandemic. The Tory party of course are not making any noise about this as for them it is not a good news story in terms of private enterprise running public services.

We have some rail experts on here, what is the general take on this?

https://www.ft.com/content/1baa6b50-47ba-416e-b172-90a77a34c19d
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/railways-public-sector-control-explained-nationalisation-department-for-transport-568501
https://www.railway-technology.com/features/explained-the-end-of-the-railway-franchising-system-in-the-uk/

 

[Hamilton]

Wasn't it always nationalised? We just allowed some companies to cream off some profit.

 

[Chicken Run]

So with everything else going on this has passed me by until last week on a Southern train to Three Bridges got chatting to a guard who went through all that had been happening.

Effectively our railways it would appear are nationalised in all but name. The franchise system is pretty much dead and was on it's way before the pandemic. The Tory party of course are not making any noise about this as for them it is not a good news story in terms of private enterprise running public services.

We have some rail experts on here, what is the general take on this?

https://www.ft.com/content/1baa6b50-47ba-416e-b172-90a77a34c19d
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/railways-public-sector-control-explained-nationalisation-department-for-transport-568501
https://www.railway-technology.com/features/explained-the-end-of-the-railway-franchising-system-in-the-uk/

You can say that again.....

 

[GT49er]

So with everything else going on this has passed me by until last week on a Southern train to Three Bridges got chatting to a guard who went through all that had been happening.

Effectively our railways it would appear are nationalised in all but name. The franchise system is pretty much dead and was on it's way before the pandemic. The Tory party of course are not making any noise about this as for them it is not a good news story in terms of private enterprise running public services.

We have some rail experts on here, what is the general take on this?

https://www.ft.com/content/1baa6b50-47ba-416e-b172-90a77a34c19d
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/railways-public-sector-control-explained-nationalisation-department-for-transport-568501
https://www.railway-technology.com/features/explained-the-end-of-the-railway-franchising-system-in-the-uk/

Two links to invitations to subscribe to the FT not much help! Doesn't look like re-nationalisation at all - private companies still involved. Of course the franchise system was rubbish from day one, but the tories won't want to kick their chums out of the business. Fudge and fvck up incoming.

 

[The red pepper kid]

Lets be honest service was poor and the fat cats were getting fatter , i don't know the correct answer but the companys have been letting employees go and not training or replacing them, the debate over guards etc and we still had to bay them out -jeez lets have more Indians and less chiefs .
Lets get toilets reopen down south and make our south coast line have trains with toilets -- the north show us up in that respect

 

[Martlet]

So with everything else going on this has passed me by until last week on a Southern train to Three Bridges got chatting to a guard who went through all that had been happening.

Effectively our railways it would appear are nationalised in all but name. The franchise system is pretty much dead and was on it's way before the pandemic. The Tory party of course are not making any noise about this as for them it is not a good news story in terms of private enterprise running public services.

We have some rail experts on here, what is the general take on this?

https://www.ft.com/content/1baa6b50-47ba-416e-b172-90a77a34c19d
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/railways-public-sector-control-explained-nationalisation-department-for-transport-568501
https://www.railway-technology.com/features/explained-the-end-of-the-railway-franchising-system-in-the-uk/

All of the franchises are effectively on life-support right now - the DfT is covering their running costs and not much more. Government will seize the opportunity to change the whole system once the pandemic's over, but I would be very surprised if this is the end of private sector involvement.

 

[beorhthelm]

Wasn't it always nationalised? We just allowed some companies to cream off some profit.

and they could only manage that on a couple of services. i expect the out source management arrangement like Southern/Thamslink will replace franchise as i dont think anyone will want the franchises.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Two links to invitations to subscribe to the FT not much help! Doesn't look like re-nationalisation at all - private companies still involved. Of course the franchise system was rubbish from day one, but the tories won't want to kick their chums out of the business. Fudge and fvck up incoming.

I think the private companies are being managed centrally by British Rail, hence 'nationalisation in all but name'.

 

[Madafwo]

From my point of view it hasn't made much difference as the way GTR was run before wasn't a typical franchise, it was a management contract which is what everyone is on now. The major difference is that all the railway company's are taking home less of the public's money now as it is set to I think 1 or 1.5% above costs.

I am worried that the suits with clipboards will be around once this has all blown over to make cost savings but the railways tend to get away with natural wastage and voluntary redundancies these days rather than mass lay offs.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Does happen in Germany.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Lets be honest service was poor and the fat cats were getting fatter , i don't know the correct answer but the companys have been letting employees go and not training or replacing them, the debate over guards etc and we still had to bay them out -jeez lets have more Indians and less chiefs .
Lets get toilets reopen down south and make our south coast line have trains with toilets -- the north show us up in that respect

I was told by someone in the industry that companies got fined if toilets on trains didn't work, so they leased trains without toilets instead as it was cheaper than maintaining their trains properly. Customer service, eh?

 

[Madafwo]

I was told by someone in the industry that companies got fined if toilets on trains didn't work, so they leased trains without toilets instead as it was cheaper than maintaining their trains properly. Customer service, eh?

I can tell you that we do take toilet maintenance very seriously, due to the fact we can't just deposit the waste on the track anymore they're massively complicated things rather than just a hole in the floor.

Don't get many tomatoes growing on the railway anymore either.