Rail fiasco (From York Press)

Absolutely correct.

The railways in private ownership are costing the taxpayer more than they ever did when in public ownership.

We are subsidising not services but shareholders' dividends - each of us might as well be writing a personal cheque to the billionaire Richard Branson.

And we don't even get an invitation to spend time on his private Caribbean island as a thank-you for subsidising his lavish liestyle.

Far cheaper and more efficient to bring the railways back into public ownership.

Correct, and I might get my free passes back!

I have read that the £40 million we will be asked to stump up is the lower estimate. It will be somewhere between £40 million and £100 million.

Heres a promise. No Tory heads will roll, just underlings.

You know who I blame? Everybody who voted Tory for Thatcher and Major, who carried out privatisation.
Everybody who voted Labour (me included) under Blair after he said he would renationalise the railways but never did.
Everybody who voted Lib-Dem because they had no chance of influencing transport policy.
I blame the British electorate.

PinzaC55 wrote:
You know who I blame? Everybody who voted Tory for Thatcher and Major, who carried out privatisation.
Everybody who voted Labour (me included) under Blair after he said he would renationalise the railways but never did.
Everybody who voted Lib-Dem because they had no chance of influencing transport policy.
I blame the British electorate.

It's your right to choo choo choose.

it really is a shocking state of affairs.there are so many companies milking tax payers money for there own profits by charging extortionate fees for work done especially on infrastructure.but like someone has already stated it is all the political parties to blame for this mess.as for getting passes back.not a chance

desmond tiblets wrote:
it really is a shocking state of affairs.there are so many companies milking tax payers money for there own profits by charging extortionate fees for work done especially on infrastructure.but like someone has already stated it is all the political parties to blame for this mess.as for getting passes back.not a chance

And yet Network Rail is publicly owned and is noted for its extortionate charges?

PinzaC55 wrote:
You know who I blame? Everybody who voted Tory for Thatcher and Major, who carried out privatisation.
Everybody who voted Labour (me included) under Blair after he said he would renationalise the railways but never did.
Everybody who voted Lib-Dem because they had no chance of influencing transport policy.
I blame the British electorate.

I have been thinking about the Channel Tunnel, the only reason that got built was because of it being privately financed - had it been an idea to be funded by the government of the time, Maggie Thatcher would have not agreed to it... but because they wouldn't be the ones spending money to invest then it was OK. And that's what it boils down to: the government not taking the financial hit. The problem being that the UK railway network is an interwoven hybrid of part-private and part-public disguised as private (Network Rail) what the latter being the most inefficient part of the whole thing.

Chiltern Railways is a private company who have invested in their own lines and their own stations, being able to get projects built for a third of the price Network Rail quoted them, whilst still running trains effectively and with good value for their passengers. That is a fully private railway model, which is not what the country as a whole has... if it was fully private or fully public it would cost a ship load less than it does currently, because at the moment there are far too many middlemen out to grab profit. Think of the Rolling Stock Operating Companies, which are essentially just big banks in disguise - all they do is provide finance to train builders for new trains and then charge an arm and a leg to the companies who run the trains in service (the two coach glorified Leyland Nationals we have on some local routes can be costing around £300,000 every year for one train)... to drive better efficiencies the government could act as the ROSCO, buying the new trains and then getting the train companies to pay the money back within their premium payments - you'd likely be looking at somewhere in the region of 5-10% off a train ticket price in just that one move alone