They’re taking over the operating licenses when they expire. This doesn’t cost much, if anything. The rolling stock is a different matter but they haven’t committed to buying this. The question at the moment isn’t “where does the money comes from” but “what about the rolling stock. “
Can you explain what difference we will notice then?
She certainly scares me.
well, with the government running the licenses you will not see billions of pounds in dividends paid out to shareholders...as there will not be any shareholders. The government have also pledged to add some simple benefits like improve the delay-repay, improve ticketing, digitial tickets etc. One of the big issues is so many companies and so many different ticket types....there will ultimately be one company running the railways so they can use this to simplify tickets. And as the link you posted points out there will not be any fair increases...which has been quite steep in recent years.
What I posted above does not seem to be overly expensive? It's more a symptom of the current set up than anything else? And half a billion was paid in dividends last year alone so there is some money to pay for imporved delay-repay, improve ticketing, digitial tickets etc.
Indeed.
I am aware the train leasing companies make huge profits, I think these have tripled over the past few years, but the ToCs do seem to make money judging by their dividend payouts.
UK rail travel has rarely been good value. I prefer to not own a car so any cost for trains, cabs or whatever, is partly covered by this.
Hey come on - she's not as as scary (or as corrupt) as say, Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson or dare I say it - Liz Truss?
This is a lot more straightforward than you would imagine. Most of the rolling stock is owned by leasing companies such as Angel trains, Porterbrook and Eversholt. The leases will then transfer to the government. The same principle applies when there is a franchise change.
I salute your indefatigability.
Accountability will be via the Passenger Standards Authority. I don't imagine this will interest you in the slightest as you have had nothing negative to say about the way that our public services have been "regulated" over the past 14 years. Imagine having independent people scrutinising the railways and holding those running the services accountable.
As I understand it, the railways are broadly split into 3 groups: operating companies, rolling stock leasing companies and track owners. The ToC’s lease from the other two to run the service. The government will take over the roll of the ToC.
