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
5 days ago
"Ministers today ended rail franchising after 24 years as the first step in bringing Britain’s fragmented network back together" says the Department for Transport 🚉 A big step for Bring Back British Rail, but we won't rest until we've ended rail privatisation altogether ✊ ...
Rail franchising reaches the terminus as a new railway takes shape
www.gov.uk
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The redundancies have already started . Anybody who thinks this is good news or some kind of victory is sadly deluded . The decsion take today is not a reaction to a failed venture it's purely down to the pandemic. As predicated they tried to bury It into todays news but unfortunately it will be all to obvious in a few weeks when the hatchet falls on many many jobs around the country there will little the unions can do to stop it as there will be a severe lack of public support and of course ot as much disruption can be caused with the new way of working and travel not recommended. So you got what you wanted but the outcome wont be what we needed . RIP the railway of 2020.
What I am hoping for, at the very least, is something akin to ITA powers. That are right across, the nation. Here in Essex, all the towns. That are at end of branch lines, have more or less doubled in size. Therefore, the services need to be doubled in frequency.
i wonder just how much this totally unsuccessful privatisation has cost taxpayers over the years........
the infrastructure company is already dividing itself under the guise of putting passengers first splitting itself into what resembles the original BR regions - of course the chairman of said infrastructure company comes from a non railway background and will be doing the bidding of his masters at westminster - nobody from a truly railway background doesnt put passengers first no matter what company they work for.
I'll be buying 'Private Eye' to find out the whole story. I don't trust the media to give us what is really happening, and in fact I don't really think we get the whole story for the railway press.
Keep fighting Ellie, because we're not really there yet.
Bailing out their chums with public money. Again.
Let’s have a truly joined up system with all parts of the system under one organisation unless it’s Serco
Let's have that lovely blue back. Seriously though, the privatised rail network and that dreadful Railtrack were an absolute failure.
A single unified system even if there was private sector delivery is a compromise I would settle for if we have to keep privatisation.
It's been an unnecessarily complex mess from the start.
Why should public money fund their failure any more than it has!
And now get rid off South Western Failure and Abellio.
I cautiously welcome this news, let's see what they come up with. Bring Back BR!
Hopefully no compensation for shareholders
Unfortunately, I don’t quite believe it. I’m pretty sure they will carry on giving huge sums of taxpayers money to private firms. Which I wouldn’t mind, except they never get a value for money, and they just license the firms to rip off me, the passenger . However I’m now getting my revenge as I work from home. And I have no intention of paying those people any of my hard earned money directly ever again.
Money spaffed on the line.
Good! XX
Ah but the monkeys are still being paid to run the asylum. The Govt is still handing out cash to private companies to keep the trains running. Whts the odds those companies will still post profits for this period.
Bringing back a monolith like BR is not realistic. But placing infrastructure; operations and rolling stock under one roof is vital. Incentives to renew and replace rolling stock in a 15 year rolling time frame, starting with the not-fit-for-purpose stock -Pacers etc. - keep open access services, to provide some competition and give the Train Companies incentives to reopen closed branches where possible.
Can't help but feel this is an exercise in bullshit. The tories and the Blairites are both obsessed with privatisations and will just change the name not the policy.
Without taking action against the spiv hedge fund and bank owned ROSCOS it will have little meaning.
Soon as they’ve used public money to patch it up they’ll be flogging it off to their city mates - who will then have free rein to run it into the ground while lining their pockets for another 10-20 yrs before it needs “rescuing” by taxpayers again. We ARE the magic money tree for the 1%
We need a railway run by railwaymen!!
The word is concession contracts in which HMG take all the risk or profit and the operator runs the service. It jerks the cost of capital (rolling stock) off the government’s books as that remains the property of the train leasing companies. This is as near a nationalisation as you’re going to get as Network Rail remains state owned.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
"Ministers are ready to seize control of the railways after more than a quarter of a century of private ownership" reports today's The Telegraph. Look out for Grant Shapps' announcement this week. It's time to stop the bailouts and #TakeBackOurTrains 🚉 weownit.org.uk/take-back-our-trains ...
Franchises to be scrapped as lockdown rail costs rise
www.telegraph.co.uk
Grant Shapps is expected to make an announcement in days on a long-term solution to a troubled industryShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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somehow I am thinking this is too good tobe true. Usually the Tories only adopt the wording of Labour policies not the intent! e.g. community care sounds good so close all the special schools, etc. etc. but then don't fund the actual care in the community! So watch this space!
Privatisation of BR has been a costly failure. I remember when Stagecoach was awarded the franchise for South West Trains and what a laugh, they choose to make surplus to requirements of 70 train drivers, it caused so many cancellations of services and other problems.
I hope ministers don’t actually try to run the railways - with this bunch of incompetents that would lead to chaos.
More likely franchisees are queuing up to hand back their franchises. And with no franchise agreements there are no performance targets to hit, so why even try and get the things functional? Commuting, in election terms, is somewhere near the bottom of the list and we can tell this because the discussion is always about whether it will be an "above inflation fare increase" or a "below inflation fare increase". Quality and value really don't feature.
If a Tory is doing it, you can be sure it will be to further one of their principles: they're making hay out of it one way or other at public expense.
jesus. When are people going to learn? The Tories NEVER govern in the national interest. A quick look at who funds the party should tell you everything. I'd stake the house that when the final details are published this move will prove to be nothing more than a revised way of loading their mates' pockets.
Seeing this government makes a big thing of patriotism, how about a suitably patriotic name for the new setup, such as...er.... British Railways?
They have control. It's just funded differently and allows them to start to make the cutbacks. Read it and weep.
The ultimate Tory U-Turn! 41 years of social lies. economic lies, lies about socialism and lies about the lies, they really are a shower of shit, but I fear the damage elsewhere is already done!
Just wait till they start cutting duplicated services on routes where more than one operator compete against each other. I can see huge redundancies
who will they get to run it all? The "government" have sacked or redeployed to brexit roles all the civil servants that knew how to run a railway......
The story about the whole network in England being nationalized in all but name isn’t new - RAIL were talking about it in their 12-AUG-2020 edition. The DfT are getting fed up with carrying trains full of air, rather than people. Problem comes in that there will be loads of services and routes cut to make the whole thing pay, enough to making Beeching “look like an aperitif “. Be careful what you wish for in these crazy days.
That's the way to do it, when the money runs out, nationalise the railways. !947 revisited.
I wonder whether that will include Manchester Metrolink, the pilot scheme for railway privatisation
Only so they can sell them off again to get an injection of cash once this is over.
just another selservative con job, bailed out by the taxpayer, and sold off later to their mates.
Notice BBBR just linked to the report . No usful comment as is the normal . I suspect they see this as some kind of victory but this couldnt be further from their vision of a BR of 1985
Where’s the money coming from? Watch it be fare increases leading to lower demand, service cuts, less staff and more unemployment. Far better to scrap HS2 and admit demand isn’t there as the way things are going we won’t be travelling in vast numbers for a long while yet. Tories all about ruining the UK whilst watching their bank balance grow!
should never hav been privatised , nor the us industry
If so, does this not prove once and for all, that dogmatic privatisation and resultant fragmentation of what are "natural monopolies", will always ultimately fail.
Make British Rail Great Again?🤔
Let’s wait and see as this has been floated before But what about grand central an open access provider if the Tory graph is right
Fabulous news, let’s get back to running an integrated network that is ran for passengers not profit.
There has been a long term plan to bring the railways into public ownership. Then privatised it again, but this time, it will be the whole package which will include tracks, signals and stations. I read it 2 or 3 years ago when Chris Grayling was in charge.
Pay wall. Imagine having to pay for the privilege of knowing how the Tories are going to wreck us....again..... Apparently, only people with money are to be educated. #GTTO of all ilks
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Bring Back British Rail
3 weeks ago
Shocking to see FirstGroup awarded this massive bailout to run Great Western Railway. Why should we subsidise their profits until at least 26 June 2021? 💰💸 Grant Shapps & Rishi Sunak must #TakeBackOurTrains to save money and improve services in the long-term 👉 bringbackbritishrail.org/takebackourtrains ...
GWR Emergency Measures Agreement extended
www.railwaygazette.com
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I think the DoT have more pressing matters to deal with than taking over GWR. Must be considering nationalising BA, Easyjet and BAA at least.
My bum, she is sore. No more please, Tories, no more ...
Tory owned, tory bastards!
I do not agree with Nationalisation as a whole BUT national infrastructure, obviously including the railways, should not have been privatised. The railways should be bought into public ownership especially given the amount of taxpayers money given to them.
Similar situation on the - unnecessarily - new South Western Railways, and absolutely no policing of masks!
More bailouts for the ailing privatised rail structures ? It now reminds me of the 1970s when the car industry's British Leyland and Chrysler Europe was being bailed out too.
There useless, when other TOC's have been brought back in to government control, why should they be made a special case
It what i call the Tories looking after their own.
expropriate. No compensation. Why buy what you already own......
Brown envelopes all round?
Corruption.
It's hardly privately run if it needs bailouts. Ridiculous concept.
The tories will do anything to prevent it being re-nationialised, after all they created this mess in the first place back in 1997.
Its not a bail out as such, the government will pay the bills and take the revenue, Worst will get a small fee for managing thectrain services on the governments behalf, its effectively nationalised as are all the other franchises. If the Joris and his chums hadnt have stepped in the trains would have stopped running months ago.
need a unified system that talks to each other
Left wing whining about the Tories again.just like the moaning unions. If only that prick Corbyn would have won eh. We would all be ok then. And Dianne Abbott in charge of national security. The railway would have been shut months ago if the government hadn't stepped in
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months ago
Private rail companies stand to make £500 million from coronavirus bailouts 💰💸 Today we joined our friends at RMT, We Own It & the Association of British Commuters in writing to every MP in the country to demand they act to bring railways back into public ownership now. Read our #TakeBackOurTrains letter 📝👉 bit.ly/3eNgshqResearch reveals that private rail companies stand to make £500 Million from Coronavirus bailouts while passengers and rail unions call for nationalisation.
bit.ly/32HvGSN
Britain’s private rail companies stand to make almost £500 million in profits over the next 12 months according to new research by rail union RMT, amid widespread speculation that the government is about to extend its Emergency Measures Agreements.
Analysis of ministerial answers to questions in Parliament indicate that the government’s Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs) will see the government hand over around £231 million in operating profits to the train operating companies over a 12 month period. The train operating companies are currently lobbying the government to extend the agreements for a further 18 months. These same agreements also entail the government ‘picking up the tab’ in full for the lease charges that would be paid by the train operating companies to the rolling stock companies, the ‘ROSCOs’. Analysis of the ROSCOs’ accounts shows that in the last year, they made profits of £241 million. If the government renews the EMAs and continues to bail out the train operating companies, we could see around £500 million in desperately needed public funds leaking out of the railways into private profit.
Groups representing passengers and rail workers have written to MPs from across the political spectrum calling on them to demand proper scrutiny of any government decision on the EMAs and urging them to support nationalisation of the network to stop the scandalous profiteering at public expense. The letter, sent on behalf of rail unions and passenger groups, says that Britain needs a safe, affordable and accessible railway to support public transport and decarbonisation and that every penny of public money should be used to invest in a recovery plan that will get badly needed rail services back on track rather than leaking out into private profit.
RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch said;
“We desperately need a properly funded rail network to play its crucial role in fighting climate change and to keep the lifeblood of our economy flowing. Now more than ever we need every penny of public money invested in building a safe, affordable, accessible railway, not leeched out of the system by a small group of big businesses with a consistent record of failure.”
Ellen Lees, campaigns officer at We Own It said:
“If the government continues to pursue bailouts of the rail industry, they'll once again be ignoring the reality that's staring them straight in the face. No matter how many times they try to prop up a failing system, the private rail companies will always come crawling back cap in hand for more cash.
“It's time we ended this farce. Instead of funnelling millions into the pockets of private companies, we should bring our railways into public hands – so they can work for people and the planet, not for private profit."
Emily Yates, Co-Founder of the Association of British Commuters said;
“Passenger trust is more important than ever, but it has been severely damaged by years of crisis on the railways. Public ownership is now the only way to restore this trust, and start building the integrated, efficient and accountable system we deserve.”
Ellie Harrison, Founder, Bring Back British Rail said;
“Privatised rail has never worked. 'Natural monopolies' like our railways need to be centrally co-ordinated and run for the public good. Now the coronavirus crisis has laid bare this simple truth. Public transport is an essential public service to get our key workers to their jobs. We must stop the bailouts to failing private rail companies, and seize this opportunity to 'take back our trains' for good.” ...
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Making a profit out of illness and death is just plain sick and uncaring greed. As usual, Profit before People, money matters, people don't. Tory mantra.
Parasites. 🤬
They are on their way to be renationalised. But keep the pressure on.
Is this Ellie Harrison the TV :Presenter?. Ask her how much better the Rail Service is from her local station in the Cotswolds to London since de-nationalisation.
RMT are too busy worrying about black lives matter and whining about tories to worry about the railway
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months ago
If FirstGroup go under, they'll take Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express Trains, Great Western Railway and South Western Railway with them. Then Grant Shapps will have no choice but to #TakeBackOurTrains! Take action 👉 weownit.org.uk/take-back-our-trains ...
FirstGroup derailed by collapse in passenger numbers, 8 Jul 2020 09:49 | Shares Magazine
www.sharesmagazine.co.uk
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Who remembers John Major and John MacGregor with those promises by telling us that rail privatisation will deliver vast improvements and fares will be lower? In fact, I remember it well and it never delivered anything.
I had the misfortune to work for the company in a senior leadership role a decade ago. It was hell on earth, everything was about the bottom line, Aberdeen micromanaging the day job and being obsessed with protecting the brand. Profit before people for sure.
Of all the bus groups which emerged from de-regulation in 1986, First Group have always seemed to be bottom of the pile, a situation which has been entirely of their own making. I saw their share price last week, they were trading at 35 pence!
Have to say seeing the back of First would be a source of great rejoicing. Unfortunately the consequences for bus/rail passengers will probably not be good.
Anyone who had the misfortune to live in North Manchester and be 'served' by First knows only.too well.how appalling their services were
Oh god I SOOO hope first go bust, they are the Britain's WORST EVER company. They recently lost the contract to provide most of the buses in Cornwall, I guess because they were totally incapable of being able to run the buses ontime and that's when they could be bothered to actually send one in the first place. Much less run an integrated transport system where by a train pulls up at a station and there is a bus waiting at the bus stop right outside. Often first would timetable the trains and buses so there was a 30-45 minute gap. Sheer incompetence would be a massive understatement when describing first group.
First Group has always been more focussed on its money-making ability than its commitment to its customers. The mess that it's in is of its own making and I have no sympathy for it whatsoever.
Avanti is the Italian state railway company, isn’t it?
they also run the buses in Leeds
Hull Trains are also backed by this lot and get nothing from the Government
When you see the state of the Armed Forces, NHS and anything else the government runs be very, very careful what you wish for.
And why will that be a good thing .
Worstgroup.
Ride acock horse to Banbury Cross..... Home again Home again Jigatyjig....
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