Join our countdown to re-nationalisation
11th December 2024 | News
It’s been a historic year for Bring Back British Rail.
Following the election of the new government in July, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act became law on 28 November 2024.
This begins to undo the destruction caused by the Railways Act 1993 by making public ownership of rail services the default, rather than the ‘last resort’.
Privatisation Departures Board
The first services to be re-nationalised under the new Act will be South Western Railway on 25 May, c2c on 20 July and Greater Anglia in autumn 2025.
We are celebrating by launching our new Privatisation Departures Board – allowing you to easily count down the days to the demise of your least favourite private operator.
Please share the link far-and-wide on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and X: bringbackbritishrail.org/departures
Meanwhile, we will continue the campaign until the legislation required to fully re-unify our railways as Great British Railways has be passed.
Opinion piece on Great British Railways
22nd July 2024 | Media Coverage / News
“Great British Railways should be the start of a new era for our country’s transport network, which everyone can get behind” – Ellie Harrison, Bring Back British Rail
Read our opinion piece about last week’s historic announcement on rail renationalisation for LBC Views.
New legislation to renationalise the railways
17th July 2024 | News / Media Coverage
Ellie Harrison from Bring Back British Rail was interviewed by Steve Holden on LBC News about new legislation announced in today’s King’s Speech to renationalise the railways.
Extract from The King’s Speech 2024:
“A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services [Better Buses Bill]. My Ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership [Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, Rail Reform Bill].
Taken together these policies will enhance Britain’s position as a leading industrial nation and enable the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can promote growth and wealth creation.”
Great British Railways – a new publicly-owned system
13th June 2024 | News
The Labour Party’s manifesto for the General Election on 4 July, commits to setting up Great British Railways – the new arm’s length public body which will own, plan and run our railways in the public interest.
This will be created in two stages. Firstly, by renationalising the ten rail franchises which are still privately run, when their current contracts end. This should happen between between September 2024 – October 2027 (see ‘Our Pathway to Public Ownership‘ graphic below for exact dates).
And secondly, by preparing the legislation necessary to create the new Great British Railways body (see Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways for more detail). Below is an extract from the manifesto, so we can hold them to account.
This also contains some important pledges on bringing bus networks back into public control (through bus ‘franchising’) and enabling regional transport authorities to set up new publicly-owned operators in order to deliver fully-integrated public transport.
Whilst this is a massive step in the right direction, Labour’s plans fail to commit to bringing the profiteering Rolling Stock Companies back into public ownership.
They also still want to allow private operators to run some ‘Open Access’ rail services, which will lead to unnecessary complexity for passengers, be “the enemy of a rational timetable” according to Christian Wolmar, and allow continued profit leakage from the system.
We will be campaigning to ensure Great British Railways becomes a reality and that all elements of the system are eventually brought back into public ownership.
Extract from Labour Party Manifesto 2024:
A modern transport network
“Labour will overhaul Britain’s railways. Fourteen years of Conservative neglect have failed passengers, businesses and taxpayers. We will put passengers at the heart of the service by reforming the railways and bringing them into public ownership. We will do this as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver, without costing taxpayers a penny in compensation.
Great British Railways will deliver a unified system that focuses on reliable, affordable, high-quality, and efficient services; along with ensuring safety and accessibility. It will be responsible for investment, day-to-day operational delivery and innovations and improvements for passengers, working with publicly-owned rail operators in Wales and Scotland. Mayors will have a role in designing the services in their areas. There will be a duty to promote and grow the use of rail freight. Open access operators are an important part of the rail system and will have an ongoing role. Labour will also create a tough new passenger watchdog, focused on driving up standards.
Local communities have lost control over their bus routes. Fares have increased, routes have disappeared, and services are unreliable. Building on the work of Labour mayors, we will reform the broken system through new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services, and we will lift the ban on municipal ownership. This will give local communities in England control over routes and schedules.
Under the Conservatives, transport services have remained fragmented and inefficient with companies and sectors failing to speak to and plan with each other. Labour will give mayors the power to create unified and integrated transport systems, allowing for more seamless journeys, and to promote active travel networks. Labour will also develop a long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.”
Radio interview about Labour’s plan for rail
25th April 2024 | Media Coverage / News
Ellie Harrison from Bring Back British Rail was interviewed by John Stratford on LBC News about Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways released today.
Labour commits to return rail to public ownership
25th April 2024 | News
We’re delighted to see the Labour Party publish Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways today.
The plan commits Labour to bringing our railways back into public ownership within the next parliamentary term, if they win the next General Election.
‘Our Pathway to Public Ownership‘ graphic above details the contract end dates for the ten franchises which are still privately run – showing that the process should be complete by October 2027.
This will allow time to prepare the legislation necessary to create Great British Railways – the new arm’s length public body which will own, plan and run our railways.
National Railway Museum Collection
18th April 2024 | News
In 2023, Bring Back British Rail founder Ellie Harrison was approached by archivists at the National Railway Museum in York about their programme of contemporary collecting aimed at preserving recent stories about the railways and the impact they have on our lives.
Several pieces of campaign ephemera and merchandise were donated to the collection and can now be viewed in the Museum’s online catalogue, and in future exhibitions.
Alongside these items, Harrison also arranged the donation of the Rail Bunting made by the Craftivist Collective in 2011 for A Railway Adventure – a Climate Rush campaign for cheaper train fares in collaboration with Bring Back British Rail.
Our Pathway to Public Ownership
11th December 2023 | News
Bring Back British Rail was founded in 2009 to popularise the idea of bringing our railways back into public ownership. We have collected more than 150,000 signatures across various petitions during this time with numerous successes, most notably seeing rail renationalisation reinstated as Labour party policy in 2015.
We also led a successful legal action against the Department for Transport (DfT) which resulted in the EastCoast mainline being taken back into public ownership in May 2018. And our campaign to bring ScotRail back into public ownership (first launched in 2014, then relaunched in 2020 during the pandemic), led to the Scottish Government’s decision to end their contract with Abellio in March 2021.
Seven of Britain’s rail franchises are now back in public ownership. After a decade-and-a-half of campaigning, we can now finally see the end in sight. Labour has pledged to bring the remaining rail franchises “back into public ownership as contracts expire”, and then to re-unify them under once single identity and one ‘guiding mind’.
The next General Election must take place before 28 January 2025. If Labour wins this, as polls suggest, our research shows that all the current contracts with private operators controlled by the DfT (including even the recently agreed Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry contracts) will end either their initial term, or their extension period, under the next parliamentary term.
This presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity which cannot be missed.
DfT rail contract expiration dates:
- 15/09/2024 – Greater Anglia (could be extended to 20/09/2026)
- 15/09/2024 – West Midlands Trains (could be extended to 20/09/2026)
- 13/10/2024 – South Eastern Trains * (could be extended to 17/10/2027)
- 01/03/2025 – Northern Trains *
- 01/04/2025 – Govia Thameslink Railway
- 01/04/2025 – Chiltern Railways
- 25/05/2025 – TransPennine Express *
- 25/05/2025 – South Western Railway (maximum extension granted)
- 22/06/2025 – Great Western Railway
- 23/06/2025 – London North Eastern Railway *
- 20/07/2025 – c2c (Essex Thameside) (maximum extension granted)
- 18/10/2026 – West Coast Partnership
- 18/10/2026 – East Midlands Railway
- 15/10/2027 – CrossCountry
* Already in public ownership (the ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper and Transport for Wales Rail contracts are controlled by their respective devolved governments and are also all now in public ownership).
Celebrating 7 franchises now in public hands
25th June 2023 | News
It’s time to kick FirstGroup out our our railways
19th February 2023 | News
Did you know that FirstGroup plc is the main player hiding behind four of our failing train operating companies, which have been causing misery for millions of passengers: Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway?
Three or these contracts are up for renewal this year. We cannot allow the Department for Transport to reward First’s failure. Please join our Kick First Out! Avanti & TransPennine Passenger Rally at the DfT of Monday 20 March 2023, 10am
Kick First Out! Avanti & TransPennine Passenger Rally
Monday 20 March 2023, 10am
Department for Transport
33 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 4DR
We will be submitting our petition to Bring our West Coast rail services back into public ownership to Transport Secretary Mark Harper MP, so please make sure you sign the petition in advance.
Please register on Eventbrite if you’re coming to the Passenger Rally so we can keep track of numbers: kickfirstout.eventbrite.com
Share our #KickFirstOut graphic on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Get your Bring Back British Rail Bumper Stickers and Rail Card Wallets! Order by 12noon this Weds 18 December to receive in time for Christmas 🎄 All proceeds help support our volunteer-run campaign. Order at: bringbackbritishrail.org/support ... See MoreSee Less
12 CommentsComment on Facebook
Will the BBBR campaign be wrapped up when GBR is flying solo?
Is the logo supposed to be the wrong way round?
When it's all done and dusted, you might want to apply yourselves to bringing back Royal Mail. Breaking news is that Starmer has okayed the sale of Royal Mail to a Czech billionnaire.
View more comments
🚆Join our countdown to rail re-nationalisation! ⏰Our new Privatisation Departures Board allows you to easily count the days to the demise of your least favourite private train operator...
👉bringbackbritishrail.org/departures
Roll-on our re-unified, publicly-owned #GreatBritishRailways @top fans ... See MoreSee Less
240 CommentsComment on Facebook
It won’t be truly renationalised until we actually own the rolling stock instead of paying rent-seeking corporations for the privilege of using the trains!
If anyone thinks that the fares will come down and the service improve then they must be living in the same cloud cuckoo land as most of the people in the labour cabinet
It’s the rolling stock owners who are the real gravy train grifters. They offer no value to the railways yet receive public money to buy new trains. An absurd set up which needs dismantling.
View more comments
We're delighted to see news today of the first 3 private train operators to be re-nationalised under new legislation 👏
- May 2025 - bye bye South Western Railway
- July 2025 - see ya c2c Rail
- Autumn 2025 - cheerio Greater Anglia
Roll-on our re-unified publicly-owned #GreatBritishRailways 🚆
@top fans We Own It ... See MoreSee Less
First train services to return to public ownership revealed
www.gov.uk
Services across England will return to public control, transforming our railways into a more reliable, affordable and accessible system.27 CommentsComment on Facebook
All the usual know-it-alls whining about this... well done labour for finally tackling these sponging oxygen thief companies who repeatedly break the law without reproach. In two years the RMT has battered one company five times in court and they don't care, don't change, continue to break the law. Finally a bit of accountability has arrived and still these Tory company luvvies whine at their beloved firms getting the sack.
Next up, the rolling stock.Even still, prices can't go down until we have more lines and enough capacity. So let's have HS2 all the way up to Scotland, and HS3, 4 and 5 ready to go.
And what happens to the train leasing companies? Rarely mentioned but take a big slice of the pie
View more comments
Congratulations to Heidi Alexander for Swindon South on becoming Transport Secretary 👏 We look forward to seeing plans for #GreatBritishRailways develop over the next few years 🚆 Britain needs a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit 🧑🤝🧑🚉 @top fans ... See MoreSee Less
19 CommentsComment on Facebook
We need to reverse as many of the Beeching cuts as possible
I'll agree bri g back BR because when it went private nothing changed in the running of the railways just more profit left this country...
Don't hold your breath, Starmer's tory lite party will never deliver this.
View more comments
It's been a huge week for the Bring Back British Rail campaign 🥳 The 'Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill' passed the UK House of Lords on Weds 🚆 When the Bill becomes law later this year, public ownership will be the default for rail services rather than the 'last resort' 👏 @top fans We Own It ... See MoreSee Less
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament
bills.parliament.uk
Current version of Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill with latest news, sponsors, and progress through Houses8 CommentsComment on Facebook
Rebuilding public trust in the railways is going to take a long time. Undoing the utter mess of 30 years of privatisation is going to be a monumental task.
Bring Back British Rail We are sleep-walking into having to pay more for rail travel in Britain because the general public at large, many members of public-transport campaign organisations and many politicians alike have been seduced by the word 'simplification'.All that the Department of Transport, Rail Delivery Group, H.M. Government, a devolved administration or any Train Operating Company needs to do is bandy around the world 'simplification' and they can get away with all manner of detrimental implementations, because those who would normally point these things out, and protest against and lobby against them have been seduced by the word 'simplification'.One can expect the general public at large to not appreciate all of the implications of changes to fares-and-ticketing structures because no one person can know everything about everything, but one would hope that public-transport campaign organisations would interrogate the finer details of the exact specifics of the minutiae of proposals, to find the the-Devil-is-in-the-detail implications.Ordinarily, when a Train Operating Company or the authorities proposes something concerning rail travel, public-transport campaign organisations will forensically scour the finer details, and when detrimental the-Devil-is-in-the-detail aspects emerge, they will be like a dog with a bone, and persistently be on the case of the authorities or Train Operating Company until notice is taken, but, alas, this is not happening with the changes in 2023 and 2024.All of the changes this year and last year, very particularly so c2c and LNER, which purport to reduce fares have actually increased travelling costs. I very deliberately say 'travelling costs', not 'fares', because that is how people should view things.Loss of all iterations of Day fares. Loss of Super Off-Peak. Loss of the ability to avail oneself of to-boundary-zone discounts for the returning-leg part of a round-trip if using a ticket machine. Loss of railcard discounts because the minimum-fare threshold for the railcard's discount to apply is met or exceeded by a Return fare, whereas a Single is below the threshold. Then also the loss of the convenience of Return fares.Take the reforms to and simplification of fares and ticketing on LNER; these reforms and simplifications can lead to a triple-whammy of travelling-cost increases to a journey. A double-whammy is bad enough, but a triple-whammy is shameful, and should be fought against.Whereas I would have previously, if making a round-trip from Station A to Station B and back, purchased a Super Off-Peak Day Return from Boundary Zone [XYZ] to Station B, the simplification which purports to be there to make my travel cheaper means that (if using a ticket machine) I know have to purchase an Off-Peak Single from Boundary Zone [XYZ] to Station B, and I have to buy a an Off-Peak Single from Station B to Station A.The LNER policy which abolished Return fares, and halved the price of Single fares quietly included the abolition of all iterations of Day fares. Two halved-in-price Singles are more expensive than one Day Return. Fare decreases and travelling-cost decreases are not necessarily the same. Think in terms of travelling costs, not in terms of fares.First Whammy: The travelling cost of my round-trip has gone up because I have been forced to purchase two Singles, rather than a Day Return, which is what I would have previously bought.Second Whammy: The LNER Simpler Fares pilot had abolished Super-Off Peak; the travelling cost of my round-trip has gone up because I have been forced to pay for Off-Peak, rather than the cheaper-option Super Off-Peak, which is what I would have previously used.Third Whammy: Many ticket machines sell from-boundary-zone tickets, but, in the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland there is not even one ticket machine which sells to-boundary-zone tickets. The workaround for this is that the returning-leg part of a from-boundary-zone Return/Day Return becomes a to-boundary-zone ticket by dint of being the outbound-leg part of the ticket in reverse. Because I have to purchase the returning-leg part of my round-trip as a completely separate standalone Single I am unable to avail myself of the travelcard/season ticket/concessionary-pass to-boundary-zone discount which I qualify for. I qualify for the discount but I have no means of applying it because ticket machines do not sell to-boundary-zone fares. I am forced to purchase a more expensive point-to-point ticket, rather than a cheaper-option to-boundary-zone ticket, which is what I would have previously used.In one round-trip, these reforms and simplifications which purport to be there to make things cheaper have caused three cost increases to my travelling. A double-whammy is bad enough, but a triple-whammy is shameful.It could potentially even be a quadruple-whammy of travelling-cost increases if each Single were below the minimum-fare threshold for my railcard discount, whereas a Return would not have been.Not only have I had all of these travelling-cost increases to my journey, but I have also had the inconvenience of having to make two completely separate transactions when previously I only needed to make one transaction.Travelling-cost increases cleverly disguised as travelling-cost decreases, all under the guise of simplification.Perhaps the fare structure is complicated, but It is within the myriad complexity that the nuances which facilitate cheaper options lurk. If you take a sledgehammer to the behemoth, you bring down the cheaper options which are housed within the behemoth.The fares-and-ticketing structure does not need to be reformed. The fares-and-ticketing structure does not need to be simplified. Fares just need to be reduced in price.With the £2.00 bus fare in England: no existing fares were abolished; no existing fare types were abolished; no existing ticket types were abolished; no new fare types were introduced; no new ticket types were introduced. Everything which already exists was retained, they just substantially reduced the price of what already exists.Do not abolish any existing fares, do not abolish any existing tickets, do not introduce any new fares; retain everything which already exists; as a blanket, across-the-board, universal action just reduce the price of all turn-up-and-go fares by 30.0%, and leave it at that.
Bring Back British Rail (The railways). Nationalisation is not a virtue in and of itself; it is only a good thing if it is done well.As the idiom goes: 'Be careful what you wish for, because it might come true'.Some people might fear that reform of the fares-and-ticketing structure on the railways would, inevitably, reform travelling costs upwards, and reform out the cheaper options.Some people might fear that simplification of the fares-and-ticketing structure on the railways would, inevitably, simplify travelling costs upwards, and simplify out the cheaper options. Just take a look at LNER.Be careful what you wish for, because it might come true. (Just take a look at LNER).Reform is not a virtue in and of itself. Reform is a neutral concept—neither a good thing nor a bad thing; what is pertinent and important is the nature of the reform. We don't need reform, we need good reform.I am not opposed to the principle of nationalisation of the railways, and I don't think that they should have ever been privatised in the first place, but there is the very real problem that very many people's support for nationalisation (of everything) is from a place of ideological fundamentalism tantamount to being a secular 'religion', so when nationalisation is achieved, the outpouring of 'religous' ecstasy by the 'faithful' could blind them to the actions of the 'clergy'.As the idiom goes: 'The Devil is in the detail'; there is the concern that in their state of ecstasy and elation of it all, some members of the general public, some trade-unionists, some members of public-transport campaign organisations and some Members of Parliament will neglect to subject plans and proposals to forensic scrutiny to find any potential the-Devil-is-in-the-detail negative implications.If you support nationalisation of the railways, campaign for it, and make it happen, but that isn't where your job ends. It is then necessary to ensure that it is implemented well, and that specific proposals, as opposed to general aims, are sound.It's fun to march down the street waving a banner and chanting; it is boring to read a 73-page official document draughted by a civil servant at the Department for Transport, but scrutiny of that document, to check the Devil in the detail, is potentially the difference between nationalisation done well, and nationalisation done badly.
View more comments