re-nationalisation.

[sandwhich]

Earlier it was announced on the news that Richard Branson might well be off the West Coast franchise before too much longer, one reason given is that his 49% partner Stagecoach has been told it will not be allowed to bid for anymore franchises. We now know that DB will almost certainly sell off its Arriva business which involves three rail franchises, one concession and one wholly owned company. Its getting messy, very very messy, if interest turns out to be minimal as regards taking over the rail businesses then state ownership could follow which of course started with the East Coast franchise.

[Mickey]

Personally I have mixed feelings on re-nationalisation after nearly 45 years on the railways. The B.R. days of the 1970s & 1980s are a world away to the current way the railways are run, staffed and managed and In the main most of the current staff who work on the railways these days are people who have come on the railways since privatisation of the mid 1990s so unless someone has got over 25 years service in on the job already they wouldn't have even have come on under B.R.

[52A]

Yes, the renationalisation lobby should remember that if they were nationalised it would be the same lunatics running the asylum. The old days are gone!

[sandwhich]

Yes you probably right about the old days now gone. But the point I make is that the mess that the franchises are in aided and abetted by a confused government plus Virgin threatening to walk away and Stagecoach told they will not be considered for any more franchises and now Abellio set to run East Midlands after the Scottish government making noises about taking the ScotRail franchise from them, its getting even more messy. And if the governments enquiry comes up with a change that the Government does not like, then where to then. We all know that British Rail has gone forever but if something is not sorted out soon then the franchises for one reason or another could end up in state hands.

[majormagna]

Why not go the complete opposite direction?

Make private companies sole owners and operators of various parts of the network. Honestly just... just put us back to pre-grouping already.

Like that'll ever happen!

[Mickey]

Stating the obvious to some the old B.R. regional set up which came about in the aftermath of the days of the big four companies in 1948 was good in it's time during the 1950s through to the 1970s and maybe into the 1980s with lots of regional identification and diversity in locos, rolling stock, signalling, working practices and management which made Britain's railway very interesting to railway enthusiast's like myself but I'm afraid totally unsuitable for modern times so I presume if the current day national railways were re-nationalised it would still look pretty much as it is today except it would be 100% in public ownership.

[burnie]

I would firstly put freight back onto the rails and ban lorries from motorways, that would instantly create a potential wealth opportunity for those with an interest, it would reduce pollution and wear and tear on our roads whilst reducing congestion as well.

[majormagna]

I wouldn't ban lorries from motorways full stop, but I'd certainly ban them from overtaking (theres a safety case to be made there too).

What we really need is a rail system similar to Japans, they seem to "get" freight services better than we have over the last 30 years.

[Trestrol]

You don’t ban lorries you just price them out of long journeys but incentives for lorries that deliver from a regional railhead. I am sure the lorry Lobby wil moan but it may be easier for them to recruit short haul drivers than long distance ones. There is a shortage of lorry drivers so it has to come to a head.

[JASd17]

Ban Lorries from a long distance journey?

Which planet are 'we speaking from'....

I did a short piece on the railways about this for Backtrack, decades ago. Government has been involved with railways from the start. Now more than ever - particularly with 'possibly dishonest' companies bending the rules. Pensions... what are they?

If one wishes to blame an individual politician for the current stupidity on the rails, I would go for John Major.

He may have been PM when I penned the last line …....

John

[Mickey]

From memory and I maybe wrong here(?) but when the privatisation of our current railways was pushed through parliament by John Major's Conservative government around 1994/95 it was with the help of Ian Paisley and the Ulster Unionists in Northern Ireland who made up the numbers also I recall Major saying his preferred option for the railways was the re-formation of the old BIG FOUR railway companies of the LMS LNER GWR & SR.

Regarding road transport there maybe 'driverless' convoys of HGV vehicles travelling up and down the M1 & M62 in the coming decade?.

[drmditch]

Hmm. Bring back the LNER? But hang on, hasn't someone started using those letters recently?

I think there is scope for a thesis on 'Railways, Politicians and the Press'. Perhaps I should start developing one, but there is so much (model) railway building to do first.


There is a recent book by A.J.Mullay 'Grouping Britain's Railways'. I need to re-read it thoroughly, but on first reading it challenges quite a lot of what I thought I understood about Geddes and post WW1 conditions.

[Mickey]

I presume the current use of the LNER letters on the ECML are just a marketing ploy.

[sandwhich]

When M Thatcher was PM one of her Transport Secs was Nicolas Ridley, one of her devotees, when she asked him about Rail Privatisation, he told her "Sell off the non railway businesses (a Beeching idea) and let private trains run on the tracks but forget about privatising the rest, its too complicated". When Major became PM he was then Lord Ridley and voted against the privatisation bill in the House of Lords.
We could argue the rights and wrongs about this issue forever and a day and never reach a positive conclusion and anybody who believes that in the unlikely event of Jeremy Corbin entering No 10 he will announce his first task to be a bill to re nationalise the Rail system, dream on!
Take politics out of Railways is one argument but its been there since the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830.

[Trestrol]

I presume the current use of the LNER letters on the ECML are just a marketing ploy.

No LNER is the name of the franchise now. No more company names buying a 10% stake in a franchise (Branson). The franchisees job is to run trains not cream profit by using their name.