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.
‘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 which has its own Emergency Measures Agreements in place,
• 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
Bring Back British Rail is in United Kingdom.
14 hours ago
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 👇bringbackbritishrail.org/support ...
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How soon will we be needing " Bring back the NHS" now that the Health and Care Bill has given the green light to NHS privatisation?
The railcard holder goes down very well with conductors
The logo is the wrong way round.
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Bring Back British Rail
5 days ago
Don't miss your chance to sign 38 Degrees's petition demanding that Grant Shapps freezes rail fares in 2022 🚆💸
They are delivering it to him next week! 👇 ...
Sign the petition urging the Government to freeze rail prices in 2022
act.38degrees.org.uk
TM 38 Degrees | 2021 Limited by Guarantee Registered Company No. 06642193 in England and Wales Registered office: First Floor, 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1BEShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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they will not do it, as too many either themselves or the greater family and friends list, will lose money, due to lower dividends being paid
The government prefer to freeze the poor.
signed & shared
It's no good freezing fares if they don't up the finance.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months 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'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
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...
All utilities and transport should be nationalised including fares.
The sooner we view having a service available is a profit to society and doesn’t have to produce a shareholder dividend, the better.
Why give money to shareholders when you can give it to the service
Undoing what other governments have done is never easy...they demand expensive compensation ! I'd give them none. Blame for Privatisation lies squarely with the Tories !
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.
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.
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.
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.😃
Jonathan Gray might as well renationalise the whole network at this point now 🚅
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.
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
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?
We need a Nationalised British Rail with the commercial freedom & independence from the Civil Servants at the Dept For Transport.
still all being run a separate entities though so pray tell me what exactly has changed a[art from the imminent mass job losses
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.
Nationalise the railways. You know it makes sense.
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 😡
Great Northern must be next. There'll be street parties when Govia gets the boot.
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.
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.
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.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months 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!
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
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.
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
2 months 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!
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!!🤬🤬🤬
Go ahead have admitted fraud on one of there 3 franchises ,why they not be sacked on the other 2 ?
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