Nationalising the railways

[LewysGot2]

Is it going to work?

Genuinely interested in how this will pan out. Will we see a cheaper, better service that will encourage drivers onto public transport?

[Ozyhibby]

Is it going to work?

Genuinely interested in how this will pan out. Will we see a cheaper, better service that will encourage drivers onto public transport?

UK govt still own all the track so I can’t see it working.


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[greenginger]

UK govt still own all the track so I can’t see it working.


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Getting the excuses in early. :greengrin

[Berwickhibby]

Getting the excuses in early. :greengrin

I wonder if they will start painting on windows :greengrin

[LewysGot2]

They've kept the Abellio boss in place which is unusual given that they felt the need to end Abellios franchise deal early.
RMT Union having a day of action over it this month- not clear as to why. Does anyone know?

[Ozyhibby]

They've kept the Abellio boss in place which is unusual given that they felt the need to end Abellios franchise deal early.
RMT Union having a day of action over it this month- not clear as to why. Does anyone know?

The union will be hoping, not unreasonably, the govt is softer than a private company.


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[greenginger]

The union will be hoping, not unreasonably, the govt is softer than a private company.


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Higher running costs = higher fares or bigger subsidies.

[Kato]

Getting the excuses in early. :greengrinDo you think it beyond the Tory Party to undermine a nationalised enterprise?

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[Ozyhibby]

Do you think it beyond the Tory Party to undermine a nationalised enterprise?

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100% correct. The last thing the UK govt want is for this to be a success. Expect maintenance over runs disrupting services much more often.


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[Jack]

Is it going to work?

Genuinely interested in how this will pan out. Will we see a cheaper, better service that will encourage drivers onto public transport?

We might see many things but I doubt cheaper will be one of them.

[pollution]

UK govt still own all the track so I can’t see it working.


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Didn't take long lol

[greenginger]

Do you think it beyond the Tory Party to undermine a nationalised enterprise?

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Conspiracy theories, Scottish rail infrastructure is managed by Network rail Scotland based in Glasgow.

[Kato]

Conspiracy theories, Scottish rail infrastructure is managed by Network rail Scotland based in Glasgow.You see conspiracy theories everywhere.

Why would a Tory Govt sit back and watch a devolved Govt make a success of anything when centralisation is their aim for any power. Open yer eyes man.

The Monktonhall pit was owned by the workers but the UK Govt still found a way to undermine them through bribes and blocking imports of equipment.

Any re-nationalisation is doomed to fail from the off. A country would need to govern all the levers of power and even then if the rail network was to succeed the power network would also need to be nationalised and private business would need to be fully on board and be ready to invest in servicing the works. Not going to happen.

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[LewysGot2]

If nationalisation is doomed from the off why are we going there? 🤔

Naivety? Our government genuinely thinks otherwise regarding its feasibility? A window dressing? Something else?

[grunt]

Conspiracy theories, Scottish rail infrastructure is managed by Network rail Scotland based in Glasgow.
LOL. Network Rail is a UK Gov quango owned by the Tory Uk Gov.

[greenginger]

If nationalisation is doomed from the off why are we going there? 🤔

Naivety? Our government genuinely thinks otherwise regarding its feasibility? A window dressing? Something else?

I dare say there’s no reason why a Nationalised rail system won’t work. All that’s needed is a competent management system and no interference from Scot Gov.

Afterall there’s no need to make a profit for shareholders, but we all know it will be impossible for Nicola and co to keep their noses out.

Hence the excuses for failure before a train has run.

[ronaldo7]

I dare say there’s no reason why a Nationalised rail system won’t work. All that’s needed is a competent management system and no interference from Scot Gov.

Afterall there’s no need to make a profit for shareholders, but we all know it will be impossible for Nicola and co to keep their noses out.

Hence the excuses for failure before a train has run.

Nationalised industries are the responsibility of the respective governments and ministers.

I'm surprised you didn't know this.

[Moulin Yarns]

LOL. Network Rail is a UK Gov quango owned by the Tory Uk Gov.

And is where a lot of the delay and weekend cancellation is happening!!!

[Paul1642]

Nationalised industries are the responsibility of the respective governments and ministers.

I'm surprised you didn't know this.

I think the point is that elected politicians are not the best placed people to run a railway (or anything else for that matter). Appoint a qualified manager and keep your noses out unless things are going badly.

[ronaldo7]

I think the point is that elected politicians are not the best placed people to run a railway (or anything else for that matter). Appoint a qualified manager and keep your noses out unless things are going badly.

They're not running the railway. However they are responsible for it. They've already appointed people to run it. When the 9.15 from Glasgow is two minutes late though, you can bet your bottom dollar that questions will be raised in parliament.

Sorry to disappoint you, but, Jenny Gilruth is not going to be punching your tickets.

[Jones28]

I’m genuinely interested in how this will work. I’m sure that pound for pound the Edinburgh to Glasgow journey is one of the worlds most expensive. There is no incentive to make profit and it will be like a social experiment for people of similar age to me who have only ever known privatised railways and utilities.

[JeMeSouviens]

I’m genuinely interested in how this will work. I’m sure that pound for pound the Edinburgh to Glasgow journey is one of the worlds most expensive. There is no incentive to make profit and it will be like a social experiment for people of similar age to me who have only ever known privatised railways and utilities.

I grew up with nationalised railways - they were awful. I've been an adult with privatised railways - they've been pretty awful too.

I don't think you can sort out UK railways without pretty humungous infrastructure investments (the sort of money that's being wasted on a single vanity line from London to Birmingham :rolleyes:). This is the sort of thing real governments of actual countries tackle. It's way beyond the scope of our wee pretendy government. Imo, they're just setting themselves up to fail.

[Callyballybe]

Are people genuinely expecting better services? Honest question.

As someone who lives and works in Edinburgh I'm not as directly affected as some with this (colleagues who travel in from Glasgow and the borders certainly have more skin in the game.) I do of course use trains from time to time and have experience delays like most - have also experienced very good service from time to time I might add.

Were the 'bulk' of delays to services that we've seen previously due to bad management on Abellio's part, or on the whole due to issues outwith their control? (Rhetorical really, as I imagine depending on what side of the fence you sit on there will be a different answer to this.)

Regardless of the ticket price increases that have seemed to be quite prevalent in previous years, from what I can gather the actual profit Abellio made year on year whilst it had the Scotrail franchise was between 5-6% (Remember reading this figure somewhere previously, but happy to be corrected.) but what if the Scottish Government (purely hypothetical) simply replicated this? Things ended up not getting much better or worse, but whatever profit was made just went back to the SG?

I know that public ownership isn't about profit, and those in smaller communities for example should justifiably expect better or more regular services now that the franchise is back in public ownership. But this was my initial thoughts when I heard that Scotrail was to be nationalised again. I'd feel less aggrieved paying the prices that we do if I knew that the tax payer was benefiting more from it than a private company.

[Hibernia&Alba]

Well privatisation definitely didn't work. The UK government had to subsidise the private operators for circa £3 billion per year. It was another example of privatising the profits and nationalising the losses. Rail travel is a public service: those who live in more rural areas rely upon it, though those lines will never be profitable. It's national infrastructure, like the roads, which is even more true today, when we want people out of cars and into alternatives. Rail services are a shambles in the privatised era; I couldn't tell you how many times I've experienced cancellations, delays or changing to a bus service part way through a journey. Then there are the scandalous prices, which are multiple times the prices in Europe.