GB Rail Report
17th March 2020 | Evidence
The GB Rail Report – researched and written by our friends at Transport for Quality of Life and published as a Labour opposition whitepaper on 17 March 2020 – offers the most detailed plan we have seen so far for re-unifying our railways under public ownership.
The report defines a new governance structure for our national rail network, which is able to achieve both a central ‘guiding mind’ and long-term strategy (40 years), as well as devolved planning, delivery and control for all devolved regions and nations of Great Britain.
It manages to overcome many of the flaws of the old British Rail – its over-centralisation and lack of passenger representation at a strategic level (not to mention its chronic underfunding!) – and maps out how we can transition from our current privatised structure to a new wholly publicly-owned railway, which can be run in the interests of the British people in the most cost effective way. Well worth a read!
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 operator’s 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 – and nor can there be, because ‘the railway’, 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
People’s Public Transport Policy
5th June 2019 | Evidence
This great new report on the Public Ownership of Public Transport by our friends at We Own It is the first chapter in a six part People’s Public Transport Policy being developed by the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
A Public Future for Scotland’s Railways
28th November 2017 | Evidence
As part of the campaign for the Public Ownership of Scotland’s Railway, this report by our friends at Common Weal & TSSA highlights the failures of ScotRail’s private train operator Abellio and the opportunities for passengers for taking it back into public ownership.
A Better Railway for Britain: A Report by Bring Back British Rail
1st October 2016 | Evidence
Bring Back British Rail’s first report A Better Railway for Britain: Re-unifying our railways under public ownership was launched in the Houses of Parliament in London on 13 October 2016.
Print copies are available to order in advance for just £5 (including free delivery in the UK), with all proceeds supporting campaign materials and activities.
The Four Big Myths of Rail Privatisation
1st June 2015 | Evidence / News
Read this report from our friends at Action for Rail! It’s all the evidence you need that rail privatisation has failed to deliver what they promised it would in the ’90s:
• reduction in government subsidies (we now subsidise rail by nearly three times more than we did as British Rail)
• cheaper tickets (rail fares have risen by 24% in real terms since privatisation)
• innovation and investment (90% of the investment in the railways has come from public money)
Rail Privatisation: A Timeline of Failures
1st April 2015 | Evidence / News
A special edited and updated version of Rail Privatisation: A Timeline of Failures (below) – based on the design of British Rail’s 1979 ‘Go Direct by Inter-City‘ poster – features in A Better Railway for Britain: Bring Back British Rail’s first report, launched in October 2016.
Today marks 21 years since the enactment of the Railways Act (1993), on 1 April 1994, which unleashed rail privatisation on the poor unfortunate public. Since then, Britain’s privatised railways have been beset by a series of failures, scandals and fatal crashes, each at great expense to taxpayers.
19 September 1997 – A collision between two trains at Southall kills seven people and injures 139. A passenger train running at high speed with defective Automatic Warning System equipment, a fundamentally important safety system, passed a signal at ‘danger’ and collided with a freight train crossing its path. Great Western Trains was fined £1.5 million for violations of health and safety law relating to this accident.
1 December 1998 – A report by the National Audit Office into the flotation of the national railway infrastructure company, Railtrack, found that taxpayers lost £1.5 billion because of the government’s decision to ignore the Public Accounts Committee’s recommendation to sell its shares in stages, opting instead to sell them all at once.
5 October 1999 – A near head-on collision between two passenger trains at Ladbroke Grove, outside London Paddington station, kills 31 people and injures more than 52. A signal with a bad safety record was passed at ‘danger’. A poor standard of driver training by Thames Trains was cited as a major contributory factor.
17 October 2000 – A train running at high speed derails at Hatfield when a rail affected by rolling contact fatigue fractures under its wheels. Four passengers were killed and 70 were injured. The crash exposed the major stewardship shortcomings of the privatised Railtrack plc and the failings of the regulatory oversight of the company (principally, failure to ensure that it had a good knowledge of the condition of its assets) which ultimately triggered its partial renationalisation. Following the crash, Railtrack imposed more than 1,200 emergency speed restrictions across its network, since it did not have the knowledge to predict where rolling contact fatigue might hit next.
24 October 2000 – Connex loses its South Central franchise after a decision by the Strategic Rail Authority to re-let the franchise following criticism of Connex’s poor customer service and poor financial management.
7 October 2001 – In the face of severe financial difficulties, Railtrack plc is placed into railway administration by the Labour government’s Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers. This leads to an explosion of costs and a severe drop in performance. Railtrack was subsequently replaced by Network Rail.
10 May 2002 – A train derails at Potters Bar, killing seven people and injuring 76. A poorly maintained set of points was to blame, the maintenance of which was the responsibility of the private sector railway maintenance contractor Jarvis (who had tried to blame the accident on ‘sabotage’). Eight years later, Jarvis and Network Rail (having taken on Railtrack’s liabilities) were both charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Network Rail subsequently took track maintenance back in-house.
27 June 2003 – The Connex South Eastern franchise is terminated by the Strategic Rail Authority, citing the company’s poor performance and financial management.
15 December 2006 – GNER is stripped of its East Coast franchise by the Department for Transport, having fallen into financial difficulties and unable to meet the terms of its franchise.
13 November 2009 – National Express gives up the East Coast franchise (which it had taken over from GNER) owing to financial difficulties, having accumulated more than £1 billion of debt. The failure of this franchise deprived the Department for Transport of between £330 million and £380 million of revenue.
15 August 2012 – The Department for Transport announces FirstGroup plc as the winner of the InterCity West Coast franchise, prompting the incumbent franchise holder, Virgin, to seek a judicial review of the franchise decision.
3 October 2012 – The government announces the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast franchise competition after finding significant technical flaws in the bidding process, rescinding its decision to award the franchise to FirstGroup. The Public Accounts Committee found that civil servants had made “fundamental errors” in the way that the risks for each bid had been calculated, leading to the default surety required of bidders being too low. The government reimbursed the four bidders for all costs incurred; this amounted to £39.7 million, with a further £4.9 million paid to FirstGroup as reimbursement of their mobilisation costs. In the ensuing shambles, numerous incumbent franchise holders were directly awarded extensions to their franchises instead of opening them up to tender. So much for competition!
17 December 2014 – A report from the Public Accounts Committee is severely critical of the Department for Transport’s inept handling of the procurement of new trains for the Intercity Express Programme and Thameslink. The DfT had chosen to break away from previous procurement arrangements and carry out the procurement by itself, despite having no previous experience in this area.
3 April 2015 – The private train operator West Coast Railways has its operator’s licence suspended by Network Rail amid concerns over the company’s ability to perform its safety obligations. This action followed an incident on 7 March 2015, when a steam-hauled train operated by West Coast Railways passed a signal at ‘danger’ after the driver had switched off vital train protection systems, narrowly avoiding a collision with a passenger train running at 100 mph.
Is it anyone wonder we’re all shouting Bring Back British Rail?
Spread the word! Link to this post using www.bringbackbritishrail.org/timeline and read more compelling evidence for Public Ownership here: www.bringbackbritishrail.org/evidence
Towards Public Ownership
31st March 2015 | Evidence / News
This TUC Report summarises research by Transport for Quality of Life, to show the high costs of running rail franchise “competitions” – estimated at £45million for every single one!
Given that there are 11 of these unnecessary “competitions” scheduled to take place before the next parliament ends in 2020, the Report shows how much we could save by then if we chose to run these franchises under a single publicly-owned railway company instead. It’s more than £600million!
The Arguments for Public Ownership are Overwhelming
1st January 2015 | Evidence / News
There are so many reasons why privatised rail is failing us and the environment. Check out this brilliant leaflet, supported by Bring Back British Rail, which will be handed out at the nationwide Protests for Public Ownership on Monday 5 January 2015.
All on Board
30th May 2014 | Evidence / News
Our friends at Compass have today launched their All on Board report detailing a vision for a publicly owned railway that is efficient, affordable and good for the planet.
Echoing what Bring Back British Rail has being saying for the last five years, the All on Board report demands a publicly owned railway “that constantly improves, innovates and responds to passenger needs, because it is accountable to all of us.”
Bring Back British Rail
2 days ago
The ‘Great British Rip-Off’ – why new ‘flexi-tickets’ are an insult to passengers ...
The ‘Great British Rip-Off’ – why new ‘flexi-tickets’ are an insult to passengers
abcommuters.com
The Department for Transport’s new ‘flexible season tickets’ are an absolute insult to passengers. Neither cheap nor flexible, they are just another pricing trap for a captive com…Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Meanwhile Grant Shapps gets to claim all his train fares back as expenses..
These are priced deliberately to convince many that going into work 2 or 3 days/week isn't much of a saving in travel costs compared to traditional 5 day a week. Government probably scared that businesses might downsize office space and property market suffers. I'm sure the Tory party have a few funders with owning some of these prestige buildings that have gone up in many cities over the last few decades. Actually what might happen now is more might just continue to work from home full time.
And the fools fell for it, £350 million a week for the NHSand still waiting ?
Shapps.Another one????????
Great article
Sadly, I feel Grant Shapps is a Government gimmick rolled out to jazz up wet Mondays and bad news days to act as if Government is doing something relevant to ordinary people e.g. Renationalisation - we have the name, but what of the finer details? Reversing Beeching, really... where's the flow/beef in it, just a trickle currently and 2030 is the cut off date for irreversible climate change. Likewise Chris Heaton Harris, MP for Daventry - one large town without any rail access/safe Tory seat cracks jokes on Twitter as if no tomorrow, but how much is he working towards delivering an affordable, integrated and growing railway apart from #HS2? £27 billion for new roads which only panders to road dependency cultures, heaps up congestion and electric vehicles do not deal with tyres on hard surfaces and the particles we all breathe. I think rail should not be facing any cuts, rather top slice that £27 billion and let's have parity between road and rail at least.
People voted for a privatised railway and they got what they voted for.
no discount for senior or regional pass holders
Sadly British Rail is not really British Rail, its a joke, you just have to look at the extortionate prices thats charged for even the smallest journey, it would be much more sensible to cut fares and have more customers take a leaf out of other countries some charge as little as a fiver for a 50mile trip.
Utter waste of time. It would save me 12% over daily tickets, but is still 22% dearer than buying weekly tickets, and despite the name, they're *less* flexible. On several occasions, pre-Covid, I've bought a weekly ticket to Manchester, only to find out that the event I'm running has been reallocated or cancelled, so I can work from home the rest of the week. So I've then gone to the ticket office and they've cancelled the weekly ticket and refunded me, minus the cost of one daily ticket, with *no admin fees*. This "flexible" ticket would let me buy eight journeys to be used over four weeks. But if it gets to the last week and I've not used four of them, I can get the unused journeys refunded, but they'll charge me £10 admin fee to do so, which would wipe out most of the refund. The only change they need to make is to remove the admin fee, or remove the 28 day limit on using the journeys. If I could buy eight journeys and use them over say three months, then that would be worth doing. As it is, I shan't bother. Might just get on my bike more and get to work for free.
If they are a privatised industry why do the taxpayer subsidise them is it to fill the pockets of the shareholders oh wait are the tory backers just a thought
They seem to be only available for smart cards and one cannot buy paper tickets. Flexi rover tickets (which work in the same way) have been around as paper tickets since time immemorial.
what did you expect from this government????????
No matter what party you vote for they are all as bad each . labour where in under Tony Blair did they renationalised the railway and have the Torys renationalised no to both it is all about looking after the private company that run the railways.Also they get government grants to run the railway s which comes out of our taxes so in effect we are paying twice for the public transport .. Public transport should be made cheaper. If they want to get more people of the roads to use . Prime example of the over inflated prices is ebbsfleet to London I believe it £8 pound one way
It is getting ready for "Home Rule" in Wales and Scotland,soon to be Great English Railways (GER)
But, but, they're doing their best. Dunno what their worst would be.
Bandits
As this scheme is being lead by the treasury and they won't introduce anything that reduces income
They are "another option". That's all. Depending on when, where and how often you travel, flexis may or may not be the answer. They may not be what people were expecting, however it may just be that people's expectations were wrong.
Perversely it is £5 cheaper per journey if I buy an annual season ticket and travel 5 days per week to the office. There is no real incentive for me to do 2-3 days week in the office.
Money grabbing Bastards !
Just as expected, another way to fleece the commuter by the stealth of privatised railways !!!!
When are people going to wake up, the tories are only it to make money not to give rail users a fair deal, you want a fair deal stop voting for them...
Rip off? In Britain?
Season tickets Sheffield-Derby (Adult, Standard Class) Flexi Season £9,998.00 Seven Day £80.30 12 months £3,212.00 (Source: BR Fares)
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
Back by popular demand! Bring Back British Rail enamel badges are finally back in stock. All proceeds go towards funding campaign materials and activities. Why not treat yourself 😊 ...
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Thats for travelling in the other direction Les
Link to buy doesn't work? 😕
Bring back the CEGB as well. Let's have reliable and AFFORDABLE electric power
Any chance we actually WILL bring back British Rail? I’ve been so hopeless lately, with the government using their supermajority in Parliament to steamroll their agenda on us! Don’t get me started on how they’re destroying the NHS!
Bring back British Rail and the crap wages. I'm up for that.
Logo is round the wrong way.....
Bring back British Rail? How do you react to this Nationalised part of the System's attempts to improve passenger services? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-57510262
Bring back everything that's been privatised.
British Rail was just not that good! At least the trains have improved. More investment is key.
I remember the “good old days” of British Rail. Overstaffed. Under motivated. Filthy and unreliable trains. Couldn’t give a toss about the paying public, just as long as they remained state funded. Worst of all, run by politicians, with political agendas. The privatisation model isn’t perfect, but it’s a bloody sight better than the alternative.
Yes am with you
Got to the checkout on your shop, but you use PayPal! Paypal supports the apartheid and dehumanising of the Palestinians in Israel/Palestine. So I will not be buying from you!
your being hood winked into loosing more of the service and system. Network Rail becomes British Rail and the sections are still operated by the franchise holders, Privatisation has moved vast amount of freight onto the road and this "New" British Rail will not put it back on the rails. the yards and lines to handle the freight have all gone. also the Inter City sign is the wrong way round.
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Bring Back British Rail
3 weeks ago
We're really pleased to be opening our merch store again! Our popular Rail Card Wallets will be ready to dispatch next week. All proceeds go towards funding Bring Back British Rail materials and activities, so this is a great way to support our volunteer-run campaign 😊 ...
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I might buy one of these! I could keep not just my railcard but also my library card in it!
Waiting for 'The logo is back to front' comments.
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
The government’s ‘Great British Railways’ is privatisation rebranded ...
The government’s ‘Great British Railways’ is privatisation rebranded
www.opendemocracy.net
With the ‘fudged’ outcome of a review of England’s railways, the government has missed an opportunity to put passengers firstShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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The scum do not want people travelling - STAY HOME, SAVE LIVES, PROTECT THE N.H.S. What the scum mean is - we will control you, we will tell you where you can go, we will tell you if you can spend, we will tell you if you can LIVE.
With prices still rising Stick with your cars B.R have ripped you off for years..
....... and a load of shit Japanese trains with structural faults that are barely 3 years old.
Scotrail will be taken into public ownership...properly. 🏴👍
What a surprise, Gor' Blimey, Who'd 'ave thought it?
Are these private people going to compensate the tax payer for years of upgrading of track and stations ect over the years billions have been spent renewing the railways infrastructure ? Remember all those weekends bank holidays Christmas renewing the tracks and singling systems are they going to inherent all that for sod all ??
Beggars belief at how gullible the British Public is1
Nobody expected a hard right wing Tory government to nationalise the railways, did they?
Whoever runs the railways, I wish they'd get rid of the bastard Hitachi 800's And give us back our HST's, from a customer perspective the HST's were much nicer to travel in than GWR's crappy IET's
Abolish rolling stock leasing companies!
Face it the money was in the ROSCOs that is why HSBC, Santander were chosen to exploit the maximum profits out of the industry passing on the losses to through subsidies to the Rail operators eventually onto the public purse. When you write the rules to ignore sharp practice and guarantee no loss contracts that multinationals can wriggle out of when they realise they have overbid. Privatisation has been a corruption on scale never before. Let us not mention the property board that has discharged real estate in prime locations on the cheap to friends of the Tories. Shapps is a shitster, typical IT spiv snake oil salesman.
What a set of shits and the fools still fall for it !!
We already own the bit that costs money (the tracks and infrastructure) nicknamed Network Fail, and this simply means continued subsidies for Train operators such as the French, Dutch, Germans and a Hong Kong based company who all earn from OUR passengers and taxpayers, ironic after Brexit. This only squares with the Tory faithful due to the mantra of privatisation which costs the consumer more every single time, but gives more "choice". Quite how a train operator doesn't have a monopoly simply due to the nature of a railway is clever marketing. This is an absolute con, by the con servatives.
Put a different sticker on the same old faulty goods, we expect no less from an ideologically and morally bankrupt system.
Quite!!
The same government that sold it in the first place,get a grip
I attended conferences with the likes of. Prescot and MacDonnell all said return to nationalisation Blair said it ..We at RMT withdrew union funding from labour party told prescot to leave. union owned London flat the list goes on and on as most on here agree it's a further way to save the privateers of the industry money as it needs massive investment previous privateers have promised and left when failed this way we. as taxpayers pay them through.er...Great British Railways. (name makes you think it's ..British Railways ahhhh) yes you will get same old story Oh HST2 they will not take responsibility for that too many objections and fines for delays. Best let govt take it as Great British Railways then get contract to run it ..repair it ..after it's built at massive cost the govt could. upgrade all of the railway for that price new trains the lot ..jobs..just like the channel tunnel we build. it.. they run it that is the privateers philosophy
It's a step in the right direction (well more like a tiptoe really) I'll be glad at least to have the network looking like a single whole again, even if there is still private sector involvement in the background.
The IEP revolution has left rail in the red. Shows that trains aren't always perfect even if you buy or don't buy British. The number of Hitachi carriages amounted to large quantities. I wonder how will they fare with the warranty repairs. Window seating position is quite good but a bit cheap and nasty, it was Great Western's choice. Note that Transport of Wales has purchased large number of surplus Mk 4 coaching. Actually there's 45 of them on their books.
I agree we have to put an end to franchisee
It's pathetic....they never will doing anything else!
Correct
Not yet
XX
It's all a load of bollocks & bullshit
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
"This rail reform doesn’t go far enough, we’re still going to have the same private companies running the services: Arriva 🇩🇪, Govia 🇫🇷, Abellio 🇳🇱, Avanti 🇮🇹, MTR Corp 🇭🇰 So much for #GreatBritishRailways!" Listen to Bring Back British Rail's Ellie Harrison on BBC Radio 2's The Jeremy Vine 👇 ...
20 May 2021: BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine on 'Great British Railways'
www.mixcloud.com
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British Rail bad? The only complaints I remember were about the cheese sandwiches. Privatisation has been an exercise in irony... subsidies doubling immediately under privatisation, private railway companies being owned by foreign publicly-owned railways, etc. etc.
Arriva, Govia, Abellio, Avanti etc. etc. Chucking the name Great British Railways on top of names that sound like energy drinks or online banks is just putting lipstick on a pig.
Nationalisation in name only just like the NHS
Private companies will provide the trains and staff, but everything else : tracks, timetables and fares will be in public hands.
Pete Waterman sure likes the sounds of his own voice. Even when he's talking bollox.
The global coalition for transparency and anti-corruption has put the UK "under review", heightening concerns about the government's commitment to openness following a series of scandals. news.sky.com/story/uk-government-censured-for-a-lack-of-transparency-and-accountability-12234248?... TOP UK JUDGE CALLS FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - [ ] www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/sc-judge-calls-for-mass-civil-disobedience?fbclid=IwAR2LU0_2p... Trading Freedom for 'Security' "If people are sufficiently frightened, their craving for security will make them submit to almost anything," Sumption remarked, explaining that "the Hobbesian bargain" — based on Hobbes' belief in the absolute State where people "resign their freedoms unconditionally and permanently into the hands of the State in return for security" — is "a very striking and very sinister development."
Still subsidising foreign state owned railways
Old story. Never trust a tory
We got to keep letting Foreign state subsidiaries keep running our Railways so they can cream it off and send it back to their homeland.
It’s just a flag shaggers name change that’s all
Isn't Great British Railways to be operated only in England? Something tells me the name for this new operation mainly had Daily Mail readers in mind.
wouldn't give ear space to Vine the privileged tosser
When Jeremy Corbyn stated he would renationalise their rail network, MSM and tories said this was ludicrous and Corbyn would bankrupt the country and the “easily influenced” brits bought into that notion and elected johnson. Today the tories have suggested a “re-nationalisation, of sorts” of the rail network, NOT to ensure lower fares and more reliable clean service for passengers, who are also British citizens, but to cut a huge slice of the “money cake” and again benefit themselves! The losers in this new policy will continue to be the “great British public”.....
On a related note, has anyone noticed how much harder it is to find bargain advance fares currently?
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