James O'Brien 'appalled' by state of the railways | LBC

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James O'Brien reacts to Labour's pledge to re-nationalise most passenger rail services within five years if it wins the next election.
The party would transfer all rail networks to public ownership within its first term in what it has labelled the “biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation”.
They will transfer the railways to public ownership by folding existing private passenger rail contracts into a new body as they expire, says Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.
The Government’s proposal for rail reform, which was published in a draft Bill in February, includes the creation of a new public sector body named Great British Railways (GBR).
The GBR would be responsible for rail infrastructure and awarding contracts to operate trains.
However, a Labour government would create a "unified, publicly owned, accountable and arm's length" version of Great British Railways (GBR) led by rail experts rather than Whitehall.
1:18 - James O'Brien looks back at the nationalisation of the British railway
08:19 - Public utilities have been 'handed over to the highest bidders who suck the marrow out of the bones of our country' says James O'Brien
Listen to the full show on Global Player: app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/...
#jamesobrien #ukpolitics #labour #conservatives #LBC
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Опубликовано:

24 апр 2024

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Комментарии : 360

@ThomasKing19933 Месяц назад

The train companies take billions a year in subsidies from the taxpayer and take zero risk while raking in the cash. This needs to stop.

@edmondantes4338 Месяц назад

Yep, privatizing strategic infrastructure is idiotic. The nation can't afford for railways or water utilities to simply go bankrupt and close up shop so the owners know that no matter how corrupt and incompetent they are they can always expect subsidies and bailouts.

@GSOHJM Месяц назад

@@edmondantes4338 ALL national infrastructure should be, national. Helped by private industry for certain specialist maintenance and support. But the core of it should always belong to the people.

@HarkyOfficial Месяц назад

They know they’ll be propped up by the government, yet take loans and pay themselves huge dividends!! Coincidentally their debts are always similar to their dividends given to shareholders !!

@benghiskahn3673 Месяц назад

@@HarkyOfficial Thats the whole point. Create moral hazard in which private enterprises can take whatever risk they want without having to worry about footing the bill because they're too big to fail. Socialism for the rich. Taxpayer picks up the tab anyway so might as well be publicly owned.

@nightw4tchman Месяц назад

It needed to stop well over a decade a go. Genuinely don't understand why people weren't livid back then.

@margaretfarrell5137 Месяц назад

Public services should not be privatised because the profits go to shareholders & not to maintenance & improvements. One has only to look at the difference of trains in Europe that are nationalised. They are cheaper, more efficient & more comfortable.

@pipins3616 Месяц назад

And your pension

@doubledigital_ Месяц назад

i felt ashamed coming home to trains here when i went to the netherlands.. i nearly fell over when i seen a double decker train!!

@utterlee Месяц назад

British Rail began to improve drastically under Sectorisation in the 80s. It didn't NEED to be privatised.

@Maltloaflegrande Месяц назад

It was slowly heading in the right direction. I still believe that the main reason they were privatised was machismo on the part of Major. He'd had enough of being compared unfavourably with the supposedly indomitable and resolute Thatcher and decided that the best way to shut the critics up would be to privatise the one public service Thatcher didn't have the wherewithal to touch.

@utterlee Месяц назад

@@Maltloaflegrande Exactly that, he just wanted to privatise something big whether it needed doing or not.

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@utter nonsense of course.😂😂😂

@gavinsmith9564 Месяц назад

All natural monopolies need to be nationalised, Gas, Water, Electricity, no more exploiting people for shareholder profits.

@jeffsimon9594 Месяц назад

Yes, in the opinion of every tedious Red out there

@user-sd3ik9rt6d Месяц назад

Let them all go bust and buy them for a penny.

@neilbower9052 Месяц назад

@@jeffsimon9594 please justify the £26 BILLION the UK govt gave to the railways last year, whn you have done that you can justify the £25 billion pounds they gave them the year before. Why was water 'privatised' when there has never been any competition in it's supply TORY BOY?

@billsmoke4919 Месяц назад

@@jeffsimon9594 I think anyone who is a patriot and actually loves their country would want key and natural monopolies to be nationalised. But please, explain to me why you would rather the Chinese, French and Swiss control almost every single aspect of our physical infrastructure?

@23merlino Месяц назад

@@billsmoke4919- i don't think anyone would mind the swiss running some of our essential services seeing as they are one of the more efficient countries in europe... however, i sincerely doubt the swiss would be interested...

@rok1475 Месяц назад

“sold to highest bidder”? More like “sold to friends and family at the lowest possible price”.

@user-ji5tz5xz3k Месяц назад

200%

@richybatty234 Месяц назад

You only have to look at what happened to Royal Mail after privatisation to know all you need to know about the greed , corruption and lies that spew from these Tories lips . Royal Mail now is basically a lot less staff , doing a lot more work , for a lot less money . Whilst their terms and conditions are ripped apart and the majority shareholders fleece the company of the profits . Privatisation was ever thus ..

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@rok And if that's all b/s...it shouldn't be..they're tories!!

@S.Mir786 Месяц назад

Or donors - democracy at its finest!

@Keln02 Месяц назад

Why are we the people paying the dividends of the investors when nothing invested ends in the service they are supposed to provide?

@jujutrini8412 Месяц назад

Renationalise water as well! Tired of these filthy thieving water companies.

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

I agree, but annual rates will rise 50%, get ready, you asked for it.👍

@jujutrini8412 Месяц назад

@@lestrem11 It rose far more under privatisation than it ever did when it was nationalised.

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

@@jujutrini8412 Okay, then why is NOBODY saying it will be cheaper when nationalised then?

@jujutrini8412 Месяц назад

@@lestrem11 I have heard people saying it will be cheaper.

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

@@jujutrini8412 Who?

@johnrussell3961 Месяц назад

When has privatisation ever brought Private investment, as promised by Thatcher? It brought private profits, and we paid for the investment via higher prices. We could have paid those higher prices when it was nationalised and invested , without profits,, And now you have Thames Water demanding higher prices to pay for their bad decision of boosting profits by borrowing., When will the shareholder take a hit for voting in bad Board members?

@terrytopliss9506 Месяц назад

To my mind privatisation means money being paid to shareholders instead of being put into improving the company. Nationalisation if done right improves the company and gives profit back to the country.

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@terry. You a fan of Simple Minds?😊

@peterspowage5752 Месяц назад

@@chatham43I'm sure he didn't vote to leave the EU or vote to get it done in 2019, so what's your point? Don't tell me: you still believe in trickle down and think everyone else should. The only thing that trickles down is the effluent that papers such as the Mail produces and that,which finishes up in our rivers.

@ABanRocks Месяц назад

Done right? 90% of the time it isn't and costs the tax payers lot more.

@Gogo-pp9ek 6 дней назад

@@ABanRocks have you seen the state of your waters .SEWAGE it’s utterly embarrassing

@ExploringThaiWonders Месяц назад

The cost of everything, the value of nothing.

@koolerking440 Месяц назад

I unfortunately have to use Chiltern rail. Awful "service", if you can call it that. Everything is someone else's fault, "sorry for the crowded train and having to stand up". That's just normal, everyday, Entire northbound from Marylebone grinds to a halt with signal failures, which then isn't there fault. 3 commuter carriages at peak time evening, due to not enough trains, stations haven't been painted for decades....Last Sunday I wanted to get home from Thame and Haddenham station. It's only 2 stops. It took 3 hours!!! One train an hour, and as there was something on near or at Wembley every train was full, to the point there was no gap at the door area to get on. No special train for the football, no 2 trains an hour to cope. Nope, had to wait for 1:40 for some space, no toilets are the ticket hall was locked, and its was 3 degrees outside. Then, let's say you have the wrong ticket, they want your name and address to send the fine to. Its a joke, and pathetic. I could go on. Put it this way, I bought a packable camping stool, so I can sit at the door area so I don't have to stand for over an hour.

@johnjephcote7636 Месяц назад

Years ago now until the expense and unreliabilty got me, I always travelled in the coach vestibule with space and a door window to lower. I made a padded leather seat that I could hook over the sloping door inner grab rail. At the Hatfield reverse curves my fellow passengers in the corridor would brace their feet across the passageway as we all knew that very rough spot. I was not surprised one morning at work to be anxiously asked after because the Hatfield derailment had eventually come about. This was in the private Railtrack days.

@burropoco Месяц назад

Tories know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

@brian-jv9bt Месяц назад

You lot keep paying , they'll keep charging you. I always have a plan A or B.

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

I haven’t heard that before.😂😂😂😵‍💫

@davesy6969 Месяц назад

First they defund them so they don't function properly, then when the public is complaining about poor services, they privatise them while claiming that private investment will make things better. The end result is worse services that cost more. Show me one privatised industry or service that has got better since being transferred to private ownership.

@HomeGrownVeg Месяц назад

My mate tells me it will all be worse under labour. When I ask him which bits will be worse, strikes, late arrivals, cancelations, undeserved bonuses, pensions, working conditions, working practices, etc etc. His 'worse' is the train drivers getting a pay rise. That's it!

@doubledigital_ Месяц назад

lol typical tory

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@home Things won't change much. You're so naive in thinking otherwise!

@Gogo-pp9ek Месяц назад

@@chatham43 you’re not excusing your Tory vote are you by accusing people of being naive etc… he’s talking it can’t get worse by the abysmal horror of the cons , you’ve got sewage in your waters for gods sake . SEWAGE that schools can’t take kids to the seaside … where are the patriots of this country that you let that happen ….

@alanmichael5619 6 дней назад

things will get better for "someone else" and that's their problem.

@Gogo-pp9ek 6 дней назад

@@chatham43 do you suggest we carry on with the current horrors?

@BritainAus- Месяц назад

Massively increased poverty and barely functioning services is what always happens under the Torys along with a whole list of other society breakdowns

@edeledeledel5490 Месяц назад

But bosses of businesses and friends of the senior Tories do very, very well out of it. That's the whole point.

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

You must have not been born when the Blair/Brown debacle was in full swing child.

@FallenPhoenix86 Месяц назад

@@lestrem11 You mean the only period in the last 40 odd years where there was any kind of positive outlook in the UK? Before it all came crashing down on the back of a global financial nightmare triggered by the American's... but was somehow still Labour's fault?

@lestrem11 Месяц назад

@@FallenPhoenix86 You are forgetting Blair lying to parliament and the country and taking us into a war that was unnecessary. And Brown selling our gold reserves for a song. Yes, it was all brilliant!😱💩

@alanpage3973 Месяц назад

@@lestrem11wtf has that got to do with privatising the railway please stop embarrassing yourself

@MrAndyflavoured Месяц назад

In Carry On At Your Convenience, Kenneth Cope played the shop steward, not Sid James. On the bigger issue, the main issue with British Railways was lack of investment. Since privatisation we've had the most expensive and least efficient service in Europe

@JJVernig Месяц назад

that's maybe the biggest con of all of this.. BR had to do everything on a shoe string. After being privatised the subsidies flooded in. If they've done that in the first place...

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@jj But they didn't...and I doubt whether they will again!

@davidranger4468 29 дней назад

The rail network has 3x the public subsidy now as it did when it was nationalised in real terms. Think what that money could achieve now under a nationalised system

@stuartbaines2843 Месяц назад

Yes James you are Sadly correct 😢 Since thatcher the UK has been asset stripped and put into Debt by carpet baggers. And that Pendulum is Still a Long way from its centre point!

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@stuart Total twaddle of course..so nothing new there!😊

@JohnSmall314 Месяц назад

When Johnson was Mayor of London he had posters put up in tube stations that extolled the fact that because there were no shareholders taking dividends all the money from fares could go back into the tube service.

@Jon-xw9om Месяц назад

If Brexit was about kicking "Jonny Foreigner" out, then let's start with those who own large parts of vital infrastructure?

@daftwod Месяц назад

Who cares which order it's done in? Just get it done.

@phil637 Месяц назад

Train leasing companies have made 100s of millionares since privatasion.

@ABanRocks Месяц назад

It is a business so what. It has saved billions in taxes for people who don't use trains.

@viperscot1 Месяц назад

Scottish government have nationalised ScotRail last year stopped peak rate prices From my town at end of line to Glasgow is now £9.00 single was £15.00 Glasgow to Edinburgh return was£24 now £16.00 at peak times Privastation is not the answer in my opinion thats the social contract scottish government has with Scottish people the rest of uk needs pne too againy opinion Soar alba freedom from wastemonster

@jbuchan12 Месяц назад

Last month, i got on a train, after waiting in the heavy rain for 3 hours. Then, when on board, the train broke down, and i waited on the train for another 3 hours. The journey was 10 miles. While i was on the train, the calendar day changed. I set off at 6 pm. I got home at 1 am. Renationalise them, cos at the moment they are horrendous beyond belief.

@pipins3616 Месяц назад

British Rail had an awful name

@alanpage3973 Месяц назад

@@pipins3616because the amount of money wasn't pumped into British rail unlike the amount the private companies now get

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@buchan Did you make that up? Anyway nationalisation won't change much sadly!

@verticalFarm0 Месяц назад

@@chatham43 nationalisation will mean that the infrastructure rather than the shareholders will benefit, improving services rather than the pockets of the wealthy

@modenadue7690 Месяц назад

Don’t pay any attention to «chatham43 », @@verticalFarm0 , as this account just works its way through the comments thread, and drops variations of pretty much the same disparaging and wannabe demoralising comments systematically. Forget about ANY counter arguments, OR any coherent and viable long-term alternatives… nada de nada. Yes, some people’s existence revolves around this kind of parasitic behaviour, though in their minds they may picture themselves as proper patriots that apparently care about the country… It could be a pathology of some sort, so you’d be wasting your time trying to reason with any of it. Enjoy your weekend…

@georgef822 Месяц назад

I don't think people who live inside London realise just how bad the railways and public transport are outside of London.

@trevintheshed6707 Месяц назад

It was an eye opener for me watching Michael Portillos great continental rail journeys. Practically no European rail service had older trains they were cleaner and Michael never missed his connections. Most of them also had 100s of miles of high speed trains built in astonishingly short periods of time.

@johnthynne3265 Месяц назад

Nailed it there, Jimmy boy.. some of us have been calling it out for decades.

@donna25871 Месяц назад

I live in Western Australia- here the public transport is owned and operated by the state government and they are constantly getting upgraded. Whether it’s new lines or extending lines or rebuilding established lines or building new class of trains.

@richardbrenton8983 Месяц назад

It is exactly as simple and appalling as you described it, James.

@theinspector1023 Месяц назад

Wasn't British Rail the most undersubsidised system in Europe, if not the world? No wonder they had a bad reputation.

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@theinspector It certainly was. Both main parties culpable!

@williamnethercott4364 Месяц назад

I recall using the railways in the seventies and eighties without any significant issues. It is my view that privatising the railways was done for ideological reasons and to show John Major's Thatcherite credentials, despite being advised not to do it.

@swanvictor887 Месяц назад

Oh, just to cheer up some commuters watching this...currently, as you read this, located at at least two different railyards, lined up for months...are HUNDREDS of Brand-New Engines and Carriages, all fully equipped and furnished, ready for passenger service, at a cost of well over a Billion pounds of shareholders (well, taxpayers) cash. HOWEVER....due to "Technical Issues" (Bills haven't been paid) they will stay in their sidings...possibly forever. Still, they LOOK very nice, all shiny and new. You can see them on several You Tube channels that specialize in drone footage for railway geeks....

@modenadue7690 Месяц назад

Oh, but look on the bright side of things, @swanvictor887 ; at least the CEOs and shareholders get paid, right? RIGHT?

@juffjaff Месяц назад

I've been commuting via train for 20 years. I'll get to work eventually.

@martincheeseman5809 Месяц назад

Privatised everything has been a disaster!!! People have committed suicide I hope Sunak is pleased with himself!!!

@moonshine9902 Месяц назад

Sunak? He wasn't born when Thatcher sold off all the countries' resources.

@Culky Месяц назад

Yes, it is that simple.

@Alex-cw3rz Месяц назад

We payed more in subsidies a year to private companies for rail travel than we did when they were under public ownership that is why it was bad coupled with chronic under investment and constant downsizing of the service.

@phil637 Месяц назад

In my child hood train trips were great. Going to the buffet car for a drink and fresh Toast for breakfast.

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@phil Then your childhood ends sadly and it's all downhill from there!😢

@dasmaurerle4347 Месяц назад

English: Hey, we invented the railways! And football too... German: Huh...why are you fkn up both, then?

@nicholson392005 Месяц назад

I think any service that we rely on heavily as people like transport and utilities should be nationalized to ensure controls are put in place and that they are run as not for profit organisations so we are not being ripped off for the benefit of shareholders to make them more affordable and reliable

@ukporkpie7829 Месяц назад

This was a very popular policy for Corbyn. I wonder if starmer will give him credit....

@VinceLammas Месяц назад

Re-nationalising industries isn't really a unique idea for any one person is it?

@ABanRocks Месяц назад

@@VinceLammasyes it is very popular with the communists.

@VinceLammas Месяц назад

@@ABanRocks Given the track record of privatised businesses in the UK - maybe nobody should be surprised. Rail and water (maybe alos energy) operators have been working in an environment with ineffective monitoring of mission and strategy by either the major stakeholder or their regulators.

@ActualDav Месяц назад

It’s absolutely as simple as that

@jermainebryan813 Месяц назад

Well said!

@gordonmackenzie4512 Месяц назад

Fear not my English neighbours. Scotrail covers all of Scotland. It was brought back into public ownership 2 years ago. It has only got better and better. Don’t expect everything to improve next day, it takes a while step by step. Scottish Water was never sold off. Still in Public hands and going very well.

@rockerjim8045 Месяц назад

the Leven Line opens on 02 June.

@Manu-Official Месяц назад

Meanwhile, some officials in Japan have apologised for a train being 2 minutes early

@rockerjim8045 Месяц назад

disgraceful

@Zen-rd9np 29 дней назад

30 seconds is the official definition of late for trains in Japan

@RichWizard07 Месяц назад

I spent a long weekend last year travelling by both rail and bus in Belguim. Every train and bus turned up exactly on time. In comparison, our services are a joke!

@chatham43 Месяц назад

@rich One long weekend in Belgium? You've convinced me!😂😂😂

@ABanRocks Месяц назад

Oh wow it worked for a weekend. Lot of European hate theor trains. UK trains are lot better than Germany

@simonwhiting6929 Месяц назад

Privatisation was ideological James. The state and performance of BR had little to do with Union power and much more to do with under investment and private greed.

@paulkirkland3263 Месяц назад

I used to travel regularly from Cambridge into London on both Great Northern and Thameslink. I now make the journey from Norwich on Greater Anglia trains. I have to say I've never had a moment's bother with any of them. The maximum delay I ever experienced was under 10 minutes, but delays were a rarity anyway. I welcome renationalization, though.

@krob2327 Месяц назад

Prices will go up

@ABanRocks Месяц назад

@@krob2327 it will because Labour will give the Unions more and more money and power.

@Human_Herbivore Месяц назад

From Thatcher and her government forward, tories have replaces essential in services with profit. The services, from water to post to transport is falling apart but dividends are still paid.

@user-ig4mn6cm5y Месяц назад

Once the transport systems are brought BACK to national systems ALL those profits will go back into our pockets rather than into private companies pockets Then the more you buy tickets the cheaper they'll become the better the services This is called a renewable income going BACK into our country

@nigelbenn4642 Месяц назад

Just Re Nationalise for the love of sanity. Just do it and then we own it and make our own profits. I'd rather pay less and miss a few train connections that not be able to use trains full stop.

@evokestudiosbrighton Месяц назад

British rail was deliberately underfunded and the tory press made sure it was advertised as being the fault of the unions or BR itself and that the only way forward was private enterprise, thats what brought it to its knees - its like he cant see whats happening to our NHS!. Europe has state run companies and the rails systems in France, Italy and Spain are great, but yes our rip off fares are subsidising these too.

@jonmatthews721 Месяц назад

We are currently having rail strikes under privatisation lest we forget.

@markdillon5494 Месяц назад

Look at the NHS. Never been more privatised than it is now and never been in such a dire state.

@kenville1429 Месяц назад

You nailed it James.

@Albanach-je1nk Месяц назад

I am of the opinion that utility's should not be privatized

@KestrelTown Месяц назад

Around 30 years ago would have been Network SouthEast. Dividing British Rail into sectors that focused on the particular needs of their region. A powerful idea, such a shame it was destroyed.

@davidgates4450 Месяц назад

Back in the late '70s, the 'Railway Magazine'..a monthly detailed information on all things Rail-oriented for Enthusiasts and the Industry....ran an Editorial warning of the dire consequences to our Rail-Networks as the then Thatcherite-Neo-American moved into power... If my memory serves me right, BR was forging constructive links with the major European networks eg,SNCF, DB etc.. to rationalise and develop freight and passenger traffic...One such successful co-operation was the quite incredible 'TRANSFESA' traffic that brought fresh foodstuffs from Spain via Dover and a huge transfer warehouse at Paddock Wood... Thatcher was bankrolled by...amongst others..the Road Hauliers Association..Or 'Union'..!!!! Feel free to check all this; but the Tory Press were already well into a disinformation campaign against BR... Sound familiar..????? And the SNCF went on to develop the TGV.......

@wattyler6075 Месяц назад

James, you're lucky to have trains near you. Since the late 1960s,my nearest train station is 12miles away.

@patrickburns574 Месяц назад

Quality public services should be run by the state for its citizens using their taxes to improve the quality of life. Privatisation merely gave the rich the monopoly and opportunity to make money for them and their shareholders.

@neilbower9052 Месяц назад

£26 billion of tax payers cash given to the railways last year

@patrickburns574 Месяц назад

@@neilbower9052 but no reduction in fares or improved stock or reduced delays etc so who is getting all of that?

@ianworley8169 Месяц назад

The state of Britain today all goes back to Thatcherite privatisation policies. As someone who now lives in a country where utilities, transport, health, water, energy and postal services are all in public ownership, the differences, especially costs and standards, are vastly different. My 3 bed detached house electricity costs @ 60€ pcm. This year's 'annual' increase, notified in January was 5%.

@russcattell955i Месяц назад

I worked for British Gas pre & post privatisation, saw the company ripped apart. Later worked for 2 subcontractors in the water utilities. Dealing with the subbie people was a pleasure, all a great bunch. The water company, not so much.

@The_BenboBaggins Месяц назад

Yes, it is as simple as that.

@simongee8928 Месяц назад

Not forgetting that since privatisation, the subsidies paid to the private companies far exceeds what BR was getting, even allowing for inflation.

@joannelewis3390 Месяц назад

Put the services back into the country. For the many not the few

@jameshutton3960 Месяц назад

Dividends should not be paid unless actual orofit is made.

@Aussiemarco Месяц назад

Correct in concept. However if a national rail network is run at a profit, it means the fares are too high, and as little as possible is poured back into the system for maintenance and other infrastructure investment. Which is exactly what’s happening with all privately owned rail companies.

@bipolarminddroppings Месяц назад

I've been trying to remember the name of that Carry On film for months, I keep telling people about it and how I can't believe how much things have changed.

@StarshipToMars Месяц назад

It is indeed that simple.

@simonlb24 Месяц назад

Historically, if you bought a ticket for a train journey you could use any train going to or through your destination station. It was that simple. Now, you can have multiple trains doing the same route but operated by different companies and your ticket will not be valid for some of those trains as they are run by a different company. It's ridiculous.

@HCMCDrives Месяц назад

It's always interesting to look at a rail network map from 1920 and 2020, and notice that it is essentially the same.

@jimmygreaves1 Месяц назад

It's exactly that! Our railways are pretty much owned by foreign governments and companies. Taking the profits to make their own countries infrastructures more affordable and well run. The train companies don't even own their own trains, they're leased from foreign owned companies for 30 years. I work on the railway myself and can't believe how expensive it is for people to travel. The train companies have no incentive to sort out this strike action because they still get paid regardless and the shareholders still get their dividends.

@mastertrams 28 дней назад

As someone who works in the railways (though is relatively new, and young), I feel that railways will be last on any politician's agenda for solving, purely because there isn't a single magic cure. Nationalisation on it's own will not solve all the problems (especially since Labour's plans don't touch the ROSCOs), but will at least provide a platform off which you can build a solution. It's a really mixture of failures, such as the atomisation of the industry, what used to be 1 company is now hundreds, and all those moving parts inevitably driving up costs, another example is the lack of any sort of long-term plan, the rolling stock aspect of which is directly contributing to Alstom and Hitachi's current woes, and then there's the current Passenger Service Contracts which replaced franchising, thus removing any incentive the TOCs had before to actually run the trains well! Oh, also, the idea that competition would lower prices was a complete scam. Yes, there are 20+ train operating companies, but they all have their own little monopolies. E.g. Avanti have a monopoly on London-Manchester direct trains.

@simongee8928 Месяц назад

Privatising the railways simply brings back far too many management than is needed for what has to be controlled. Nationalising was being discussed in Parliament back in the 1920s, but too many powerful MPs with vested interests prevented it every time the proposal was made.

@ianpurvis Месяц назад

Let's wait and see

@roops2939 Месяц назад

" Fair Do's For All!"

@BenCG Месяц назад

The best argument I've ever read for nationalising and integrating trains and railways is not to think of it as a profitable product for sale, but an engine for economic growth. If people enjoy travelling by train and can afford to travel by train, they will spend their money in the places they travel to. Imagine if TFL was privatised, unreliable and a bus or tube ride within Zone 1 cost £10-15 a pop? The congestion charge and ULEZ wouldn't make a difference whether it was there or not, because either the traffic and pollution would be obscene or people in London would never leave their boroughs, and the city's economy would go down the toilet! What we've got with our current national rail is a horrendously expensive "only credible option" for commutes and a last resort for leisure - unless of course you're quite well off. Japan's economy and booming domestic tourism market owes everything to it's excellent public transport network, which is a mix of state and privately-owned, but it all works together like cogs in the same clock. I can and have turned up on the day at a ticket office and bought a one way bullet train ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto, the equivalent of an 8-hour drive, done luxuriously in a little over 2 hours, for about £50.

@alanmichael5619 6 дней назад

3:47 In fact, yes, there were payphones on trains!

@harrydebastardeharris987 Месяц назад

Hav’nt traveled on a train for over 25yrs when I paid nearly £200 for a return from Poole to York in the 90’s.Had to be in and out of London at a certain time of Day and had to stand all the way to York. Quality of Service for a Privatised System forget and that was then.I would never catch a train if you paid me and that is ridiculous.

@danielcreamer9669 Месяц назад

You and me James getting pushed further and further left as we get older!

@steveozone4910 Месяц назад

We need to renationalise governments 😂. They seem to have forgotten why we put them there.

@m.c4210 Месяц назад

Spent £130 going to Oxford the other day (a 2.3hour journey by car) on a train. I had to go to a job interview which I didn’t get. Sometimes you just wanna give up with this country

@barnbersonol Месяц назад

Whereas the publically owned Tube ... overcrowded, overpriced and STILL runs at a loss.

@TheRichSmyth Месяц назад

So how many called up and just said “yes”.

@benbonney 29 дней назад

Delay repay is such a painful experience that on some routes I will just refund the entire ticket... This shows the problem trying to put the consumer off a system intended for use, and the second shows how easily it can be abused because most stations are empty now

@dingopisscreek Месяц назад

Name me one company that isn't in business to make a profit. No profit = no business

@Alex-cw3rz Месяц назад

The unions were not too powerful or in excess. there is this nonsensical idea in this country that a union is designed to strike. When a powerful union is one that never goes on strike because they always get their way. That is a powerful union.

@heartshapedfilms Месяц назад

It is that simple

@jssonstevens59 Месяц назад

Privatisation may work where there is competition. When a line is run by one company then it becomes a golden goose for companies to rip off commuters.

@malcolmhowe6602 Месяц назад

`convenience’ was one of the least successful Carry On’s.. apparently because regular fans didn’t like the targeting of unions that had given them so many rights..

@chatham43 Месяц назад

....manufacturers of curled up sandwiches will be rubbing their hands!😊

@kevinpoulton Месяц назад

Old train was main problem with old BR

@patricknash4100 Месяц назад

Brilliant

@onenote6619 Месяц назад

Privatising - renting out - the railways inserts a landlord between the operators and users. The landlord has no interest beyond making money. They squeezed billions out of the system, reducing maintenance to an absolute minimum. Now we find the railways with infrastructure breaking down and the staff on their knees. And the operators want to hand the system back to government because there is no profit to be had. If Labour nationalise it all and try to rebuild, we must remember what happened here - because 50 years from now, some privateer will say 'privatise the railways'.

@meddylad Месяц назад

We know how bad the railway has got when everytime you travel by train, you always at the end say "I will probably be late though, so......"

@user-ig4mn6cm5y Месяц назад

No more private housing no more private transport no more private water no more private social services All national systems profits go straight BACK into OUR COUNTRY

@phax71 Месяц назад

Its taken the “Animals” far too long to realise that they’re simply farmed for the GROSS benefit of the “farmers”…...

@patmcdermott4832 Месяц назад

I travelled daily by train to school 15 miles away in the early '60's. Even in winter with snow &, quite often fog, the trains ran reliably even in adverse weather but sometimes at a slower speed. From 1968 I often used the superb electric WCML trains from Euston to Crewe & rarely had any delays or problems. Moving on to the '80's I used BR trains for business & again had few problems & fares were reasonable. It was only after Thatcher, who disliked BR, that they were starved of funds & loco reliability suffered. Deliberate timetable changes were made, making some trains less useful, as part of a Tory policy to run down the service to justify privatisation. The same methods are being used in the NHS. Starve it of funds & staff to create a poor service then implement privatisation as the solution! 😞

@Dynasty1818 Месяц назад

And you want Labour in charge of them instead? HAHAHAHA there'd be no trains at all.

@srfurley Месяц назад

Some of the HSTs had BT cardphones in BR days.

@robincoleman1350 Месяц назад

British Rail's best days were in the late 80s and early 90s, just prior to privatisation. Wasn't so much the privatising, but the breaking up of BR into dozens of parts pulling in different directions that led to the mess it's in now. Train operator profiteering is a bit of a myth, several have gone broke after promising the government too big a premium payment. One operator, owned by Netherlands Rail had to be propped-up by the Dutch taxpayer!

@jennifersivewright3117 28 дней назад

I am retiring, at 56, to be a carer. Will get less money but I won’t have to put up with commuting. Too much of my time and money being wasted because of the pathetic train service

@chillmeister Месяц назад

Return to London from Reading is sickeningly expensive. £57.90 return for a 23m journey!

@chillmeister Месяц назад

But at least the trains mostly run.

@GraemeRoberts Месяц назад

A bit unfair to blame the unions for historic railway issues. Successive poor government transport ministers - of all parties - should take much more blame (read Eleven Minutes Late for a comprehensive take on this). Failing to invest in the right areas has been a particular failing. Privatisation has exacerbated problems because the companies are wrongly incentivised, e.g. arrival times (and up to 10 mins late still counts as "on time") rather than safety, customer comfort/convenience and affordability of fares. Plus private companies extract profits rather than (re)investing in infrastructure. There is also a ridiculous complexity of fares, which desperately need to be made both cheaper and simpler.