Bring back BR say the people!

[starfish2000]

That website is based on a fallacy. The rail companies are not "robbing use blind", they are simply setting the fares they've been told you set by the government. If you have an issue with that, take it up with them. Nothing to do with privatisation.

A rail Franchise is a puzzle, for a TOC to negotiate. anything is does is motivated by money.

The current system is a ball of blame that bounces between government and large multinational corporations.

For example, there are tickets out there that are not actually classed as Rail tickets, these can be sold and not go into the train operators pot, but the parent companies coffers. So a train company might have a poor balance sheet and need subsidy, but the parent company is still making money from that route. Combine this with subsidies for new infrastructure projects, a rail franchise is a licence to shit money.

 

[Frances Lengel]

Bring back BR but do away with mirrors over the sinks in the bogs. If I had a pound for the number of times I've been confronted with my own red and shamefaced reflection facing me over the cracked porcelein as I allow myself to be taken roughly from behind by a drunken squaddie, the trains passage over the tracks lending rythme to our muscular, squeezy soap-lubed and some say downright violent lovemaking, well I'd probably have a couple of quid by now.

 

[Roadkill]

 

[ViolentPanda]

Bring back BR but do away with mirrors over the sinks in the bogs. If I had a pound for the number of times I've been confronted with my own red and shamefaced reflection facing me over the cracked porcelein as I allow myself to be taken roughly from behind by a drunken squaddie, the trains passage over the tracks lending rythme to our muscular, squeezy soap-lubed and some say downright violent lovemaking, well I'd probably have a couple of quid by now.

Anyway, enough about phil dwyer's predeliction for dressing up in military garb....

 

[starfish2000]

Me too!

 

[19sixtysix]

Bring back BR but do away with mirrors over the sinks in the bogs. If I had a pound for the number of times I've been confronted with my own red and shamefaced reflection facing me over the cracked porcelein as I allow myself to be taken roughly from behind by a drunken squaddie, the trains passage over the tracks lending rythme to our muscular, squeezy soap-lubed and some say downright violent lovemaking, well I'd probably have a couple of quid by now.

I've seen that porno.

 

[hipipol]

Bring back BR but do away with mirrors over the sinks in the bogs. If I had a pound for the number of times I've been confronted with my own red and shamefaced reflection facing me over the cracked porcelein as I allow myself to be taken roughly from behind by a drunken squaddie, the trains passage over the tracks lending rythme to our muscular, squeezy soap-lubed and some say downright violent lovemaking, well I'd probably have a couple of quid by now.

Tsk Tsk
Some of us need the mirror to make sure theres no charlie stuck to our moustachios
I suggest you get more creative about you sexing positions!!!!!!

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Tbf the poll was conducted by the RMT and it would be interesting to know how the question was phrased. However, it is IMO true that there's a lot of scepticism out there about the privatised railway and a fair bit of support for renationalisation.

It won't happen, though. It'd just cost too much money.

We allready own the track/signals/station infrastucture all we would have to do is A-Allow the train operator francises to run their courses and uppon expirey not renew them and B-Tell the EU and the fatcats to go forth and multiply

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Feel the same way except for the Southern, with proper trains and buffet cars on the Express trains, and reinstate the London Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis Express train going via Mitcham Junction (it did from about 1938 to the late seventies I think), used to be good for days at the coast. I was born well after nationalisation but do remember green trains.
Perhaps a compromise? A nationalised railway but each region having it's own strong identity . . .

I would like the Great Central London extension mainline and the Great Central Woodhead Routes back and reopened

 

[starfish2000]

It's the regulation that controls the fares, and the government controls the regulation. So, the government controls the fares and decides how high they will let them rise. This government has a policy that rail fares will rise over time to reduce the subsidy it pays to keep them low. So I think it's perfectly fair to say it's the government's fault.

If the railways were still nationalised the same pressures would exist. The fares would be set by BR according to government policy and the subsidy given to them. A government with a stated policy of transferring more of the cost of the railway onto passengers would do the same thing - reduce the subsidy - and the fares would have to go up.

But the profits from this would go into the national debt. Not a gay hating bloke in Perth who owns a castle

 

[Roadkill]

We allready own the track/signals/station infrastucture all we would have to do is A-Allow the train operator francises to run their courses and uppon expirey not renew them and B-Tell the EU and the fatcats to go forth and multiply

There is some truth in that, but a) the trains are privately owned now and would have to be bought or leased back. b) Not all operators are franchised: freight ones aren't, and nor are open-access passenger ones. c) It would risk frnachise holders running their operations into the ground in the time they have left, and d) something would have to be done about the looming elephant of Network Rail's debts.

I would like the Great Central London extension mainline and the Great Central Woodhead Routes back and reopened

Great Central would be lovely but too much of the trackbed has been built over now, especially in Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. They've looked at Woodhead a couple of times and concluded they don't need the extra capacity for now, although I understand there is a bit of unease about the idea of re-routing the power cables that currently run through the old Victorian tunnels through the one opened in the 1950s, since that would foreclose the possibility of reopening sometime in the future.

 

[starfish2000]

The trains are not privately owned thats a fucking lie, they are owned by banks, that the taxpayer owns. They were sold to the banks at a comical reduced rate. Nationalisation would be relatively straightforward. East Coast has proved it

 

[Roadkill]

The trains are not privately owned thats a fucking lie, they are owned by banks, that the taxpayer owns. They were sold to the banks at a comical reduced rate. Nationalisation would be relatively straightforward. East Coast has proved it

Er ... no. The leasing companies are owned by the banks, but the taxpayer certainly doesn't own all of the banking system.

East Coast does go to show that taking a franchise back into public control is possible, but National Express walked away from it. It's a couple of orders of magnitude below announcing that all franchises are going to lapse, and then creating a new national rail operator out of them, Network Rail and the rest.

Don't forget - I'm pro-renationalisation: I just don't think it's wise to underestimate the difficulties.

 

[starfish2000]

The only difficulty in the rail industry is the empire building done by a thousand middle managers, all of whom would lagely perish if they had to work in the proper private sector. Destroy that and its a piece of cake.

When the Railways were privatised a lot of roles like Steward & Senior Steward became feminised customer job titles.

Wheras a lot of clerical grades suddenly became managers, that to me is a problem

It was dome before, it can be done again

 

[SikhWarrioR]

There is some truth in that, but a) the trains are privately owned now and would have to be bought or leased back. b) Not all operators are franchised: freight ones aren't, and nor are open-access passenger ones. c) It would risk frnachise holders running their operations into the ground in the time they have left, and d) something would have to be done about the looming elephant of Network Rail's debts.



Great Central would be lovely but too much of the trackbed has been built over now, especially in Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. They've looked at Woodhead a couple of times and concluded they don't need the extra capacity for now, although I understand there is a bit of unease about the idea of re-routing the power cables that currently run through the old Victorian tunnels through the one opened in the 1950s, since that would foreclose the possibility of reopening sometime in the future.

Could be difficult to remove the presivationists {GCR and GCR/N} from the 20 miles between Leicester and Nottigham as well