New petition to make our West Coast Main Line public
21st February 2022 | News / Petition
Today we’re launching a new petition to Make West Coast Public. If our East Coast Main Line can be run in public ownership, then our West Coast should be too.
Please help us make a big impact over the next month, by sharing details with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Legal action to take Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern back into public hands
27th January 2022 | News
Today we’re launching legal action against the Department for Transport to stop them awarding the disgraced private company Govia a six-year contract to continue running rail services on Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern. Together these form Britain’s biggest rail franchise (known as TSGN), which has been dogged by problems since Govia first took over operations in 2015.
What’s more, the companies that own Govia – the Go-Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%) – are currently under investigation for alleged serious and long-standing fraud on their other neighbouring rail franchise, Southeastern.
The situation on Southeastern became so bad, that the Department for Transport took action to bring it back into public ownership in October 2021.
If Southeastern can be brought back into public ownership, then Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern should be too!
This would provide much better value for money, and be more transparent and accountable to the public. In the long-term, it would also enable us to deliver a re-unified and integrated commuter railway – improving connections with Transport for London and across the SouthEast.
If you’d like to help us #TakeBackTSGN, then please make a pledge on our CrowdJustice page.
We’re kickstarting this case with the funds left over from our successful legal action to make the East Coast mainline public in 2018.
We’re looking for further contributions from supporters to help us meet our £20,000 target before the deadline on 23 February 2022.
Our Lawyers’ Correspondence
• 1 February 2022: Devonshires to Department for Transport
• 11 February 2022: Devonshires to Department for Transport
• 16 February 2022: Department for Transport to Devonshires
• 2 March 2022: Department for Transport to Devonshires
• 22 March 2022: Devonshires to Department for Transport
• 25 March 2022: Devonshires to Serious Fraud Office
• 7 April 2022: Devonshires to Department for Transport
Freedom of Information Requests
• 25 January 2022: Department for Transport to Bring Back British Rail
• 4 February 2022: Department for Transport to Association of British Commuters
Media Coverage
• 27 January 2022, ‘New legal campaign to take Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern into public ownership’, Association of British Commuters
• 27 January 2022, ‘Commuters start legal case to re-nationalise Southern Rail’, Inside Croydon
• 3 February 2022, ‘Government faces legal threat over Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern Rail’, ITV News
• 10 February 2022, ‘Details of Go-Ahead rail scandal kept secret’, The Times
• 14 February 2022, ‘Department for Transport hides scandalous report on Go-Ahead fraud investigation’, Association of British Commuters
• 24 February 2022, ‘Dramatic increase to £80m in cost of Southeastern train accounting scandal’, The Guardian
• 24 February 2022, ‘£81.3m fine strengthens case against Southern’s new franchise’, Inside Croydon
• 28 February 2022, Fifteen years of fraud: allegations against The Go-Ahead Group have doubled in scale, Association of British Commuters
• 22 March 2022, Govia Ltd: the biggest rail corruption scandal since privatisation, Association of British Commuters
• 22 March 2022, Government is about to let #SouthernFail off the hook again, Inside Croydon
• 7 April 2022, The Rail Privatisation Scam, Tribune
Christmas 2021 Merch
5th December 2021 | Merchandise / News
Looking for some Christmas gift ideas? 🎁🎄
All proceeds from Bring Back British Rail merch sales go towards funding campaign materials and activities. Order online by end Thursday 16 December 2021 to receive in time for Christmas 👇
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.
ScotRail Re-nationalised!
17th March 2021 | News / Petition
Today Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson finally announced that the ScotRail franchise will be brought back into public ownership from 1 April 2022, when Abellio’s contract ends.
Thanks to everyone who signed our Make ScotRail Public petition, first launched the day after the Independence Referendum in September 2014. It has been a long fight, but we did it! Please share the good news on Facebook and Twitter.
Scrap the fare hikes – we need public ownership now
1st March 2021 | News
Today the UK Government hikes rail fares in England and Wales by 2.6% – the first above inflation increase for seven years.
Meanwhile, they are busy trying to negotiate new ‘National Rail Contracts’ with a host of failed private train operating companies, which could lock us into this broken privatised system for decades to come.
Bringing all rail franchises back into public ownership would be simple, with the publicly-owned ‘Operator of Last Resort’ – which already runs LNER and Northern – ready to go. This could immediately enable fare cuts of 5%, and would ensure that our railways can be run in the interests of passengers and the environment to help get our country moving again as we emerge from the pandemic.
Please take action today by writing to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
Scrap the fare hikes
End the contract chaos
We need public ownership now
Transport for Wales Rail re-nationalised!
7th February 2021 | News
Today we celebrate the Wales & Borders franchise being brought back into public ownership by the Welsh Government, following 25 years of failed privatisation. Announcing the move on 22 October 2020, the Welsh Minister for Transport Ken Skates MS said this would provide the “most stable financial base to manage rail services as we emerge from the pandemic”.
The Welsh Government must have been listening to our #TakeBackOurTrains campaign. We have been saying since the start of this crisis, that returning rail to public ownership is the only sensible response – to prioritise safety, save public money and help improve services in the long-term. As Ken Skates went on to say: “a new publicly owned model… will allow [Transport for Wales] to continue to put customers and communities at the heart of everything they do, with safety as their first priority”.
Now the Scottish Government and the UK’s Department for Transport must stop bailing out the failing private rail companies running Britain’s other rail franchises and follow Wales’ lead.
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.
The Rail Privatisation Scam 🚊💸
Great piece in Tribune Magazine today 👇 ... See MoreSee Less
The Rail Privatisation Scam
tribunemag.co.uk
After taxpayers were scammed out of tens of millions of pounds, the train company responsible has just been rewarded with a lucrative new contract – definitive proof that the rail privatisation rack...Comment on Facebook
This is shocking. Even by the new threshold of what is OK…you know, illegal parties , non Dom’s tax cuts, P and O, PpE scam contracts, selling off public service broadcasting, ….
their all scamming the taxpayer its disgraceful
The sooner he better
De-privatise the railways now.
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Like GBR. Haha
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🥳 ScotRail re-nationalised! It becomes the 5th UK franchise now back in public hands 🚉 With proper investment from The Scottish Government, we have the chance now to bring down the cost of fares, and to expand and improve railway services across Scotland 🏴 ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
Heavens help us The snp couldn't run a raffle, education failure, NHS failure, ferries laughing stock, Prestwick disaster, a bridge that can't be open in cold weather, the list is endless
As a railway employee (just) government ownership will do none of what's been said here. If anything it will make things worse. The people who know how to do things properly are tied by budgets and targets from their employer. Under government ownership they will always take the cheapest option that will look good on PR brochures but won't last.
This is how everything should be transported ,instead of by lorries that ruin the roads !
If we recall the lies 30 years ago from John Major and Transport Secretary John MacGregor that privatisation of British Rail will deliver improvements in services and lower fares.....!! Then the first laugh we had was the Stagecoach South West Trains fiasco. Everything wasn't moving so well after that.
Unfortunately, we don't currently have a Scottish Government willing to do that. Indeed, it's just sanctioned a huge fare rise and services are being drastically cut next month.
Proper investment - what does this mean? How much do you think is needed and where? What happens if the Government cannot afford to keep the standards up to expectations? Would they lose an Election over the issue?
This is bad news for Scotland, will go the same road as Prestwick Airport , Ferry’s , Education , Police Scotland….
Hoping they will now stock egg sandwiches on the buffet trolley
Now the nats will youse this for Free Rail Travel for under 25s to Bribe for more Votes
A giant disaster waiting to happen.! !
I bet Govia isn't renationalised, in spite of constant failures.
The trains in Wales have been in public ownership for about 5 years now.
Scot Rail was allready in public handsjust not the British public as Abello is part of the NS or Dutch state railways. As is Arriva of DB or the German railways.
Successive Labour governments haven’t done much.
What a pity Starmer won't commit to the same in England
They couldn't run a toy train set never mind a country's rail service. Destination disaster.
I started my career with BR and 30 years later hopefully will be back working under BR again soon.
Back under the tories who privatised it in the first place...I'm lost for words 🤔
It took a very long time to realise the privatisation scam...
A smokescreen, not real nationalisation
Shame they are running such old stock
Northen rail still a mess
A directly operated franchise is some way off public ownership, all the problems caused by the shambolic privatisation of BR will still exist !
This is a double edged sword. Bringing back the railways into public ownership is fine provided they stay in public ownership. What's actually happening here is that the govt is bailing out failed train franchise operators with taxpayers money. Once they're commercially viable I fear they'll be sold off again. Effectively we're privatising profit and nationalising losses at public expense.
RIP Scotrail. Everything the snp touches ends up a steaming pile of 💩
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Govia Ltd: the biggest rail corruption scandal since privatisation 🚆💸 As Grant Shapps looks set to award the disgraced company a new six-year contract, read what a terrible mistake this is in the Association of British Commuters' new blog 📰
Join our CrowdJustice campaign to #takebacktsgn here👇
crowdjustice.com/case/tsgn ... See MoreSee Less
Govia Ltd: the biggest rail corruption scandal since privatisation
abcommuters.com
According to press reports yesterday, the Department for Transport is preparing to award disgraced company Govia Ltd a new six-year contract for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). It follows the publi…Comment on Facebook
Shame on Grant Shapps for awarding a six-year contact to the disgraced private company #Govia which is *still under investigation* for financial malpractice 💸 Our legal team have despatched a letter to the Serious Fraud Office to demand they intervene 👇 www.bringbackbritishrail.org/tsgn/letter04_250322.pdf
This rancid Tory government associated with rampant corruption ? Surely not. Errrrr........
Be so much better if we just had one company that ran service in the south, South East & South West and same for North West, North & North East. Similar to Network SouthEast days.
So what is anyone going to do about it? Absolutely bugger all. Award contracts to your mates, cheat, lie ,fiddle expense accounts, claim for second dwellings and lie (again) yet they know that they are untouchable. Shamefully, there is no viable option as Labour are a joke and do not represent the working class any longer. Not since Tory Blair emerged as the new shining light, where; “Things Could Only Get Better!” Tosspot!
The whole privatisation of the railways was and is one huge fiddle. I cite the huge cost overruns of the Great Western Electrification, and HS 2? There should be a root and branch investigation by the fraud squad into industrial fraud on that one.
When is going to stop,mistake after mistake!Vote Tory,you'll pay the price,especially with that W in charge!!
And of course Public ownership never wastes money or has overruns etc etc etc
There’s more than Govia that are corrupt.
Oh, the politics of greed
Okay. What Tory has shares in this.
Corruption rewarded by the corrupt..
There'll be 'no evidence ' no doubt.
What did you expect when they named it Govia. Another Tory toad ...
Is it called "Govia" in honour of Michael Gove?
Shameful.
links not working
Is just Scotrail that's getting nationalised?
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Vermin.
Absolute 'kin disgrace
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🚆 The Department for Transport has fined #Govia £23.5m for financial malpractice whilst running Southeastern 💸
Yet it's still considering giving the same private company a new contract to run rail services on Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern? Enough is enough. It's time to #TakeBackTSGN
Support our campaign 👉 crowdjustice.com/case/tsgn ... See MoreSee Less
Govia Rail fined £23m over undeclared taxpayer funding
www.bbc.co.uk
The train operator says it "accepts" the fine after failing to return over £25m in taxpayer funding.Comment on Facebook
One wonders what a TOC would have to do to become unfit to run a franchise. Previously, DoT were of the views that if a firm had its franchise removed it had to surrender all the others. The firms get around this of course with their independent shell companies - but the parent companies are the ones driving the bus.
At one time these things would illicit a shrug and a resigned sigh that nothing can be done. These things are now a daily occurrence across the politic landscape and I sense a palpable sense of anger boiling over, that finally enough is enough, as evidenced by the comments beneath this post.
Fined them, then let them carry on as usual. Ffs
Are we getting close to the revolution yet? Give it a bit longer, once the cost of living overtakes worker’s static wages.
It’s bit like “the Apprentice”….no candidates you’d trust to buy you a sandwich, but one of them has to win.
……..and when it’s some poor bugger claiming a bit too much benefit they don’t call it ‘undeclared taxpayer funding’ do they?
Fraud on this scale should result in prison sentences. It never does.
Thatcher's government sold the skeleton of a our country. The very things that support it in the world & people still think she was great? It's beyond me!
An office in Newcastle, owned by private investors with company bases in Singapore amongst other countries. Good old fashioned Tory values. What could possibly go wrong?
This contract was terminated in September 2021 and Southeastern is now run by the department of transport, you're a bit late with the news.
And that fine is paid from...taxpayer funding... How ironic.
Please tell me govia is not Owned by Michael gove
23.5 million fine for stealing 25 million? What a bloody joke!
Fucking corruption in plain sight they just don't give a monkeys about us
Must be run by that idiot Gove! 🙄
Another nose in the trough.
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With Britain's privatised rail services we are paying #moreforless 🚉💸
Please sign the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)'s petition against cuts and fare hikes across our railways 👇👇 ... See MoreSee Less
Rail passengers shouldn't be paying more, for less.
www.megaphone.org.uk
Sign our petition to demand fair fares and a properly funded railway that protects rail services, staffing and the climate.Comment on Facebook
Yeah, don't bring BR back. Don't let the government have more control than they already have. Reform the railway into 6 companies - London and North Eastern, London and North Western, Greater Western, Southern, Scottish and Railfreight. Set a minimum quality standard. Encourage these companies to do transit-oriented development. Smaller companies could be formed to run small, self contained networks like Mersey Rail or LTS.
I'm like most people, am more worried about gas and electricity prices going up 60% than the possible price hikes on the trains which are consistently around 5%, don't distract stupid politicians into thinking this will help people the most, there's already a plan in motion to invest billions in the network, and much has been run by the government.
We're constantly told how incompetent the government are yet people want them to run the railway. Hmmm
Fares going up, services and staffing being cut .... snafu
Why the fares keep rising while the quality of rail travel gets worst ?
Their shareholders and need their dividends and their directors need their huge bonuses.
Why does everyone want BR back? No government has funded the railways properly since the 50s, who did Beeching and Marples work for? All I ever saw with BR was cuts in services, train lengths, lines closed, closures of works, purposeful loss of traffic, freight, parcels, papers etc, track layouts rationalised, capacity reduced, staff levels reduced. Poor trains that still blight the network. Reduced track maintenance and drainage work. The government departments cut every year. Can't really see putting it back in to government control is a good idea. Will watch Scotrail closely as cuts are already in the pipe line and it's not yet been taken over.
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Let me know just how many thousands of jobs may go and I might sign. Oh and also let me know how many £millions are provided by the Government to fund Network Rail. Also how many billions they are likely to pay out to fund the bankrupt 'Bulb' Electricity suppliers' inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/bulb-energy-collapse-cost...
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