Denis Tweedy, Newcastle-upon-Tyne – Bring Back British Rail

We bitched about the sandwiches at the time but my goodness do we miss a fully integrated affordable system?

Denis Tweedy, Newcastle-upon-Tyne + Share

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Shareholders want their pound of flesh, but they don’t want to know about the debts accrued. Why aren’t the shareholders pursued to clear the debt?

John McGuigan, Glasgow
Yeah, and let’s have some proper effort to run it right.

Jennifer Parry, Rowlands Gill
Please stop the private bus companies receiving tax-payers’ money to run all forms of public transport to pay their bosses’ wages and shareholders’ dividends.

Brian Bailey, Manchester
About time.

Andrew McCorkle, Manchester
About time, the profiteering rather than service idea makes me sick as a previous employee, now retired.

Michael Moloney, Banff

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Bring Back British Rail shared a post.

5 days ago

End the Rail Rip-Off! protests are taking place at stations across Britain today against rail fare increases of 2.8% from January 2020. As the Department for Transport announce First Group are to take over the West Coast rail franchise from London to Glasgow from December, join us at 5pm at Glasgow Central Station for a Protest for public ownership of rail! 🚆Just in: Passengers are to be hit by a 2.8% rail fare increase.

We've just been outside Kings Cross to say loud and clear that the public have had enough of the rip off. We need Keith Williams, head of the government's rail review to recommend public ownership now! ...

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www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/14/firstgroup-consortium-to-replace-virgin-on-west-coast-ma...

As I am very unwell.

The other side of this is that the Government needs to explain why fuel duty has not risen in line with RPI for the last 7 years. This represents a significant subsidy to the motorists. And, indeed, does the Government have any strategic transport policy?

Be good to see some collated benefits vs year on year fares increase "reasons given" for say the last 10 years. I also believe theres much jam tomorrow schpiel wheeled out by each subsequent "head of communications" of these money grabbing companies. Soon we will all be working just to a) keep the roof over our heads and b) paying to get to work to cover a). This country is going backwards. Cut cut cut in services (not just railways) but increase increase increase on prices.....

Keith should definitely be under public ownership. It’s clear Bring back steam, slam door carriages and strikes. The good old days

Railways are for public transport not for private profit.

How can adding 2.8% too fares be fair. When Transport for Wales services are even worse than when Arriva Trains Wales ran the service with cancellations galore, dirty and in kept rolling stock.

Who is Keith?

benefits either frozen or up only by CPI, fares up by RPI. A national scandal

A video I took on Friday of last week This is not acceptable

🤬

Yes

Sam Hayward

everybody should publicly own keith.

Sorry I couldn't make it yesterday.

Keith?

Utterly ridiculous, I'm from Rotherham South Yorkshire and a disabled manual wheelchair traveller here is what BBC ceefax say's in my area. Northern has admitted that some of it's heavily - criticised Pacer trains will be used in South Yorkshire next year, despite a pledge to remove them. The rail firm began rolling out it's new trains in June, saying it would take all Pacers out of use by 2020. It later said some of the trains - which no longer comply with disability access rules - would be around for longer. A spokesman confirmed " a small number would be used in South Yorkshire" So according to the head of the railway system has said, as he said after this year's ticket price hike, it will mean more public and private money generated from the price rise will be invested in better trains, less delays, less crowded trains and less cancellations, how come year on year ticket price increases have, from my experience, had little, if any, effect on all the above issues and further as a Northern Rail disabled user if Pacer trains no longer comply with disability access rules surely using Pacer trains where tickets and Passenger Assistance has been booked for a disabled person like me is breaking disability access rules and therefore disabled passengers should have a right to take Northern Rail to Court where their scheduled journey is on a Pacer train. I have booked, in advance, to travel from Rotherham Central to Sheffield this Friday and I have absolutely no doubt that it will be a Pacer train when I am at Rotherham Central and when I return from Sheffield to Rotherham Central I will upload pictures of the trains that turn up. This price hike like all the past price hikes has little to do with improving the trains and all the continuous over crowded, late and indeed cancelled trains more I firmly believe it is in the interests of shareholders.

you don't own nothing all sold off by the tories to foreign governments

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2 weeks ago

Today our new Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP cancelled the Southeastern rail franchise competition, which had been open to tenders since November 2017. What a waste of time and money. It's time to End the Farce of Franchising altogether and Bring Back British Rail! Join us at bringbackbritishrail.orgEND THE FARCE OF FRANCHISING
Print your own Bring Back British Rail placard!
bringbackbritishrail.org/materials/placard-black.pdf ...

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Read the story here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49262115

Southern Fail even got its charter renewed and the fares go even higher. No wonder they have separated themselves from inter-rail - Naples to Rome return for £20 which won't even get you the 60 odd miles to London ....

If renationalisation is illegal, as some here say, then how come the Scottish government have just nationalised the Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow??

I cant see it. Would love it if we went back to excursions and reliefs and diversions with an end to the rail replacement bus but imagine the legal costs involved in paying off all the existing moneygrabbing shareholders.

The politicians will never do it - it's all down to the money involved 😣

All public services should be renationalised! Public transport, water, gas, electricity! 😤

There was such pride in working on the railways.

I worked for BR and saftey and time keeping along with customer care were paramount. Best of training, working conditions and a general rule that the service MUST work. This is a shite system now.

End of the day those of us that worked under BR and who can be objective about the past openly admit it wasn't perfect. There were many areas that could gave been improved but generally it was a damned sight better overall than the shite were forced to work with now.

Vote Labour and the really important things will be re-nationalised. Don't believe the negativity......the mixed economy will remain. Socialism is not Communism it's just fairness and decent standards for all.

Every other (successful) railway in the world is just one big integrated company that does the whole lot. That's what we had with BR and by and large....it worked and it's only problem was that it was starved of investment by ideological politicians.

Currently travelling behind 60163 Tornado in original British Railways livery, en route from Edinburgh to Aberdeen :-)

I hate rail privatisation, but who honestly believes anyone in this country could run a national rail network? We don't know how to build a nuclear power station (Hinckley Point) so we farmed it out to the French. Why not invite them (SNCF) to run the railway network? Or the Dutch, who already run parts of it. Or the Germans...and so on.

As Eric Morecambe said, i am playing the right notes but no necessarily in the right order. So it was with british rail they ran the trains but not necessarily when the table said. So the only difference is that now a private company makes a profit for the failures, so bring it back into public ownership.

The government would be stupid to endorse re-nationalisation. They have the franchisees to blame when things go wrong. How many of the thousands held up at Euston tonight will blame the natikonalised Network Rail for this major failure? How many will complain to the Ministry of Transport for their failings?

But it will never be the same. BR was all about safety safety and safety. Not PPM profits and money. Bringing back BR. Has to include standard raising instead of lower and lower. Job for the boy's and if you do anything for the money.

Football specials and BR sandwiches and Jimmy Saville? No thanks!

"It will also allow the government to ensure that the recommendations of the review being conducted by the former boss of British Airways, Keith Williams, in to the railways, are taken into account. Williams Review will be published in the autumn but he has previously told the BBC government involvement should be limited to overall policy and budget decisions, and the Department for Transport should not manage the system." Here we have another outsider, like Beeching was, telling us how the railways should be run.

Grant Shapps-what on earth does he know about transport? Answers on a post card.

Absolutely, save a lot of money on legal/consultation nonsense to prevent the same franchise wheel with a few tinges of improvement or removing improvements of the past...

Bozza gave transport to that no-mark Shapps? FFS.

I say yes to BRS

All very nice but people want to wake up to the fact that this useless lump of rock in the north sea will never have another state owned rail system.

Not to mention the complexity of our rail network/ pricing almost certainly had a hand in shafting our participation in Interrail. Every other European rail network can apparently handle it, but we’re special (and not in a good way). FFS!

It’s only because you want to be a trolly dolly😂😂😂🤣

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4 weeks ago

Here's a brilliant take-down of the private bus companies' new propaganda campaign by our friends at Better Buses for Greater Manchester 🚌 Please share and support the campaign for public control of buses: betterbusesgm.org.uk ...

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What the bus companies don't want you to know

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Public transport should be just that. Owned by the public for the benefit of the public. Run to provide an essential service and all profits after a decent payroll for the workers, gets ploughed back into further investment.. NOT into some fatcat CEOs pocket. If fares were cheaper and services more reliable and connected, more people would use it, creating more profit.. Nationalisation makes perfect sense. Privatisation is just to make rich people richer and that's a fact. 🧐

The bus companies have been lying since Earnest Marples said they could take over from the railways in the early 60’s. Their idea of running a service is to accept the contract, take the money off the county councils, take ticket money off the public and then try and run less and less buses and reduce the services every year.

In Rotherham we have 2 bus 'services' one is First the other Stagecoach both are appalling and both put profit before passengers

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2 months ago

First Bus are selling their UK businesses. Our friends at Get Glasgow Moving have launched a campaign to get Glasgow City Council to bring First Glasgow back into public ownership. New powers in the Scottish Transport Bill make public ownership possible. Please sign and share 🚌🚏 you.38degrees.org.uk/p/takebackourbusesTime to take back our buses! 🚍 First Glasgow are selling up. Today we're launching a new campaign to ask Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council to bring Glasgow's buses back into public ownership. Please sign and share our 38 Degrees petition you.38degrees.org.uk/p/takebackourbuses ...

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www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/30/firstgroup-to-sell-greyhound-as-it-bows-to-activist-inve...

Foreign ownership doesn't work hence why DB are selling Arriva and First Bus are selling up

Great idea - and the railways too.

How ironic - I read somewhere that DB are looking to offload Arriva.

Just sold its ,Manchester garage / services to Go Ahead group. Ageing feet of vehicles , so getting out.

Can we not do this in Southampton after first destroyed it

Its more likely that First will be sold in entirety to Arrival (solely owned by the Federal Republic of Germany) or to a Chinese bidder.

First sold their London bus operations to Tower Transit several years ago. This particular bus started life with First London - hence the London plate beginning LK. Similar double deckers have been cascaded down to operations elsewhere in vast numbers as TfL is rapidly moving towards 100% hybrids (or in the case of single deckers, usually pure electric).

Wanna bet that Stagecoach will mount a smash and grab?

How times change. The creditable alternative is "Nationalisation".

Great idea - and the railways too.

I agree, we should take back our buses. Look at the damage a single bus did just by putting £350 million a week for the NHS on the side of it. Without that silly bus we would be looking at enjoying our membership of the EU ad Infinitum. Take them back, they ruin countries by persuading the gullible to believe their lies.

Take them back. No unjust enrichment.

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Bring Back British Rail

2 months ago

Our friends at Guardians of the Arches are fighting against the privatisation of our railway arches which are currently publicly-owned by Network Rail. This would have a devastating impact on all the local businesses, clubs and organisations who use them if new private landlords chose to hike up rents. Say no to privatisation by supporting their Crowdfunder campaign at crowdfunder.co.uk/guardians ...