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Your Views

Paul Manzotti, West Midlands

2nd April 2011 | Your Views

British Rail cost the taxpayer half a billion a year. Today, the rail network costs us £5 billion. A stunningly successful privatisation then!

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Your Views

  • Privatisation only benefits the wealthy. We all need a better rail system that benefits its users.

    Helen Shepherd, Stockton-on-Tees

  • They should never have been de-nationalised in the first place.

    Alison Damant, Bradford

  • Privatisation does not work, as there is no-one responsible for regulating the service.

    Sylvia Wilkins, Nottingham

  • I’ve travelled all over Europe by train and the UK’s railways are the most over-priced and contemptuous of the passenger.

    Aviva Jacobs, London

  • Privatisation of rail services has failed. We have a disjointed expensive system. The East Coast line proves that as a publicly run service the rail system can work.

    Augustin Belza, Great Gonerby

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    We are the collective voice of disgruntled rail passengers and disheartened train employees, demanding a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.

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    Our Supporters

    • The UK public wants a publicly owned railway, and so do we. Lush calls for an end to the failed experiment of privatising essential services.

      Tamsin Omond, Lush Campaigns

    • Transport is an essential public service and ought to be publicly owned and publicly controlled. We need an enormous expansion in the investment in our railways and that is the best way of achieving it.

      Tony Benn, politician

    • East Coast shows us that publicly owned rail works better for passengers and taxpayers. We need a railway fit for the future – it’s got to be in public hands.

      Cat Hobbs, We Own It

    • Let’s make the case for democratic social ownership, fit for the 21st century, ensuring our railways are run in the interests of passengers, not profiteers.

      Owen Jones, writer

    • Now is the moment to re-nationalise the railways and it has never been cheaper or more possible.

      Andrew Gilligan, journalist

    • Taking our railways back from private profiteers will mean better services, fairer rail fares and more than £1 billion a year in savings for the public purse.

      Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP

    • There is no good excuse left for rail privatisation beyond enriching wealthy elites. Public ownership delivers for social and environmental needs over private profit.

      Professor Andrew Cumbers, University of Glasgow

    • Privatisation of the railways has failed. Its time to make a virtue of public ownership, and the public service provided by state employees.

      Charles Secrett, The ACT! Alliance

    • Like most people in Britain, I think that a railway is a natural function of the state, and so ought to be run by the state – for the sake of coherence, transparency, continuity, accountability and national pride.

      Andrew Martin, writer

    • Privatisation has delivered… a system in which train operators and energy firms compete not on service – but on how many tariffs they can bamboozle customers with.

      Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian

    • If the private companies that took over the national railways are cutting back and eroding services at a time when the climate crisis demands expanded low-carbon transportation alternatives to keep more of us out of planes, then these services too must be reclaimed.

      Naomi Klein, writer

    • To be able to reduce C02 emissions, by persuading people to leave cars at home, we need a fast, efficient subsidised railway system that’s run for people not profit!

      Ellie Harrison, campaign founder

    • A good public transport system should be the foundation of a fair, just, happy, low-carbon world.

      Ellie Harrison, campaign founder

    • Research into privatisation… boils down to one key finding: the only way Branson and the vast majority of train barons make their profits is through handouts from the taxpayer.

      Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian

    • Privatisation is only progress, if you mean progressing towards an apocalypse of injustice. Bring back British Rail!

      Josie Long, comedian

    • Something as important and necessary (and enjoyable) as train travel should be in the hands of the people, be affordable and safe, not making money for shareholders.

      Nina Power, writer

    • In 1948 Labour nationalised rail to rebuild Britain after a world war. Today bankers and speculators use privatised trains for tax scams. Time to bring back British Rail.

      Alex Gordon, former RMT President

    • Only a publicly owned railway can deliver affordable fares, good services, high customer satisfaction, properly staffed stations and a profitable return to the public purse.

      Charles Secrett, The ACT! Alliance

    • At its heart privatisation in Britain was never about selling public networks but about selling the rights to tax those who are obliged to use them.

      James Meek, writer

    • The privatisation of the railways was a scandal that created an unworkable and expensive structure which should be replaced with a national unified network.

      Christian Wolmar, transport commentator

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    Bring Back British Rail is coordinated from Glasgow by Ellie Harrison, with the help of a small network of volunteers around the UK.
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