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
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
Help us take Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to court!
17th April 2018 | Fundraising / News
Enough is enough! Our East Coast mainline was a brilliant success in public-ownership and should never have been re-privatised in 2015. Now it has failed for the third time at the hands of private operators: GNER in 2007, National Express in 2009 and now Virgin Trains East Coast in 2018.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has admitted that Virgin Trains East Coast “got its numbers wrong” and breached “a key financial covenant” in their franchise agreement. Yet, he is allowing its owners – Stagecoach and Virgin – to walk away and continue running and bidding for other rail franchises. We can’t let them get away with this.
We’re now working with public law experts Leigh Day to bring Chris Grayling to court to account for these decisions. We expect this to be a landmark Judicial Review case; exposing the farce of rail franchising for the shameful waste of public money that it is, and paving the way to a re-unified national rail network run in the public’s interest once again.
Please pledge and share today: crowdjustice.com/case/eastcoast
Please help us reach more people by sharing on Facebook or Twitter!
Commemorating 70 years since Nationalisation
29th March 2018 | Merchandise / News
New Embroidered Patches available for 2018!
2018 year is bittersweet. We’re commemorating 70 years since our railways were unified and nationalised as ‘British Railways‘, as well commiserating 25 years since the disastrous 1993 Railways Act, which paved the way to the fragmented mess of privatisation that we have now.
These contrasting anniversaries show that times can, and do, change. In the last nine years since our campaign was founded in July 2009, we have been central in transforming the national debate, taking the re-nationalisation for our railways from a taboo topic to mainstream policy. Now it’s only a matter of time until we realise our dream.
Make East Coast Public!
1st February 2018 | News / Petition
The Virgin Trains East Coast rail franchise is close to collapse, making it the third private sector operator, after GNER in 2007 and National Express in 2009, to fail.
We’re working with our friends at We Own It and many other partners to campaign for our East Coast mainline to be brought back into public ownership, permanently.
Please sign the petition here: weownit.org.uk/east-coast
Stop Privatisation Merchandise
28th November 2017 | Merchandise / News
This Christmas we’re working with Teemill on some new Bring Back British Rail merchandise, available as jumpers, hoodies, t-shirts, tote bags and tea towels! All ethically sourced organic cotton with proceeds going to support our volunteer-run campaign for rail re-nationalisation founded in 2009.
Order at: bringbackbritishrail.teemill.com
With free delivery if you order by midnight on Sunday 3 December 2017
A Public Future for Scotland’s Railways
21st November 2017 | News
This summer Bring Back British Rail contributed ideas to this new Report by TSSA and Commonweal as part of our ongoing campaign for the Public Ownership of Scotland’s Railway launched in September 2014.
Please support the Report Launch on Tuesday 28 November 2017, 11am-1pm
Serenity Cafe Meeting Room
8 Jacksons Entry
Edinburgh
EH8 8PJ
Don’t Scrap the Electrification of our Railways!
12th October 2017 | News
This summer, the Department for Transport scrapped plans to electrify railways across South Wales and the north of England, meaning we’ll be stuck with filthy diesel trains for years to come.
Bring Back British Rail supports our friends at 10:10 Climate Action and Campaign for Better Transport in demanding investment in cleaner, greener public transport.
New Year Actions for the Public Ownership of our Railways
1st January 2017 | Demonstration / News
On 3-4 January 2017, commuters return to work as train fares continue to rise. We’re teaming up with We Own It and Action For Rail to organise two nationwide days of action (in England on 3rd, Scotland on 4th) to protest against higher fares, reduced staffing and demand the public ownership of our railways now!
Protests are taking place at more than one hundred stations up-and-down the country. Please see the Action for Rail website for details and come out and join us!
Main England Actions
Tuesday 3rd January 2017, 8am
• London King’s Cross Station
• Manchester Piccadilly Station
Main Scotland Action
Wednesday 5th January 2017, 5pm
• Glasgow Central Station
38 Degrees Petition: Don’t break-up & privatise Network Rail
10th December 2016 | News
Christmas 2016
22nd November 2016 | Merchandise / News
Looking for the perfect present for the pissed-off passenger in your life? T-Shirts and Hoodies – all sizes and colours – available to order online until 5 December 2016.
All proceeds go towards campaign materials and activities.
Bring Back British Rail shared NOR4NOR's photo.
6 days ago
"The project to privatise Britain's railways has failed... We want to see the creation of a National Transport Service to oversee the integration of all forms of public transport... Our long term vision is to build a connected nationwide system which is free at the point of use and available to everyone." We ❤️ this charter from our friends at NOR4NOR. Please share!The NOR4NOR Charter: Our vision for a railway to serve us all. ...
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You could have had it decades ago with an integrated road rail system(BRS and BR) but the Tories destroyed all that in the fifties and sixties,
Apart from the fact that this is Norfolk-based, the National version is what I've been saying since the 1960's, (except possibly the bit about "free at the point of use", apart from for holders of travel passes, such as senior citizens etc.).
Abolish bike reservation mumbo jumbo and ticket restrictions. In fact if railways were renationalised, all fares should be always be the price of off peak and maybe bigger discounts on railcards than the current 1/3 atm
There is no concise transport policy in this country apart from provide the absolute base minimum or less and hope everybody buys a car. Now we have climate change, the internal combustion engine is out, the roads are utterly clogged and we know electric cars are not going to cut it. So suddenly, we need real reliable mass transportation. We’ve needed it for 60 years, but they’ve fobbed us off.
I want the win every lottery jackpot for the next week,and there’s more chance of that happening
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Bring Back British Rail shared We Own It's post — in Manchester, United Kingdom.
1 week ago
Here's a great opportunity for someone passionate about the public-ownership of our buses. Our friends We Own It are hiring a campaigner in Manchester. Deadline 20 July 2018 weownit.org.uk/about-us/work-with-us ...
We Own It
We're hiring! Want to campaign for better buses in Manchester or know someone who might?We Own It needs a buses campaigner who will make sure Manchester moves towards regulating buses, TfL-style. This is the first step towards public ownership! 🚌🚌🚌
We really need to find the right person, please spread the word!
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Deadline extended - now next Sunday 22nd July
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Bring Back British Rail
1 week ago
"If Britain is to have any hope of closing the gap in earnings, jobs and health that exists between North and South, we have to ask ourselves why the central importance of public transport is not acknowledged across the country and why the investment that London has come to expect and rely on can't be extended to where it's most needed." Listen to Lynsey Hanley on Britain's public transport crisis. ...
Rail, Mind the Gap: Britain's Transport Divide - BBC Radio 4
bbc.co.uk
Second class service: how the nations and regions lost out to London in rail investment.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google PlusShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Remember when Thatcher de-reguated the bus industry, effectively making it illegal for a constructive dialogue to harmonise timetables etc the Iron Lady allowed TfL to carry on the co-ordination, ensuring London maintained a fit for purpose public transport network while condemning the rest of the country to the current shambles........
Its not even north/south. The west-country has some of the lowest wages and worst transport links too, since we lost all our branch lines and many of our bus services. Many people where I live cant drive or afford cars and have to rely on lifts walking or cycling. Theres no buses to take people to work on the industrial estates and you have to expect to cycle miles in all weathers
because 80% of our income is generated in the financial services sector now and us thick buggers up north wouldn't know what the fu** we were doing with all that cash
Apparently when it comes to capital expenditure PER HEAD OF POPULATION on public transport Telford has the lowest spend while Swansea is also near the bottom. London is way way way out in front....
parliament is housed in London, lizzie lives in London. Londoners think London is BRITAIN as they are brainwashed by parliament and the media into believing so. Get rid of monarchy and parliament, starve the fat cats, silence the media and things WILL CHANGE.
Hey right-wing BBC you seem to have forgotten or never knew the transport system in London was NEVER privatised that why its works.
The reason why, the same as affordable housing is, quite simply down to London. It’s a shit city and unaffordable. 😡
Listen to this Leeds city council
Here here.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
Bring all our railways back into public ownership! Here's another petition from SumOfUs worth a share :D ...
This move could fix our chaotic railways
sumof.us
If state control is good enough for the East Coast mainline, why not the whole system?Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google PlusShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Many of our railways are already under government control - problem being they are foreign governments!
stale sandwiches? anyone remember the snack bars? chronic indifference by staff? The tea from large stainless steel tea pots? the staff often caring little about timetables? late trains? not too different from today really :-( The 60s and 70s times through rose coloured spectacles
A lot of problems is also caused by the Department for Transport as well as the private companies, so i think this wouldn't solve everything over night! (You'd still have the same useless Dft...- that bit is more of the issue too! )
We can petish till we're blue in the face, nothing will come of it. What's needed is a CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.
They will never, ever, admit they clucked it up.
It will never happen too much money is tied up in the private companies and their friends
Make railways for free. Yvonne Sowood
Not to mention their crony firms making millions
We definitely want our railways re-nationalized, and also set up a new British factory and start making our own trains again, it is absolutely humiliating for a great country like Britain with a long, proud history of railways to give every single order, bar none, to foreign companies. It is disgusting actually. We never would have had a George Stephenson or a Flying Scotsman or a Mallard or an Intercity 125 if we had always done this, we will never have anything like that ever again if we keep doing it.
Signed
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Bring Back British Rail
3 weeks ago
Happy 70th Birthday NHS! But, lest we forget our other essential services and infrastructure also nationalised in 1948: our railways, coal, electricity and gas. Our Bring Back British Rail & Power For The People campaigns continue the fight to have all our public services back in public-ownership and run for people not profit. Join us at: bringbackbritishrail.org
Thousands of protesters march on Downing Street as NHS turns 70
Samba and sunshine at rally that comes despite government pledges of £20bn more for the health service ...
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I owned part of all the nationalised industries. When they were sold off (ahem, given away), i said you can't serve two masters, the public and your shareholders. Profits would have to be syphoned off. But I still believe the Unions hastened the demise of nationalised industries and will be the death of the NHS
How do you for see staff and managers at a new BR incentivised to perform better for the passengers. I mean look at NHS GP practices. A perfect example of a nationalalised business that that runs for its staff rather than the patients.
What is BBBRs stance on the EU and Brexit?
This is my idea of 'getting our country back'
Simle return journey to london. Booked train cancelled- next suitable in an hour. Return journey 10mins late, booked seat in carriage with the heating on IN A HEATWAVE so I had to move and to top it off 9 of 11 toilets out of order.
Shout out to other campaigers for public sector reform like WeOwnIt and the Co-operative Party
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