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.
Time to Take Back Our Trains
16th June 2020 | News
We have been campaigning for radical reform of our broken privatised railway system for more than a decade, amassing more than 150,000 supporters on our way. As passengers and employees it was clear that privatisation has left us with a more expensive, confusing and less reliable service, that costs taxpayers double to run (in real terms) than it ever did as publicly-owned British Rail.
The coronavirus crisis has thrown everything up in the air. With passengers being instructed to make essential journeys only. Suddenly the real absurdity of running our railway via multiple for-profit businesses was laid bare. On 23 March 2020, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had to step in with Emergency Measures Agreements – further bailouts to the private Train Operating Companies – just to keep essential services running for our keyworkers.
These EMAs are up for renewal this September. We cannot afford to throw more and more public money away into broken privatised rail. The crisis provides the opportunity we have been waiting for to #TakeBackOurTrains. This will enable us to prioritise safety without needing to put profit-making ahead of social distancing. This will save public money, with the cost of extending EMAs likely to be far more than running services in-house under the ‘Operator of Last Resort’, which currently runs LNER and Northern after those franchises failed. And it will enable us to improve services in the long-term.
With all our Train Operating Companies finally back in public ownership, we can begin the long-overdue project of re-unifying our railways under one public company. This will allow us to provide the affordable, coherent and reliable service that our country needs to recover from this coronavirus crisis: rebuilding our economy and society, addressing the climate emergency and ensuring carbon emissions and air pollution never return to the toxic pre-lockdown levels.
Make ScotRail Public
1st April 2020 | News / Petition
Five years ago today, Abellio – the company owned by the Dutch government – took over running Scotland’s Railway. After years of poor service, on 18 December 2019, the Scottish Minister for Transport Michael Matheson MSP, finally announced that he would break Abellio’s contract three years’ early (on 31 March 2022).
On 1 April 2020, we re-launched the Make ScotRail Public campaign in collaboration with our friends at Get Glasgow Moving, TSSA and We Own It, to demand that a public sector operator is ready to take over running ScotRail services by 2022.
‘Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised’
23rd March 2020 | News
Today, as a result of the Coronavirus Outbreak, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps utilised Section 118 of the Railways Act 1993 to suspend all current franchise agreements with private Train Operating Companies and replace them with temporary Emergency Measures Agreements.
This led The Guardian newspaper to report that ‘Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised‘, despite this actually looking more like a massive bailout for failing private companies whose share prices then surged as a result.
These Emergency Measures Agreements also only apply to franchises currently let by the Department for Transport and, of course, exclude LNER and Northern, which are already in public ownership – a fact we were celebrating at the start of the month:
So, the new Emergency Measures Agreements do not apply to:
• the ScotRail or the Caledonian Sleeper franchises let by the Scottish Government,
• the Transport for Wales Rail franchise let by the Welsh Government,
• the TfL Rail or London Overground contracts let by Transport for London, or
• the Merseyrail contract let by Merseytravel
Please explore the ‘Franchises‘ pages of our website (first launched in 2015 and now updated regularly) to find out who runs the railways in your area, and how you can help campaign for public ownership:
Keep Northern Public
24th February 2020 | Demonstration / News
This March, after years of failure under the control of private companies, Northern rail will be officially re-nationalised!
To mark this momentous moment, we’re working with our friends at RMT, We Own It, the Association of British Commuters and Northern Resist, to organise a Day of Action across the North of England demanding that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps keeps Northern in public ownership from now on.
Please join us at one of the stations listed below.
Monday 2 March 2020:
06:30-08:45 Carlisle Station
07:00-09:00 Manchester Victoria Station
07:00-09:00 Wigan Station
07:00-09:00 York Station
07:00-10:00 Leeds Station
07:30-09:00 Newcastle Central Station (Main Entrances on Neville Street)
07:30-09:00 Wakefield Westgate Station
16:00-18:00 Sheffield Station
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.
General Election 2019
22nd November 2019 | Merchandise / News
The Labour Party’s manifesto for the UK General Election on 12 December 2019 promises to deliver publicly-owned railways, mail, water and energy. Could this finally be our chance to Bring Back British Rail?
Make sure you register to vote before the deadline on Tuesday 26 November 2019, 11.59pm so that you can have your say!
And order your Bring Back British Rail merchandise in time for the election! Our #GE2019 Special Offer gets you a Rail Card Wallet, Enamel Badge and Embroidered Patch for just £10 including delivery in the UK.
Williams Rail Review
18th March 2019 | News
Today Bring Back British Rail and We Own It met Keith Williams, head of the Williams Rail Review, the biggest review of our railways since privatisation.
We agreed with Keith, rail franchising is broken and told him public ownership is the answer!
Please take time to #TellKeith your views before the deadline on 31 May 2019
📝 gov.uk/government/consultations/williams-rail-review
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.
Bring Back British Rail
6 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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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.
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.
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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