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.
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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.”
The Great Train Robbery
7th June 2013 | Evidence / News
Today sees the launch of The Great Train Robbery – a new report by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) about the failings of rail privatisation in the UK.
It rightly describes the privatised rail system as “a serial shambles creating artificial profits for the franchise holders and hidden costs for the public.”
Together with the 2012 Rebuilding Rail report by Transport for Quality of Life, this provides yet more strong evidence for the Bring Back British Rail campaign that we need a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.
The New Home Front II
3rd September 2012 | Evidence / News
Bring Back British Rail founder Ellie Harrison was invited to write a text on the public ownership of our railways for the Green Party’s The New Home Front II, which aims to look to the post-war period for lessons on how to tackle climate change now. Read the full text below.
Bring Back British Rail
It is essential to remind ourselves that transportation is not just a question of how an individual gets from A to B. It is a social question; an ethical question. For an outstanding public transport system (based on a fully integrated train, tram and bus network) offers the potential to help solve many of the problems we face – from climate change, to inequality and social unrest. Not only could it prove vital in reducing C02 emissions by supplanting many of the individual journeys made by car and plane, but it could also improve the living environment in our cities, offer us better air quality and assist with social cohesion, as people from all walks of life become accustomed to travelling together.
There is no better place to look for this reminder than post war Britain. It’s no coincidence that British Railways was inaugurated in 1948, the same year as our National Heath Service. Both were part of the Labour government’s revolution inspired and supported by the real sense of community engendered by the war effort, to ensure that government had control over the infrastructure it needed to provide the essential services that we all need to live happily and well (health care, transport, communications and fuel).
These huge initiatives were driven by a desire for moral success and progress, rather than financial. On opening the NHS, Nye Bevan declared that it made us ‘the moral leaders of the world’. Even in this stricken, bankrupt war torn country there was a clear future vision. The founding statement of our new publicly owned rail service proclaiming “Plans for modernisation and improvements are ready and are being carried into effect as materials become available. Difficulties will be overcome; the plan is to make British Railways the best in the world.”
Prior to British Railways, our trains were run by lots of privately owned companies. Although these had been responsible for building the foundations of the system as a means of facilitating the Industrial Revolution, they had left our country with a railway network that suffered from uneven regional investment and lacked an overall cohesive structure or long-term plan for development. This core public service had been left to the whim of private interest. And yet, since the misguided and opportunistic privatisation of our railways in 1993, we have allowed ourselves to retreat on the moral ambition of our ancestors and have been left with an expensive and dysfunctional public transport system as a result.
Think of the frustrations you have experienced buying tickets and travelling on our trains today and dare to imagine a radical policy – the creation of a fully integrated public transport system spanning the nation, run by proud employees as a service for the people. Imagine knowing that you could walk up and buy a ticket to go anywhere in the country at a fair price. Imagine a universal and comprehensive ‘National Rail Service’, providing the basic human need to travel to work and for leisure. How much less stressful would this be? How many more journeys would you choose to make by train?
The two commonly cited hurdles – public support for the idea and cost – are not in fact hurdles at all. The popularity of the Bring Back British Rail campaign (and others like it) shows that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the present system and a massive desire for a radical rethink of the way our railways are run. And there is clear evidence (in the recent Rebuilding Rail report and other influential / critical studies) that renationalising the system – removing the inefficiency and added bureaucracy caused by dividing it up into so many competing ‘franchises’, not to mention the private profits continually being leaked out – would actually save us billions each year. The only real challenge is convincing those in power that there are some things in life – some basic public services – which should remain ring fenced from the profiteers. We need to popularise the notion of nationalisation, so that it no longer a dirty word but rather plain common sense. Because this is the only way we can be sure that we – the people – have the control necessary to build that outstanding public transport system, which will make all our lives better in the future.
Ellie Harrison
Founder, Bring Back British Rail
www.bringbackbritishrail.org
www.facebook.com/bringbackbritishrail
Rebuilding Rail
2nd July 2012 | Evidence / News
Today sees the launch for the Rebuilding Rail report by Transport for Quality of Life.
The report highlights the “fragmentation and leakage of public money that characterise the UK’s privatised railways”, and lays out the all important realistic blueprint of how we could go about bringing them back into public ownership.
This is a brilliant key piece of evidence for the Bring Back British Rail campaign, clearly demonstrating the need for a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.
Bring Back British Rail
5 hours ago
Help us reach 120,000 signatures before Friday! On Friday 18 January at 10am, we're taking our Care2 petition to Renationalise our Railways to the Department for Transport to submit as evidence to the Williams Rail Review. We must ensure public ownership is on the table. ...
Sign Petition: Renationalise our railways
thepetitionsite.com
Renationalising the railways would lower fares, improve working conditions and provide a better organised service. The majority of (119381 signatures on petition)Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google PlusShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Yvonne Sowood
Whoops! That page cannot be found.
Signed
Signed
I read somewhere that privatisation is excluded from his remit
page cannot be found
can't get out of europe, fat chance of getting BR back LOL.
Signed
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Signed
Iv'e signed this petition on a previous occasion. The longer it takes the more we subsidise another country's fares as our go up, and up, and up. Maybe we should get back in our cars and totally clog all the roads on our way to work or home or wherever people have to travel. Come on people stop using the railways they will learn we are not to be trampled on.
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Bring Back British Rail shared Association of British Commuters's post.
4 days ago
Will the Department for Transport's latest review of our railways be the chance for a #RailRevolution or just more government whitewash? We're joining forces with the Association of British Commuters, We Own It and Care2 to demand that public ownership is on the table. Read this brilliant blog post for all the details... ...
Association of British Commuters
URGENT: It is still unclear whether the Williams Review will consider public ownership! Read more about our investigation here and please join us at the DfT on Friday 18th Jan to demand a Rail Revolution and full transparency from the government.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google PlusShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Send your own views before deadline this Friday 18 January 2019 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/williams-rail-review
Whitewash sanitised for " Don't blame me Guv " Grayling
If this is a report commissioned by the Tories of course it won’t recommend nationalization.
Bound to be a whitewash - rarely has a Government ever admitted they got something so badly wrong. If Grayling can award a shipping contract to a company with no ships and no track record, what chance do the railways have?
One thing to remember with government is the old saying he who pays the piper calls the tune
Sadly I think you already know the answer to that question, it’s just going to be more of the same “sticking plaster” gimmicks that will amount to next to nothing
Whitewash
This review is a joke. Who is behind it? None other than Failing Grayling who last week refused to meet with experts in Cheshire who are concerned about unstable ground conditions - salt mines, brine fields and gas storage underneath the HS2 line. Just look at the terms of reference. "The review was established to recommend the most appropriate organisational and commercial frameworks to support the delivery of the GOVERNMENT'S VISION for the railway." (NOT nationalisation then!) It says it will look at the whole of the industry but will not include the following: public investment decisions made through existing franchise agreements railway funding 2019-2024 commitments (Control Period 6) High Speed 2 and other major projects spending decisions made through the Spending Review 2019 THIS FARCE is no better than the so-called consultations carried out by HS2 UnLtd. It's being done so they can say they have done it. As is the case with HS2, they will ignore any suggestions that contradict their dogmatic er - vision!
It will be nothing but a distraction just like all the other grossly expensive“investigations”. Diversion tactics rule OK?
It's a complete whitewash; look at the question it asks!
A picture of Corbyn wondering why he isn't elsewhere, sat in a high chair, overseeing a theoretical discussion about "potential". But not contributing. And he's still the lesser of two evils by a significant margin :/
It's a white wash from a nasty, greedy, lying government busy transferring public money in to the greedy back pockets of the private sector.
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Bring Back British Rail is with Association of British Commuters and 3 others.
2 weeks ago
Coverage on BBC News of our Rail Revolution: National Day of Action today calling for a #FaresFreeze and radical reform of our broken privatised railway system. ...
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I just hope you Tory voters are satisfied.not just with B R.but everything else they’ve sold off.you are now paying for something that once was yours.
My understanding is that Renationalising the railways... which I’m strongly in favour of... is only possible outside of the EU.
I feel certain that there could be a legal challenge to the profiteering which is so obviously going on. Who gave the authority in the first place to sell off an asset which belonged to the British people, against the will of the vast majority of the British people. EU Directive 91/440 in 1991, that's who. No british people had any say in the matter except perhaps John Major and the Conservative government at the time. Time to take back what is legally and morally ours.
Here is the puzzle. How does Chris 'failing' Grayling manage to put one foot in front of the other when it's such a complicated manoeuvre?
There is no point in prattling on about it and whether or not it’s allowed or precluded by the EU. BR was often total shit and my line has considerably improved after privatisation so there is no universal panacea. All the moaners will continue to commute so why on earth would the companies NOT put the prices up? If on the other hand commuters refused to pay or travel the whole thing would be sorted in a week. Politics is the same, we shove a cross on a bit of paper and then moan about what we’ve done for a few years before doing it all again.
How do they justify a rise ABOVE inflation?
it is plain wrong when we need to encourage people to leave their cars and travel by rail that they are scared off by yet another exortionant ticket rise. A rise to pay inflated bonuses and share dividends that should go to reduce ticket prices. Bring back BR indeed, a joined up network working for our people.
I see theories about the EU preventing our rail system being nationalised but there's no such thing. It's our own political dogma and their excuses. It didn't prevent the last Labour government from taking East Coast Main line back into public ownership.
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Bring Back British Rail added 13 new photos — with Association of British Commuters and 4 others at London King’s Cross Station.
2 weeks ago
Our Rail Revolution: National Day of Action kicked off this morning with a protest against fare hikes at London King's Cross Station. Actions continue this afternoon and tomorrow at stations across the country.Our Rail Revolution: National Day of Action kicked off this morning with a protest against fare hikes at London King's Cross Station. Actions continue this afternoon and tomorrow at stations across the country. ...
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Grayling failing railing transport minister no wonder he gave a contract to a ferry company that has never ran freight will be another grayling disaster
Fare rises above rate of inflation are unacceptable and themselves add to inflationary pressures. Time they were taken out of private ownership.
I note, sadly, the BBC has decided to amplify Grayling's unjustified lets blame the Unions spiel. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46731749?fbclid=IwAR3QOQhH_i2EQh4Nw5MUItuHIibq4RGo0fw9qsmOqgJphYzS--PSKlNK8qQ
Why is Corbyn there. He wouldn’t renationalise the railways?
Wonder why the government aren't bothered by it because its us paying for their first class travel out of our pockets.
Make trains great again.......
I can't pretend to know the full reasons/excuses for the rise in rail fares. I suspect it's about the politics of having a national rail system and what proportion of costs are to be borne by the users (passengers and freight) and how much is to be pumped in by government. In most of Europe the rail network is nationalised or supported by the state in a way that we are not. I do have reservations about renationalising the railway, bringing back BR as if this is some kind of panacea which will guarantee good, punctual reliable comfortable service where you'll always find a seat and fares will be low. That is not my memory of BR and there's no evidence that bringing the industry back into public ownership would make much difference; it would also be incredibly costly to the taxpayer to do that..
Highest priced worst performing railway in Europe if not the world.
The usual suspects waving their badly made placards will not change as thing, as for bringing back BR, no thanks the service was dreadful and the trains in general slow and dirty.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
“The rolling stock companies are profiting, the train-operating companies are profiting – meanwhile passengers are being hit with fare increases and are stuck with cattle trucks for trains” says Bring Back British Rail's Ellie Harrison in The Guardian's article about the ongoing failure of Northern Rail. Join our friends fighting back at Northern Resist ✊ ...
Northern admits it has not begun retiring Pacer trains as promised
theguardian.com
Operator still aims to phase out the much-derided ‘buses on rails’ by the end of 2019Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google PlusShare on Linked InShare by Email
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I love the 142 to be honest. But there warn out the poor little things. They saved our branch lines. And are very reliable. But we need them gone. We need to get back to ownership of trains rather than leasing and we need nationalisation to remove the many levels of profiteering. Privatisation from the very start was designed to transfer tax money in to the banks back pockets. It's a legal form of theft and it needs to be stopped. And how dare the rail delivery group brag about the transfer of subsidy to the fare payer. As a tax payer I want my taxes to subsidise the railway so we can have a fluid economy and people can once again travel for social need.
Northern Rail are incompetent at best and the Pacers have no place in todays railway. They are uncomfortable, unreliable, and not suitable for the fares the travelling public have to pay when other lines still operated by Northern Rail have superior train sets. They should have been replaced years ago. I don’t care if train enthusiasts like them, I doubt they have to endure commuting on them on a daily basis.
... and yet privatisation is credited with introducing a wealth of new rolling stock! Usually only when legislation demands it and, sometimes, not even then. Most of the stock introduced by BR since the 1970s is still in service and I quite appreciate the mix of styles and eras present but I can't stand the undue credit given to privatisation. Of all present railway factions, who's introducing the most new stock? TfL. The least privatised.
Privately held publicly funded monopoly. A licence to print money.
Take the franchise off them
They're good trains, perfect for the loss making routes in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire etc. They helped keep.many a line open during the 80's /90's when BR was tasked with slashing operating costs to reduce the PSO Grant obligations.
We need to get shut of grayling he is shit at his job bring back BRS
Was on the old bone shaker yesterday. Came in from London where millions have been spent on the St Albans line and the Carpenters park line....and thought why does the North put up with this? Kick out your MPs if they do nothing.
Without them Northern would be fkd! Love em or hate them they very rarely break.
Long live the "nodding donkeys" 😂
They may be unloved and sometimes have an uncivilised ride but nevertheless, the Pacers have saved many branch lines from closure. Under the 2020 Reduced Mobility Act, most Pacers are supposed to be withdrawn unless they receive modifications.
My friend came over with his family from Italy and it cost him nearly £1000 to get from Heathrow to Cornwall for three of them. Less than £200 to fly from Italy to Heathrow.. How is that even possible?
Gotta keep the shareholders happy ain't we.
Use them as ballast wagons.thats all they are fit for.better ride in a goods brakevan.
Northern due to classified as a Heritage operation.
The pacers where a sort term fix and will be pay for them 7 time over and have been a God send to small village in the north of England
Nor have SWR on replacement of the 455’s their MD admitted in writing there would be no improvement in the suburban stock until at least 2020 ! In fact they’re bringing back more former BR stock The progress of privatisation
Ellen Wilkinson
Perfect little units for preserved lines.
I like them. What I don't like is the class 150. Worst unit ever
I'm shocked and surprised that Northern are not honouring their commitment... no, no I'm not shocked at all really.
Last time I caught a brand new Thameslink 700 the seat was hard as rock and in mid summer it was so cold with the air con ramped up (down?) to kill that my son and I got off to warm up! The Javelins aren't much better....I'll take the pacer please!
I agree withthe sentiment but its not strictly true to say that all Train Operating Companies are profiting. Although those that lose most are not shy in handing back the keys to the franchise.
The latest fare increase proposal has caused outrage. We are told that 98p of every £1 taken in revenue is invested back into the railway "Network". I would like to know - if this is the case, how are the TOCs and Leasing Companies making such enormous profits? I find it hard to believe that these profits are the result of only 2p in every pound being kept by TOCs, Leasing Companies, and their shareholders, who are laughing all the way to the bank. We are being taken for mugs - again, but most people just shrug their shoulders, have a little moan, and put up with it.
Northern have no timetable either LOL
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