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.
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.
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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.
Bring Back British Rail
2 hours ago
On April Fools’ Day 2015, Abellio - the company owned by the Dutch government - took over running ScotRail 🚆 Last year, after years of poor performance, Michael Matheson MSP agreed to end Abellio's contract three years' early (on 31 March 2022). Sign our #MakeScotRailPublic petition to demand that a publicly-owned operator takes over
📝 you.38degrees.org.uk/p/publicrailwayscotland ...
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That's the SNP's plan.
We can't wait till 2022 - needs done NOW.
Nationalisation is here to stay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Phil Taylor Rio was the first name down
Ed Henry
Shug Cumming
It already is, the Dutch public own it.
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Bring Back British Rail
1 week ago
A momentous day 🚆✊ 'Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised' amidst the coronavirus crisis. This proves what we've been saying all along - public transport is an essential public service, not a cashcow for private operators. ...
Covid-19: government suspends rail franchise agreements
www.theguardian.com
Emergency measures will be in place for six months to avoid train companies collapsingShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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More on the story here: www.citymetric.com/transport/has-government-just-renationalised-britain-s-railways-4969
Call me a cynic but I see this as the Tories protecting their friends from losses associated with this crisis. The public purse will cover the damage. When this is all over the franchises will resume and we’ll be back to square one.
Let's try to make it permanent (although I think an arms length wholly owned organisation (ALMO) would be a better prospect in the long term).
When JC proposed re-nationalisation the howls of derision were ‘where’s the money coming from?’ Now the toryscum do it when there’s hardly any revenue coming in, so either this is an excuse to axe lines in favour of their beloved money pit HS2 or there really is a ‘magic money tree’ 🤔
Now they need to do the same thing with the water companies, it should be a public utility too.
Hurrah hurrah hurrah! I hope this crisis sends us back towards public ownership of all essential services x Responsible leadership is what's needed, not profits for shareholders!
Radical socialism is what's needed after all. The media & ruling class demonised Corbyn for suggesting such a thing. Funny, that.
The problem is, socialist nationalisation is without compensation to shareholders and pulls down the fat-cat managers’ salaries and bonuses to reasonable levels. Capitalist nationalisation protects the shareholders and executives at the expense of the tax-payer - remember the banks in 2008-14? They’re gonna give the railways back to the privateers. No joy here then, unless we fight to keep the railways public (RMT/ASLEF/TUC?).
Sorry, but let them go bust. The trains, track, and staff are all going to still be there, ready and waiting to be managed for the public benefit, not foreign nationalised train operators.
Michael Walsh
They are just 'socialisng' the losses. Moment the trains are back in profit they will privatise them again.
Paul Banks
Let's make ssure they stay in Public hands when this chaos is over!
Tories protecting their friends again, I guess when this is all over them get their franchise back for one pence.
Socialism saving the country.
Hmm.. you could almost wonder if they'd be better run by The State?
Terrible decision, the franchise holders should be made accountable and bail themselves out with the profits they have made. If not they should surrender the franchise. The government should commence an emergency nationalisation of the railways and rolling stock due to the pandemic. Forcing the discharged of all the private rail franchise contracts due to frustration and bringing them under the control and operation of the government.
All people who work on the railway read this.
Not nationalisation. Just allows them to bail out the franchises as their incomes fall. Branson will probably try to sue HMG for not allowing his gravy train to keep running. (He will just have to depend on whatever he gets from NHS!)
They'll give it back once it's profitable again.
Some good then from all this!
However, the train operators will continue to run the services "for a small predetermined management fee", the DfT said. Private companies will run the trains but the government underwrites it all and, during this exceptional time, carries the losses.
Socialism the only way
I wonder how many don't realise you've deliberately reversed the BR logo? At first I thought you'd 'hung the Union Flag upside down'.
Bloody Northern started arbitrary rolling cancellations on the day I was trying to get to Manchester Airport (March 20th). Had to get a taxi in the end after I'd paid for rail tickets. Good riddance I say, and welcome back BR (permanently I hope).
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Bring Back British Rail
3 weeks ago
It's the privatisation of public services which has been a key driver of inequality across Britain over the last 30 years. Bring Back British Rail! Join us at: bringbackbritishrail.org ...
End privatisation to help 'left behind' areas of Britain, voters say
www.independent.co.uk
Study reveals reasons why voters support taking services back into public ownershipShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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When ever anything goes private the service drop and prices go up. Bring everything back as British.
It's the same story in virtually every case. Councils being forced by central government to outsource many services. Those service costs then spiral, there's little the council's can or are willing to do and so on. It's just a huge shit slinging fight where councils and local tax payers get shafted but central government sits there wanking over the scenario.
Be interesting to put a number to the amount of people who voted Tory to get Brexit but in non brexit days wouldn't have voted Tory or wouldn't have voted at all .... It wouldn't surprise me if that was a major factor in the result.
In privatisation the revenue and income earned from the fares appear to have dropped leading to increase in political subsidies. In the last ten years of BR, it averaged 64% while in the first ten years of privatisation, it was 55%, This explains why rail privatisation even with the highest fares in Europe cannot cover the cost
But voters had a chance to say that in the election and they backed the party who believe the railways are working. Labour proposed nationalisation and it was rejected. We must respect the will of the people - the last 4 years have taught not to disagree with the results of votes....
Bit late you all voted Tory
Bring back all the privatised companies that were given away by the corrupt Tory’s,
If you vote tory, the silver wear gets sold, it's comman policy however when there's trouble just dump it and run, and leave the blame elsewhere
You can only take back control of the TOCs, the track belongs to a different company and all the trains belong to banks and leasing companies who have paid out for them.
Actually, voters said the reverse on 12th December.
Far more passenger trains running now.
Which voters? Because clearly not the 13 million that voted Tory They will be put back into privatisation,the Tories will not run the railways as state owned
But they forgot about it in the election ! Spilt milk ?!!
And where is all the money going to come from renationalise everything?? Yup the taxpayer......
My heart says renationalise everything. It is, after all infrastructure - which is different from 'industry'. My head, however, remembers when my coloured wife was insulted by British Rail counter staff in Nottingham in the seventies, I was ripped off by platform staff (porters) - also in the seventies - and generally an attitude that people turned up their places of employment as a favour. Customers were treated as a nuisance. Civility was rare. Workmanship standards were questionable. British cars were a joke, albeit rusty.
Privatisation has benefitted nobody apart from foreign ownership shareholders CEOs etc and has allowed regular frequent price rises and pisspoor customer service. Anybody who says it is better than British Rail is a stupid idiot
Biggest scam ever,privatisation,conned,gulled all for the rich to bleed the country dry with little or no input back.Crumbling britain except Londonistan gets everything going.
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Bring Back British Rail
4 weeks ago
Northern Rail renationalised - a great decision for passengers! ...
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Privatisation has made so many poor decisions since early days. It's been a disaster.
This government's idea of re-nationalisation and our idea of re-nationalisation aren't necessarily the same thing!
This arguing about tory /labour is pointless. Look at the rail and coal industries, more track milage and pits shut when labour were in than the tories. Labour had 13 years and never renationalised the railway. That makes me think that both parties are bought and paid for and the establishment can then control things to suit themselves. If voting changed anything it would have been banned years ago. Just look at the government policies and broken promises since 1958.
I was a Deputy Chief Controller when we lost the supervision of the Great Eastern railways. You can imagine how difficult it was with the stock, staff and routes being under control. It will never work again until we gain ONE CONTROL system.
ive worked on the railway 32 years now. she has no idea what she's on about. its nothing to do with tories or labour because labour were in charge for 13 year and did nothing. lner is now government run. I used it today and it's still shit. another sticker another name changes nothing. the bunch of wankers in charge of the company are the problem
The East Coast route has been taken back into public ownership three times. It's easy to see what the future is for Northern Rail.
but i cannot easily get to southport on a sunday. 6 days a week its a doddle to get notts to southport. sunday twice as long and all over the country. ridiculous
well done Cat Hobbs, that is great!
For how long,Capitalism does not like nationalisation,tax payer will put it right again for privatisation.
We need to own it AND control it
But it needs to improve.
Slowly but surely
Now do the other franchises!
About bloody time. Northern are a bloody disgrace.
I really want to know just how much First Group are bunging the Tories to keep hold of Trans-Pennine. How they are somehow being portrayed as a victim of Northern Rail’s issue is disgusting. Northern never regular boot off a whole peak hour trainload of passengers at Stalybridge so the train can be reversed and avoid delay fines later in the day...
I don’t mind if others want their local or national lines renationalised but, current ticketing difficulties aside, please don’t change C2C it works better, far better than it ever did under BR
RIP BR's Mr S & C (Settle & Carlisle) Ron Cotton.
Network Rail is state owned. The DfT sanction what train operator's do. The Government is at the core of what goes both wrong and right with the railway. It was also Government interference that scuppered British Rail.
JEREMY CORBYN is right again 👍⭐🌟
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
Today Northern rail is re-nationalised. That’s two franchises down, only eighteen more to go! Join the original passenger-led campaign for a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit 🚆✊ bringbackbritishrail.org/franchises ...
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LNER are not exactly a good example are they? I support nationalisation wholeheartedly, but they have not improved the London to Leeds service plus it's now even more expensive than before! It needs to be done properly!
Let’s face it. This government is only nationalising these lines to pump public money into them and then, when they’ve got them up to spec, they’ll sell them, on the cheap, back to the public sector.
Will they ever learn the railways are for people to get around to see loved ones and visit places and earn a living not to fill up pockets of shareholders and foreign investors it's time for Change
But the same trains, same people running them, empty promises from the Dominic Cummings led government of overdue infrastructure improvements.
The common factor with the failed franchises is the DFT, yet renationalisation will involve the DFT and politicians even more. How exactly will that work? Get rid of political interference and safeguard freight paths and I would be all for renationalisation.
A lot of the reason it's shit is the billions wasted reducing capacity and the legacy of stupid short MUT rubbish. Marples totally fucking the system and the endless real cuts after were done by governments of both flavours.
maybe you should look into LNER and see who is actually running it , you maybe surprised , or maybe you just dont want to say !!!! simple fact is no part of the railway is run on a nationalised basis its all contracts
Unfortunately it will make very little difference until network rail get off their arse and do some serious work on the infrastructure, with proper skilled railwaymen.
Needs to be re-organised. Publicity runned Northern Ireland Railways and mainland Europe Railway are working.
You do understand that under either a nationalised or privatised railway the industry is run by the government irrespective...
Strike some more and South Western Railways is next. A total shambles of a train company.
Still.needs a lot of common sense building into the system.
I do hope the r m t ballot calls for all out strikes time to rid us of johnson
Get rid of first class coaches. They have no place in the modern world.
You forgot Railtrack. Easily done - it’s just all the infrastructure. www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/oct/08/Whitehall.transport
South Western Railway next?!
This needs to happen on the K&WVR.
Please let Southwestern be next.
I was in Brighton last weekend. Sunday 1530 to London was 12 carriages. Compare this with 3 or 6 Edinburgh to Manchester service at peak times!
I can honestly see GWR doing this very soon
Southeastern next please, 14 years of misery for us now...
Capitalism is just one success after another 🤔
I hope we can renationalise South Eastern rail soon!
When the railways were built in the victorian times. Their was not so many people to transport around. In comparison to nowadays a lot more people. Nothing has changed a lot over the years of improving the rail network. Still in the yeara of the victorian times. Its not easy to get trains in the right places to go if its unworkable. It needs good planning to make it work.
On this site I’d like to know which part of BR you want back, you have to remember things were very different in those days, for example PPE was absolutely dire. The H&S was often non existent, there were a lot of dead-wood staff. Even the sandwiches were horrific!!! It was run on a shoestring budget, so the equipment was clapped out and skinflint ideas are still about such as the Pacers. Sadly we still have equipment although nostalgic is costly to run all legacies of that should have gone ages ago. Unfortunately the words future proof are low on priorities except for the busiest main lines, despite the vast numbers of new housing developments going on and the over-congested roads.
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