Why we need publicly-owned railways to address the climate emergency
3rd December 2019 | Evidence
Below is an extract from A Radical Transport Response to the Climate Emergency – the excellent new report by our friends at Transport for Quality of Life, which explains why taking our railways back into public ownership is an urgent climate issue.
Extract
It is worth explaining why we believe that changing the structure of the railway so that it is a single entity operating under public control is necessary in the context of a climate emergency, as the very live debate about the structure of the railways has not been framed in the context of action on climate change. There are four reasons why we believe that the current poor governance of the railway is a climate issue.
First, under the present system, Network Rail receives bids for train paths from train operators and has to try its best to fit them together. This is rather like trying to form a coherent picture from random pieces of different jigsaw puzzles. Network Rail has no power to design the most operationally-efficient timetable, or to create the most attractive offer to travellers. Were it to try to do this, it might receive legal challenges about access rights from the train operating companies or the Office of Rail and Road. Exacerbating this, the specification for each franchise is made in isolation and with little or no consultation with Network Rail, precluding a system-wide approach to timetabling. This means that it is next-to-impossible under the current structure of the railways to create a Swiss-style integrated clock-face timetable, which is essential as part of a universal, comprehensive public transport network.
Second, under the current structure of the railways, ticket purchase for anything but a straightforward journey with a single train operating company is excessively complex, and this, together with the high cost of rail travel, deters many people from travelling by train.
Third, fragmentation of the railway between multiple competing train operating companies means that when things go wrong, the passenger is often stuck in the middle: trains are not held to meet delayed services run by other operators (even if the delay is of a few minutes), and a ticket for one operatorโs trains may not be accepted by another. Again, this means that people feel that they cannot trust public transport, and so they travel by car.
Finally, there is no objective for the railway to be run in a way that reduces carbon emissions โ and nor can there be, because โthe railwayโ, as a single entity, does not exist. These problems are structural, and it is only by changing the structure of the railway so that it is a single entity operating under public control, in the public interest, and with an objective to act in such a way as to reduce carbon emissions from transport to the greatest extent possible, that they can be resolved.
Transport for Quality of Life has carried out research in this area and is of the view that public ownership is necessary to achieve this. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have not carried out research in this area so do not have a position on public ownership, but do believe that the structure of the railway needs to change to be managed as a single entity and under public control.
Extract from A Radical Transport Response to the Climate Emergency (p.14) by Lynn Sloman and Lisa Hopkinson, Transport for Quality of Life
๐ Both West Midlands Railway and Greater Anglia end the core terms of their rail contracts today... That means they can both now be renationalised with 12 weeksโ notice once the Public Ownership Bill becomes law ๐ฅณ Bring it on! ๐ @top fans ... See MoreSee Less
Greater Anglia and West Midlands on course to be first nationalised under Labour
inews.co.uk
Rail bosses say 'rushing' to nationalisation 'is a political decision that offers few practical benefits for passengers'17 CommentsComment on Facebook
Good riddance to these hated private companies along with 'Rail Partners', 'Rail Delivery Group' and all the other associated crap that has plagued the railways of this country for the last 30 years.
At last our railways will soon no longer be subsidising foreign and European railways. That's apart from DB freight
British Rail wasn't perfect but they got things moving better and not many people know this. One privatisation zealot said to me that I was no closer to correcting him that the Big 4 was a success and British Railways was a failure but having read JK Lewis' book about The Western's Hydraulics, it simply tells me that I would have thought they were actually run by the same people. The truth about privatisation is that it was run with too much civil servant bureaucracy. The fact is that they thought they knew best by trying to run a railway that has caused mostly problems.
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Labour fast tracks renationalisation of rail network โ today's front page from The Independent ๐ฐ
You can download a digital newspaper every morning with a subscription to Independent Premium
Subscribe here ๐ bit.ly/3Q6bzWD ... See MoreSee Less
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Is it just me, or do some of the contributors to Bring Back British Rail not actually want to bring back British Rail?
They know they'll only be in for one session
Get it done, then the Water Company's.
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"Great British Railways should be the start of a new era for our countryโs transport network, which everyone can get behind"๐๐ Read our opinion piece about last week's historic announcement on rail renationalisation ๐ฃ๏ธ Ellie Harrison for LBC ๐ ... See MoreSee Less
Great British Railways should be the start of a new era for our country’s transport network, which everyone can get behind
www.lbc.co.uk
I wonโt have been the only pissed-off rail passenger cheering last week when the Kingโs Speech announced plans to bring the private train operators back into public ownership when their current co...8 CommentsComment on Facebook
It should also be remembered that the same lunatics will still be running the asylum.
TSGN ends in 2028, not in 2025.
you cant polish a turd , too late all them horrid ugl ynew trains will never be like br days EVER...
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Almost 15 years ago exactly we launched our campaign for a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit๐ The Labour Party's King's Speech finally announces legislation which we hope will make this a reality as #GreatBritishRailways ๐ What a historic day!Bring Back British Rail protest 2011 (Photo: Robin Prime) bringbackbritishrail.org ... See MoreSee Less
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and please make it affordable for everyone, not just someone on business expenses
Now we need to bring back the lines that were closed in the 50s-80s when the population and the economy was much smaller.
Privatisation has failed. The railways have been in a bureaucratic mess. Whoever thinks this, he said that I was no closer to correcting him that the Big 4 was a success and BR was a failure. But by reading JK Lewis' acclaimed book about The Western's Hydraulics, it would tell us that they were actually run by the same people including some pre-grouping apprentices but it wasn't an entirely perfect arrangement.
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Congratulations to Louise Haigh MP on your appointment as Transport Secretary ๐ We hope work is now progressing to take the remaining private TOCs back into public ownership when their contracts end ๐ We look forward to a re-unified #greatbritishrailways run for people not profit.Weโre delighted to see The Labour Party commit to plans to bring our railways back into public ownership within the next parliamentary term ๐ With all the Department for Transport's current contracts with private operators set to expire by 2027, they would be mad not to ๐ bringbackbritishrail.org/news ... See MoreSee Less
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Repel the Draconian and outdated Dickensian Anti-TU laws afflicted on the movement by the Tories. That is a fundamental part of TU Labour relations!
i cannot believe for the second time in history, a Southern Railway and a Great Western Railway will become part of a British Railways..... its that nickel meme all over again...
I hope it happens and please look after the retired members of staff who were not protected
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