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Post by wirewiper on Apr 26, 2024 8:30:04 GMT
It's now official - Labour is to bring National Rail back into public control if it wins the next General Election. This was announced yesterday (Thursday 25th April) at a launch event in Central London, which was part of Labour's local election campaigning. Labour is to set out its roadmap (sic!) to achieving public ownership of the railways within five years, and will introduce a Railways Act which will establish Great British Railways. The proposals have received widespread support, including from the Trade Unions (Labour has promised 'vastly improved' industrial relations), industry experts and - most notably - from Keith Williams, who chaired the recent Government review of Britain's railways. He said: “I welcome Labour’s intention, if they are elected, to take forward the substance of my recommendations to deliver a better railway for passengers and freight by creating a rail body with an integrated profit and loss account, at arm’s length from government. Running a better railway and driving revenue and reducing costs will deliver economic growth, jobs and housing by delivering better connectivity.” Public ownership of Britain's railways is also favoured by the majority of the population, according to a recent survey - over two-thirds (69%) support it, as opposed to just 9% who are opposed (21% don't know). Rail freight would remain in the private sector under the new proposals, but the Transport Secretary would set targets to increase freight use which would place a statutory duty on Great British Railways. Labour would also support open-access passenger operations where these are 'successful'. Otherwise, existing private passenger rail contracts would be taken over by Great British Railways but only as they expire, so the taxpayer would not pay compensation costs. At present, there are no contracts which extend beyond 2027. labourlist.org/2024/04/labour-party-policy-railways-trains-public-ownership-louise-haigh/ |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Apr 26, 2024 9:01:00 GMT
Labour supporter here.
Very much do not agree with nationalising the railways in the way that is proposed. The greatest success stories generally do come from private companies who invest, while LNER itself has shown that train fares aren't necessarily affected positively by government ownership.
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Post by borneobus on Apr 26, 2024 9:13:17 GMT
It's now official - Labour is to bring National Rail back into public control if it wins the next General Election. This was announced yesterday (Thursday 25th April) at a launch event in Central London, which was part of Labour's local election campaigning. Labour is to set out its roadmap (sic!) to achieving public ownership of the railways within five years, and will introduce a Railways Act which will establish Great British Railways. The proposals have received widespread support, including from the Trade Unions (Labour has promised 'vastly improved' industrial relations), industry experts and - most notably - from Keith Williams, who chaired the recent Government review of Britain's railways. He said: “I welcome Labour’s intention, if they are elected, to take forward the substance of my recommendations to deliver a better railway for passengers and freight by creating a rail body with an integrated profit and loss account, at arm’s length from government. Running a better railway and driving revenue and reducing costs will deliver economic growth, jobs and housing by delivering better connectivity.” Public ownership of Britain's railways is also favoured by the majority of the population, according to a recent survey - over two-thirds (69%) support it, as opposed to just 9% who are opposed (21% don't know). Rail freight would remain in the private sector under the new proposals, but the Transport Secretary would set targets to increase freight use which would place a statutory duty on Great British Railways. Labour would also support open-access passenger operations where these are 'successful'. Otherwise, existing private passenger rail contracts would be taken over by Great British Railways but only as they expire, so the taxpayer would not pay compensation costs. At present, there are no contracts which extend beyond 2027. labourlist.org/2024/04/labour-party-policy-railways-trains-public-ownership-louise-haigh/I think rolling stock as well. |
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Post by capitalomnibus on Apr 26, 2024 10:41:15 GMT
Good, this is one positive thing that should have been done years ago. not sure of the Boris Johnson titled "Great British Railways". Just call it normal British Railways, miss the days of that. Fast none stop services to bring back the InterCity would be like cloud 9
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Post by vjaska on Apr 26, 2024 11:45:48 GMT
Labour supporter here. Very much do not agree with nationalising the railways in the way that is proposed. The greatest success stories generally do come from private companies who invest, while LNER itself has shown that train fares aren't necessarily affected positively by government ownership. Normally I wouldn’t agree with this but the railways are in such a mess that something really needs to change and I don’t believe the private operators could give two hoots about anyone but their profits. So I’m prepared to give them a chance with this - however the one thing I’d like to see is the water companies nationalised so Thames Water no longer exists in its current form |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Apr 26, 2024 11:52:05 GMT
Labour supporter here. Very much do not agree with nationalising the railways in the way that is proposed. The greatest success stories generally do come from private companies who invest, while LNER itself has shown that train fares aren't necessarily affected positively by government ownership. Normally I wouldn’t agree with this but the railways are in such a mess that something really needs to change and I don’t believe the private operators could give two hoots about anyone but their profits. So I’m prepared to give them a chance with this - however the one thing I’d like to see is the water companies nationalised so Thames Water no longer exists in its current form I think nationalisation works where the company doesn't have a monopoly. I'm a bit surprised why Thames Water is private when people are effectively stuck with them. |
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Post by WH241 on Apr 26, 2024 12:00:23 GMT
Let’s hope the West Coast service improves as it’s been awful the last few years under Avanti! Never had as many issues when it was Virgin Trains.
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Post by someone on Apr 28, 2024 12:24:03 GMT
Let’s hope the West Coast service improves as it’s been awful the last few years under Avanti! Never had as many issues when it was Virgin Trains. Yeah - Avanti should have just stuck to refurbishing 390s and 221s rather than running them - they clearly did a good job at the refurbs, but they are almost never to schedule and the prices are pretty extortionate from what I've heard (£100 one-way London -> Manchester in peak hours!). |
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Post by someone on Apr 28, 2024 12:25:23 GMT
Hopefully Andy Burnham will be promoted at some point so that HS2 North would be back on the cards (or whatever it may be called instead).
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Post by vjaska on Apr 28, 2024 12:28:36 GMT
Let’s hope the West Coast service improves as it’s been awful the last few years under Avanti! Never had as many issues when it was Virgin Trains. Yeah - Avanti should have just stuck to refurbishing 390s and 221s rather than running them - they clearly did a good job at the refurbs, but they are almost never to schedule and the prices are pretty extortionate from what I've heard (£100 one-way London -> Manchester in peak hours!). The refurbished trains are uncomfortable in comparison to the unrefurbished examples - did a trip to Scotland and had one of each and the refurbished trains seats were poor The railways are expensive across the board but for balance, it’s not difficult to get cheaper fares for Avanti services - never paid £100 for Glasgow for example and it really all depends when you travel |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Apr 28, 2024 14:05:58 GMT
Yeah - Avanti should have just stuck to refurbishing 390s and 221s rather than running them - they clearly did a good job at the refurbs, but they are almost never to schedule and the prices are pretty extortionate from what I've heard (£100 one-way London -> Manchester in peak hours!). The refurbished trains are uncomfortable in comparison to the unrefurbished examples - did a trip to Scotland and had one of each and the refurbished trains seats were poor The railways are expensive across the board but for balance, it’s not difficult to get cheaper fares for Avanti services - never paid £100 for Glasgow for example and it really all depends when you travel I think the problem is becomes how hard it is to get cheaper fares sometimes. You need to do stuff like split ticketing in many cases when really it should be a case of the cheapest fare made available where possible. There's far too much fluctuation in how much a fare can cost on intercity services. Just looking now at a fare to Glasgow next Sunday it's showing as £46 on Avanti but £35 on EasyJet. If you go down even further even British Airways have fares available for similar prices. I think the best outcome would be the mass rollout of management style contracts where fares are set by the state but the actual running is done by private companies who can often do the job cheaper than what an in house government company would do. |
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Post by vjaska on Apr 28, 2024 15:02:28 GMT
The refurbished trains are uncomfortable in comparison to the unrefurbished examples - did a trip to Scotland and had one of each and the refurbished trains seats were poor The railways are expensive across the board but for balance, it’s not difficult to get cheaper fares for Avanti services - never paid £100 for Glasgow for example and it really all depends when you travel I think the problem is becomes how hard it is to get cheaper fares sometimes. You need to do stuff like split ticketing in many cases when really it should be a case of the cheapest fare made available where possible. There's far too much fluctuation in how much a fare can cost on intercity services. Just looking now at a fare to Glasgow next Sunday it's showing as £46 on Avanti but £35 on EasyJet. If you go down even further even British Airways have fares available for similar prices. I think the best outcome would be the mass rollout of management style contracts where fares are set by the state but the actual running is done by private companies who can often do the job cheaper than what an in house government company would do. It wasn’t hard for me and I didn’t do any split ticketing to get the fares I got on Avanti. |
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Post by southlondon413 on Apr 28, 2024 15:07:27 GMT
The refurbished trains are uncomfortable in comparison to the unrefurbished examples - did a trip to Scotland and had one of each and the refurbished trains seats were poor The railways are expensive across the board but for balance, it’s not difficult to get cheaper fares for Avanti services - never paid £100 for Glasgow for example and it really all depends when you travel I think the problem is becomes how hard it is to get cheaper fares sometimes. You need to do stuff like split ticketing in many cases when really it should be a case of the cheapest fare made available where possible. There's far too much fluctuation in how much a fare can cost on intercity services. Just looking now at a fare to Glasgow next Sunday it's showing as £46 on Avanti but £35 on EasyJet. If you go down even further even British Airways have fares available for similar prices. I think the best outcome would be the mass rollout of management style contracts where fares are set by the state but the actual running is done by private companies who can often do the job cheaper than what an in house government company would do. Isn’t that effectively what we have now. I thought the DfT had already converted every contract to management contracts with set fees paid to operators with all aspects of fares, ticketing etc managed by the DfT? |
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Apr 28, 2024 16:28:25 GMT
Hopefully Andy Burnham will be promoted at some point so that HS2 North would be back on the cards (or whatever it may be called instead). Unless he is defeated in his bid for re-election for Mayor of Greater Manchester, he will not be available to stand as a candidate for Westminster. He would therefore be unable to be promoted to government even if Labour win (which I think they will). |
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Post by wirewiper on Apr 28, 2024 16:44:58 GMT
Hopefully Andy Burnham will be promoted at some point so that HS2 North would be back on the cards (or whatever it may be called instead). Unless he is defeated in his bid for re-election for Mayor of Greater Manchester, he will not be available to stand as a candidate for Westminster. He would therefore be unable to be promoted to government even if Labour win (which I think they will). I think the Metro Mayors will be lobbying the Labour government hard. If not for the full reinstatement of HS2, for significant investment in high-speed rail connecting the Midlands and across the Metropolitan areas of the North. I understand that the two Andys (Street and Burnham) have already done significant work on this. I'm not even sure Andy Burnham would want to return to Parliament. He seems to be achieving more for Greater Manchester as its Metro Mayor. |
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