Great British Railways Debate
20th May 2021 | Media Coverage / News
On the day Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched the long-awaited Williams Rail Review, Bring Back British Rail’s Ellie Harrison was invited on BBC 2’s Jeremy Vine programme to debate the pros and cons of the ‘Great British Railways‘ proposal with Pete Waterman.
Take Back Our Trains interview
25th June 2020 | Media Coverage / News
As a result of our #TakeBackOurTrains campaign, Bring Back British Rail’s Ellie Harrison was invited onto talkRADIO to discuss with Ian Collins how we can use the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to build back a better railway that is run in passengers’ interests.
Passengers Rise Up! National Day of Action
20th December 2019 | Demonstration / Media Coverage / News
On Thursday 2 January 2020, rail fares go up again by another 2.8%.
The rail franchising system is broken and it’s passengers that are paying the price.
We’re joining forces with our friends at the Association of British Commuters and other passenger groups across the country to organise a National Day of Passenger Action demanding an end to the farce of franchising and fair fares now!
They’ll be a central demonstration at London King’s Cross Station at 8am. Details of other actions will be listed on the Facebook event page and below.
Thursday 2 January 2020:
07:00-09:00 King’s Lynn Station
08:00-09:30 London King’s Cross Station
09:30-10:30 Chelmsford Station
10:00-12:00 Norwich Station (organised by NOR4NOR)
11:30-12:30 London Liverpool Street Station
16:00-17:30 Burton-on-Trent Station
16:30-19:30 Bolton Station (organised by Northern Resist)
Please get in touch if you’d like to organise an action at your local station and we can help promote it: info@bringbackbritishrail.org
Media Coverage from 2 January 2020
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps vows to strip Northern Rail of its franchise as furious commuters say they are ‘being priced off the railway’ after fares rise 2.7 per cent across UK, Daily Mail
• Train fare increase 2020: protesters gather at London’s Kings Cross warning of ‘decade of misery’ for rail commuters, I News
• Rail fares rise by 2.7%, hitting millions of commuters, BBC News
• Commuters in mass protests as 2.7% rail fare hike hits, Inside Croydon
• Railway stations to be hit by more strikes against fee hikes, Morning Star
• Northern to be stripped of rail franchise – Shapps, Wimbledon Times
• Commuters gather at Bolton station in protest over increased rail fares, The Guardian
• ‘Enough is enough!’ Furious commuter rages at railway ‘carnage’ amid fresh fare hikes, Daily Express
BBC Radio Scotland ScotRail debate
19th December 2019 | Media Coverage / News
Following Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson’s announcement that he would be ending Abellio’s contract to run the ScotRail franchise three years’ early (on 31 March 2022), Bring Back British Rail’s Ellie Harrison was invited onto BBC Radio Scotland’s Jackie Brambles show to discuss ScotRail’s future with rail journalist Philip Haigh and Rachel Jackson, actress and comedian.
We all want British Rail
18th January 2019 | Media Coverage / News
Coverage in the Daily Mirror of our Care2 petition hand-in with more than 120,000 signatures, at the Department for Transport on 18 January 2019. We’re demanding that the public ownership of our railways is properly considered in the Williams Rail Review.
Rail Revolution: Day of Action
11th December 2018 | Demonstration / Media Coverage / News
Sick of rising rail fares and chaotic commuting?
Tired of the endless tinkering with our broken privatised railway system?
It’s time for a #RailRevolution.
On Wednesday 2 January 2019, as our rail fares rise again by 3.1%, we’re joining forces with our friends at We Own It, the Association of British Commuters and NOR4NOR to organise a national day of action calling for radical reform.
Coinciding with the public consultation for the government’s new ‘root and branch’ review of rail: the Williams Rail Review, we’re calling on passengers all over the country to respond in favour of a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.
On Wednesday 2 January 2019, protests will take place at stations across the country (see full list here), with a central one at London King’s Cross from 7:30-9:00am (photo call at 8:00am). See the Facebook event page for details, print a Bring Back British Rail placard and come join us!
Sign the Petition
Then on Friday 18 January 2019, to mark the deadline of the Williams Rail Review public consultation, we’ll be delivering our Care2 Petition to Re-nationalise our Railways signed by 118,039 people to the Department for Transport to demonstrate the sheer weight of public support for public ownership.
Make sure you add your name before then: bringbackbritishrail.org/care2
Media Coverage from 2 January 2019
• Furious passengers protest price hikes, Daily Mail
• Anger at ‘disgraceful’ rail fare rises as stations hit by protests, Sky News
• Chris Grayling blames unions for rail fare hike, BBC News
• Rail passengers stage ‘national day of action’ in protest at fare increases, Evening Standard
• Rail users to mount ‘national day of action’ over 3.1% fare rise, The Guardian
• Rail season tickets to jump by £100 for many commuters, Metro
• Train price hike: Jeremy Corbyn calls for public ownership of railways, Independent
• Rail fares rise 3.2% TODAY despite trains chaos, Mirror
• Protest in Birmingham over rising rail fares, Birmingham Live
• Protests at Sheffield railway station as rail fares rise by an average of 3.1 per cent, The Star
• York protest over national rail fare hike, The Press
Jeremy Vine on bringing back British Rail
20th September 2018 | Media Coverage / News
Following the Office of Rail and Road finding that ‘systemic failings’ have been the cause of the huge problems with new timetables on the Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway franchises, Ellie Harrison was invited to address the question ‘should we bring back British Rail?’ on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show.
‘Privatised rail just doesn’t work’ – Ellie Harrison
20th September 2018 | Media Coverage / News
Bring Back British Rail campaign founder Ellie Harrison was interviewed by Johanna Ross for Sputnik News, following Chris Grayling’s acknowledgement that ‘systemic failings’ are the cause of the many problems on our privatised rail network. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying for the last nine years?
BBC Radio Essex
15th June 2018 | Media Coverage
Following weeks of disruption in on South East England’s railways, Bring Back British Rail’s Ellie Harrison was invited to discuss re-nationalisation on Breakfast with Ben and Sonia on BBC Radio Essex.
Success! Or is it?
1st June 2018 | Fundraising / Media Coverage / News
On 16 May 2018, one month after we launched our Crowd Justice campaign to take Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to court over his handling of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise fiasco, it was announced in the media that the route would be ‘re-nationalised’, as LNER (London North Eastern Railway) from 24 June 2018.
Success! Or is it? It later emerged that the new LNER franchise (unlike ‘East Coast’, which ran the line from 2009-15 and was wholly publicly-owned by the Department for Transport), would be run by a consortium of private companies: Arup, Ernst & Young and SNC-Lavalin.
Our legal action continues. Our lawyers have now written to Government for a forth time: to request further information about the new LNER arrangement, as well as the ongoing review of the suitability of Stagecoach and Virgin to retain their franchise ‘Passports’, given the dramatic failure of their Virgin Trains East Coast operation after just three years.
Thanks to all 907 people who have so far pledged support on Crowd Justice. Together we have already had a huge impact on events. Please continue to join this historic action.
Pledge and share our case page today: crowdjustice.com/case/eastcoast
Our Lawyers’ Letters
• 5 March 2018: Leigh Day to Department for Transport
• 16 April 2018: Leigh Day to Department for Transport (Pre-Action Protocol)
• 15 May 2018: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
• 1 June 2018: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
• 17 July 2018: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
• 21 May 2019: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
• 26 June 2019: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
Our Case in the News
• 18 April 2018: The Canary (Interview with Ellie Harrison of Bring Back British Rail)
• 19 April 2018: BBC News
• 19 April 2018: ITV News
• 19 April 2018: City AM
• 16 May 2018: Financial Times
Bring Back British Rail
11 hours ago
🚆 Southeastern is brought back into public ownership today.
British Rail. We’re getting there... ...
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🤗 For those who don't know British Rail's 1980s 'We're getting there' advertising campaign www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU-e2-4hptQ
It will follow the pattern of the taxpayers investing to make it successful so that the Tories can sell it off cheaply to their mates who will run it into the ground while extracting maximum profit out of it. Some might call me cynical but...
It's almost as if breaking up a nationwide transport network into lots of pieces and selling them off to the private sector was a really crap idea in the first place
Why give money to shareholders when you can give it to the service
The sooner we view having a service available is a profit to society and doesn’t have to produce a shareholder dividend, the better.
After the taxpayers and customer have been bled dry of billions. It's now real celebration. Lessons need to be learnt, people need to be held accountable for the extortionate swindle.
All utilities and transport should be nationalised including fares.
As a long time sufferer of Govia's delights living in SE London... fingers crossed it's TSGN next to be taken... Honestly, I don't understand why they've been allowed to keep TSGN given the reason SE was stripped.
Problem is the systems been milked for all the privateers and foreign companies could get out of it and that includes a lot of taxpayers money. You can be sure that all in power, including the still all powerful road lobby will be seeking to deny the Nationalised system the investment it needs.
Should never privateise anything that all the country needs gas or electricity rail put more transportation of goods back onto rail too with distribution centres in all towns
still all being run a separate entities though so pray tell me what exactly has changed a[art from the imminent mass job losses
Jonathan Gray might as well renationalise the whole network at this point now 🚅
The problem I foresee is these lines will be privatised again once they're profitable. Effectively what we're doing here is bailing out billionaires. Privatising profits and nationalising losses. This isn't even capitalism, it's state sponsored monopoly. The same thing is going on with domestic energy. As smaller energy suppliers go bust their customers are transferred to one of the big six, Centrica, National Grid etc. Government is researching ways to help out these big suppliers. Why not help the smaller ones in the first instance and maintain a competitive market?
Only regrouping it all to sell off to their mates for a nice bung in the back pocket. Please don't be fooled into thinking this government has anyone's interest at heart, apart from themselves. Going forward I expect less services, higher fares and complaints of "No rollingstock" because they've sent it all to Sims in Newport. TFW will be the only properly nationalised railway.
I remember the last time when then Connex South Eastern was nationalised and stayed so for a fair while and even Conservative MP's said they felt things had been going well with improvement in service from end of Connex and pleaded with the Government not to re- franchise it.
We need a Nationalised British Rail with the commercial freedom & independence from the Civil Servants at the Dept For Transport.
Under the williams (shapps) report there is still an element of TOC involment, until that is removed completley things wont change, they can not let go of the ideals privitisation good / nationalisation bad and it would mean admitting they got it wrong 😡
It used to be the case that if a franchise was taken back in house the operator was deemed unfit as an operator - and thus was required to surrender all its franchises.
It was privately run, not privately owned. While I’m a firm believer in nationalisation, there is a difference.
We're noy getting there at all. We are getting made redundant!! The tory government are having more control over who has a franchise but this isn't a good thing for staff. Voluntary redundancies have been made available, applications are open now. After that there will be forced redundancies.
When we get the whole lot back, we need a flat rate per mile of track pricing system. Cost spread over the whole network so that people aren't penalised for where they happen to be.
Great news - let's hope this progresses until the whole lot is back in public ownership as one organisation. But I'm not holding my breath - too many Tory "chums" waiting in the wings for a chance to snap up a bargain if it is offered to them by a cabinet minister they drink with in the village pub.😃
Bit by bit, it’s being realised that selling off the family heirlooms is not good for a countries long time future
Great Northern must be next. There'll be street parties when Govia gets the boot.
Transport for Wales is run by the Welsh government. The Scottish government is responsible for rail in Scotland, the Northern Irish government in Northern Ireland. Call it English Rail because that's what it'll be.
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Bring Back British Rail
6 days ago
How about this for rail fare reform? 🌍 Austrians have a plan to cut carbon emissions by making trains cheaper than driving or flying ...
Want to fix Britain’s broken trains? Look at Austria
www.wired.co.uk
Austrians will soon be able to travel huge train distances for next to nothing – and it’s all part of an effort to tackle the climate crisisShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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In a small (in terms of land area) country like ours it makes sense to have a single state-owned and integrated transport system (which we used to have). Privatisation was a stupid thing to do (done for ideological rather than sensible strategic reasons). Now there are also very good environmental reasons to sort out train travel and bus travel too. This won’t happen with the useless Tories in charge.
Problem in this country is that we have a large part of the electorate that is in love with the upper classes, the class system etc, in no other European country would working class towns vote for a useless party full of useless toffs who have luxury villa holidays in Spain and the Caribbean. Until we stop reading the newspapers and get our facts from real life we will always think things like cheap rail travel secondary.
Maybe we should have a state rail company modelled on Germany. It is crazy that the German state is allowed to run British railways and take the profits but the British Govt is not allowed to
You'll also notice that during the year most Train operators offer heavily discounted ticket prices. There's always a massive demand, which tells me one thing, they don't need to have rail fares as high as they are it's just corporate greed. If the train fares were a fair price they wouldn't need to knock fares right down. Next week for example I'm travelling to Lincoln courtesy of the Northern £1 ticket sale it's cost me £8 return in total for myself and the Mrs. That is good value for money. I'm not saying make ticket prices a £1 but at least make them affordable.
Unfortunately ideology and dogma and private profit won't allow for the common sense of a mixed economy as happens in the successful European countries, same goes for utilities. It seems ok for othe Government to own our infrastructure but not our own Government and people!
I drive my car for a day out to the coast for one reason it is cheaper than the train .
Not a chance. Too much profit to be made by the private sector.
Sadly I can’t see that happening here; not whilst we’ve got staunch Capitalist Johnson running the show.
No chance of that here, chances are that they have an interest in our Railways.
no doubt their railways are state run unlike over here where they are privatised and more concerned with lining the pockets of 'fat cat' share holders over offering the public any kind of low cost travel
that’s how you change habits make it cheaper and easier to do the right option. not try to make the easier and cheaper option harder to use and put up the prices of trains like the uk
When have you heard of anything getting cheaper in the UK?
It's a crazy idea.. but. it. might. just. work..
It could easily be achieved but that would mean no profit for tory party donors who have vested interests in the companies that run the franchises. Whilst capitalism is king nothing will change in this country.
The trouble is that if we did that here the train price wouldn't change, they would just make driving more expensive.
A levy on domestic flights and private jets would go a long way to helping reduce fares and increase investment.
Cheaper fares will unfortunately lead to overcrowding. - just an observation.
Every other Country except ours seems to own our Railways unfortunately
At present it excludes Vienna’s extensive network which is where a large proportion of the population live but it is an excellent idea and well worth replicating. But it requires big government which is anathema to our esteemed govt.,
I lot of people only compare the cost of the train to the fuel they use; so a lot of the time they are not thinking about how much their car is really costing them at all.
A few years ago needed to go to Inverness from East London. Checked costs by car with 1 overnight stop each way. Train and 4 day hire car. Coach and 4 day hire car. Fly and 4 day hire car. Car all the way worked out far, far cheaper. Flying was next cheapest.
I suggest making all local public transport free.This would reduce poverty and divert many towards a sustainable form of transport.
And yet they still have a massive coal industry which exports to China and other places so money talks there as well
Government subsidised and look at the income tax rates to pay for it !
I never go anywhere by train as the price is horrific
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Bring Back British Rail
3 weeks ago
Another one bites the dust! Southeastern will be brought back into public ownership, and the private company running it is under investigation for serious fraud. Says it all really, privatisation is broken #BringBackBritishRail ...
Southeastern: Government takes over services after 'serious breach'
www.bbc.co.uk
The government says it will consider options for more action, including financial penalties.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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With British Rail I could simply rock up to a station, buy an AFFORDABLE ticket from a human and travel to where I needed to alight. It was run as a service not a profit source for shareholders. Very occasionally the train would be full and some of the journey involved standing. No big deal!
Privitise profit, socialise loss. Always the Tory way.
As soon as it’s running well again they’ll just give it back to one of their mates!
Bring it all back in and stop subsidising well lined pockets
i lost most of my pension with tory privatization of british rail
Yet Kier Starmer won’t commit to say the word re-nationalise!! I’m sure there is a public appetite for the railways to be taken back into public control!
My dad spent his whole life, working for British Rail and reached a very high level in his career. His father drove the Royal Train ... dad said that UK would regret privatising what used to be a wonderful railway!
Nationalise British rail - wasn’t that a Corbyn manifesto pledge ??? 🤔
I thought privatisation (WE WERE TOLD) meant Competition wou;d keep prices down! instead many of the Brirtish RAIL Companies are run by European GOVERNMENTS, and the European Rail networks are VERY MUCH CHEAPER (anf in some ways BETTER) than ours!
While the fraud office is at it, they should look at the Great Western electrification and the HS2 farce. There has always been a whiff of dodgy dealings with HM government, particularly with defence procurement, and having worked in the NHS can certainly attest to shady practices. But it seems fraud is the new national industry.
Time to renationalise..... enough of this profit driven obsession and couldn't care less attitude regarding the travelling public.
I'm sure sombody not to long ago said he would bring back the railway back under government.. The tories and there media SKY NEWS and BBC NEWS said he was a crack pot... Mr corbyn I believe 😕
There is only one thing for it, Bring back British Rail
He's effectively punnished them for doing what members of the cabinet have been doing all through the pandemic, filling their own coffers- i am not condoning it i am just saying it strikes me as a bit of a double standard.
Second time that franchise has had to be taken into Government control.
Another “money pit” goes to the wall. Yet another failure of the Thatcher philosophy.
"I'd like to reassure all passengers that this is very much business as usual with no immediate changes."...what a joke.
There should be prosecutions, just as I would be prosecuted for committing " serious fraud"
I don't remember it be a wonderful railway. Dirty dusty carriages with dangerous doors when opening them, badly lit platforms and dry sandwiches.
Dont hold your breath waiting for Starmer to agree to this.
Privatisation guaranteed to destroy anything it touches.
With regard to passenger services, but the privatisation of freight is very successful.
And the public don’t know the half of it. There are are managers currently trying to reduce platform staff because they know that cuts are coming and they’ve suddenly burst into life trying to make themselves look good by saving money. What they are actually doing is putting the public in danger and breaking disability laws because it means there are less people to assist those that need assistance. One station in particular that I know of where a manager is trying to do this has many problems with people worse for wear especially on a Friday and Saturday night. Reducing the staff there will not only put the public in great danger but the remaining members of staff as well. This is from managers that have been virtually unobtainable during the pandemic. This is not an isolated case. Frontline staff get a bad reputation but what people don’t see is that they are out there every day getting abuse, being attacked and spat at but they turn up for work and do it all again the next day. To provide a public service more frontline staff are required not less and certainly not multi levels of management hierarchy where they’ve brought their friends in on the old boy network from previous employers.
This line was taken back into public ownership in the early 2000's. It will be the same story as then the public ownership will improve the line and once it's really good it will be sold off again. 😡
EDF Energy De France owns 45% of our electricity supply !! The Tories are thrives and always have they are partially way through privatisation of the NHS . Everything the public own gone or going!!🤬🤬🤬
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Bring Back British Rail
3 months ago
"Privatisation... has delivered a service that is expensive, unreliable and dysfunctional" 🚍🚊💷 Don't miss former UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston's & Bassam Khawaja's devastating critique of UK bus policy. Read the report: bit.ly/AlstonBusReport Watch the full video here: bit.ly/3i08jLo ...
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Watch the full video of the Britain’s Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAnhTTbjMM
Read the full 'Public Transport, Private Profit' report: bit.ly/AlstonBusReport
Privatizing has buggered up the electricity industry, the gas industry, the water industry and the waste disposal industry too. Some things should be considered a service and run to provide just that at an economic cost not a way of milking the end users.
I sympathise with their sentiments and agree for the most part. However I have seen far better written reports than this. I note with interest the total lack of integration across the public transport network, it is of course a universal truth, a result not just of operator competition, but of competing modes. The great shame in all of this is that once upon a time, all of the large and many of the smaller urban areas had their own bus or occasionally tram networks provided by the local authorities. They offered usually a high quality service tailored to local needs, Manchester (mentioned in the report) being a classic case.
The buses and trains need to be put back in public hands we at the moment subsidies them ever since the Tories sold them of so how can you tell me that they are private companys
As with everything else the Tory’s de- nationalised
Has the government's decarbonisation policy hit fever point?
but as it doesn't affect them, they don't care
......I was up in Edinburgh a couple of months ago. That parts of Britain's railways are publicity run, I noticed that this organisation keeps things moving more.
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Bring Back British Rail
3 months ago
📢 Next Weds 21 July, 7-8pm – don't miss Britain’s Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights – the launch event for Philip Alston’s new report examining the devastating impact of bus privatisation across the UK 🚍🚏💸 Register to attend here 👇 alstonbusreport.eventbrite.com ...
Britain's Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights
alstonbusreport.eventbrite.com
Join us for the launch of Philip Alston’s new report examining the devastating impact of bus privatisation in the United Kingdom.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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When young I could get a train from Leven to Dunfermline.Beeching stuffed that.Then they let private companies loose and it went downhill.Buses were much better as well but they let the private companies loose there and the same route followed.Private companies want profit above service.
Bring back the corporations, metropolitan undertaking and regional state owned companies. The only private services should be those like the Delaine in Lincs who have been around for a long time and have given sterling service. The big groups need to be renationalised and broken up.
This makes me angry another Tory fuck up and they get away with it..grrrr
Covid19 has seen passenger numbers on both trains and buses at a very low ebb and could mean number of train rolling stock being made increasingly surplus to requirements.
Bus deregulation far more scandalous than rail privatisation ever was. The absence of anything resembling a minimum service requirement at the heart of that.
XX
Nicholas Ridley, need I say more!
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