Labour have FINALLY announced something they will do when they they win the next UK General Election... Renationalise the Rail Network.
They've pledged to renationalised the entire network, bringing back ownership of the railway lines, bridges, and stations under one new public body 'Great British Railways'.
The rail hardware will be renationalised as current private contracts expire, so there shouldn't be any bail out costs, as contracts just won't be renewed!
The rolling stock will remain under private ownership.
Labour claims this will save around $2 billion a year being paid out in Dividends to shareholders, so presumably $2 billion a year more to invest back into said rail network!
A good idea...?
This plan has the backing of the rail unions, although they want Labour to go further and nationalise the rolling stock too. However Labour says this is too pricey.
It also sounds like a good way to save money as there should be less duplication across different UK regions if just one nationalised body is doing all the managing.
That is, of course, assuming we have the technology in place.
And does anyone really understand the current system anyway...?
I've never really understood the concept of having private companies running different bits of the network, it never made sense to have this privatised.
I mean rail is the ONLY viable means of transport for many people taking many journeys, so we have to just pay whatever is charged, and put up with whatever level of service is offered, so this incentivises privately run networks to get away with as lower quality of service as they can.
And the state of the rails today suggests this is what has happened after 30 years of privatisation.
And there was nothing wrong with the nationalised rail service back in the day either, it was cheap and efficient.
Hopefully we'll get back to this with Great British Railways, and if we don't it should at least stop things getting worse, and we've got a company with a cool nostalgic name at least!
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At last Labour do something vaguely socialist! The railways are a vital part of our infrastructure and the private companies have not done a great job. I'm sure their shareholders and management still did well from it. I get that nationalised industries can have issues, but it ought to be possible to run them efficiently. Not everything has to be driven by the lust for profit. They need to do the same with water given the literal mess some companies are making of it.
I'm all for it actually! Makes total sense to me!
This American is jealous. We briefly nationalized our railways during and just after WW1:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Railroad_Administration
With the exception of the northeast corridor, there’s currently not much passenger rail in the United States.
Oh the US is a car country I know!
Has to be better than what is currently on offer and should never have been privatised in the first place. Lets hope it does improve and we wont see the downward spiral continue. I know my brother bitches constantly about poor service and over crowding along with the expenses.
As you say there's a low bar!
Strange for me to see the UK gathering them under a "public body".
"presumably" so much doubt within one word but I get you, if only that money is used to what is supposed to, same happens here with governmental entities and services, the only thing that is kinda independent from the government and they don't mess with is the Panama Canal, I think they are not stupid because without the Canal this country might crumble down, elections are next month so hope for the best 😔🙏
I wouldn't vote labour (or tories) if I was eligible, but this alone feels like a no-brainer. My most recent experiences there was just abominable. I remember booking, well in advance, every single train for the entire vacation. NOT A SINGLE ONE of them functioned as planned, and I didn't get in a reserved seat ONCE.
One had our carriage closed due to a squeaky window or some shit. Another just 'lost' the reservation data so every seat was every man for himself. Another randomly changed platform so fast that by the time I got up the stairs with two heavy suitcases to get to the right place, it had already departed (I'm talking seconds)... like... wtf.
Oh, and rail strikes cancelled the rest. Glorious.
That being said, I think there's a bit of a misconception, in that most(?) are already nationalised. Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales for sure, but also LNER, Northern Rail and others are state owned. And I'll have to read up as to how it will actually benefit. I get how in principle, but somebody must have run the actual numbers to see if it's going to be viable at all, or if it's just a buzz-policy to get more votes.
Always skeptical...