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
• 21 May 2019: Leigh Day to Government Legal Department
• 26 June 2019: 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 of our railways from a taboo topic to mainstream policy. Now we’re sure 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
1 week ago
On April Fools’ Day 2015, Abellio - the company owned by the Dutch government - took over running ScotRail 🚆 Last year, after years of poor performance, Michael Matheson MSP agreed to end Abellio's contract three years' early (on 31 March 2022). Sign our #MakeScotRailPublic petition to demand that a publicly-owned operator takes over 📝 you.38degrees.org.uk/p/publicrailwayscotland ...
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Make all rail public ASAP.
To many foreigners taking over key industries and services . Profits are leaving the country in millions but services provided are abysmal. High time all key services were nationalised.
Most of our railways are nationalised. The trouble is it's all foreign nations. How on earth did our government let that happen? No replies please, I know.
It already is, the Dutch public own it.
Nationalisation is here to stay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not the best climate at the moment but they can now see what Northern & LNER achieve in public ownership before anymore decisions
That's the SNP's plan.
No Tim, we will not ‘give it a rest’. We will continue haranguing you tories who want a privatised railway but continually demand that the public bail you out with subsidies, and are somehow happy that every single franchise is foreign-owned. Two faced hypocrisy.
We can't wait till 2022 - needs done NOW.
The franchise system is past its sell by date
I'm all for nationalisation in the bigger picture. But dont we subsidise the Scots enough. Thanks to us they already get,free prescriptions, tuition fees dentistry and all. So no let them pay for something themselves and generate their own income
In fact, people should be doing maths, not rocket science. The importance of passenger revenue under privatisation has declined. In the last ten years of BR, it averaged around 64% whereas in the first ten years of privatisation, its 55%.
Timing of this post is appalling. Give it a rest during this worldwide crisis.
SNP and Alex Salmond?
any train company should be public
Abeltitio more like
Can't nationalise it as Westminster /network rail are in charge of the tracks points and signalling and some Scottish stations
Renationalise all railways
Nationalise the lot 👍
Sam Hayward
Ed Henry
Phil Taylor Rio was the first name down
Shug Cumming
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
A momentous day 🚆✊ 'Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised' amidst the coronavirus crisis. This proves what we've been saying all along - public transport is an essential public service, not a cashcow for private operators. ...
Covid-19: government suspends rail franchise agreements
www.theguardian.com
Emergency measures will be in place for six months to avoid train companies collapsingShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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More on the story here: www.citymetric.com/transport/has-government-just-renationalised-britain-s-railways-4969
Call me a cynic but I see this as the Tories protecting their friends from losses associated with this crisis. The public purse will cover the damage. When this is all over the franchises will resume and we’ll be back to square one.
Let's try to make it permanent (although I think an arms length wholly owned organisation (ALMO) would be a better prospect in the long term).
When JC proposed re-nationalisation the howls of derision were ‘where’s the money coming from?’ Now the toryscum do it when there’s hardly any revenue coming in, so either this is an excuse to axe lines in favour of their beloved money pit HS2 or there really is a ‘magic money tree’ 🤔
Now they need to do the same thing with the water companies, it should be a public utility too.
Hurrah hurrah hurrah! I hope this crisis sends us back towards public ownership of all essential services x Responsible leadership is what's needed, not profits for shareholders!
Radical socialism is what's needed after all. The media & ruling class demonised Corbyn for suggesting such a thing. Funny, that.
The problem is, socialist nationalisation is without compensation to shareholders and pulls down the fat-cat managers’ salaries and bonuses to reasonable levels. Capitalist nationalisation protects the shareholders and executives at the expense of the tax-payer - remember the banks in 2008-14? They’re gonna give the railways back to the privateers. No joy here then, unless we fight to keep the railways public (RMT/ASLEF/TUC?).
Sorry, but let them go bust. The trains, track, and staff are all going to still be there, ready and waiting to be managed for the public benefit, not foreign nationalised train operators.
Michael Walsh
They are just 'socialisng' the losses. Moment the trains are back in profit they will privatise them again.
Paul Banks
Let's make ssure they stay in Public hands when this chaos is over!
Tories protecting their friends again, I guess when this is all over them get their franchise back for one pence.
Socialism saving the country.
Hmm.. you could almost wonder if they'd be better run by The State?
Terrible decision, the franchise holders should be made accountable and bail themselves out with the profits they have made. If not they should surrender the franchise. The government should commence an emergency nationalisation of the railways and rolling stock due to the pandemic. Forcing the discharged of all the private rail franchise contracts due to frustration and bringing them under the control and operation of the government.
All people who work on the railway read this.
Not nationalisation. Just allows them to bail out the franchises as their incomes fall. Branson will probably try to sue HMG for not allowing his gravy train to keep running. (He will just have to depend on whatever he gets from NHS!)
They'll give it back once it's profitable again.
Some good then from all this!
However, the train operators will continue to run the services "for a small predetermined management fee", the DfT said. Private companies will run the trains but the government underwrites it all and, during this exceptional time, carries the losses.
Socialism the only way
I wonder how many don't realise you've deliberately reversed the BR logo? At first I thought you'd 'hung the Union Flag upside down'.
Bloody Northern started arbitrary rolling cancellations on the day I was trying to get to Manchester Airport (March 20th). Had to get a taxi in the end after I'd paid for rail tickets. Good riddance I say, and welcome back BR (permanently I hope).
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Bring Back British Rail
4 weeks ago
It's the privatisation of public services which has been a key driver of inequality across Britain over the last 30 years. Bring Back British Rail! Join us at: bringbackbritishrail.org ...
End privatisation to help 'left behind' areas of Britain, voters say
www.independent.co.uk
Study reveals reasons why voters support taking services back into public ownershipShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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When ever anything goes private the service drop and prices go up. Bring everything back as British.
It's the same story in virtually every case. Councils being forced by central government to outsource many services. Those service costs then spiral, there's little the council's can or are willing to do and so on. It's just a huge shit slinging fight where councils and local tax payers get shafted but central government sits there wanking over the scenario.
Be interesting to put a number to the amount of people who voted Tory to get Brexit but in non brexit days wouldn't have voted Tory or wouldn't have voted at all .... It wouldn't surprise me if that was a major factor in the result.
In privatisation the revenue and income earned from the fares appear to have dropped leading to increase in political subsidies. In the last ten years of BR, it averaged 64% while in the first ten years of privatisation, it was 55%, This explains why rail privatisation even with the highest fares in Europe cannot cover the cost
But voters had a chance to say that in the election and they backed the party who believe the railways are working. Labour proposed nationalisation and it was rejected. We must respect the will of the people - the last 4 years have taught not to disagree with the results of votes....
Bit late you all voted Tory
Bring back all the privatised companies that were given away by the corrupt Tory’s,
If you vote tory, the silver wear gets sold, it's comman policy however when there's trouble just dump it and run, and leave the blame elsewhere
You can only take back control of the TOCs, the track belongs to a different company and all the trains belong to banks and leasing companies who have paid out for them.
Actually, voters said the reverse on 12th December.
Far more passenger trains running now.
Which voters? Because clearly not the 13 million that voted Tory They will be put back into privatisation,the Tories will not run the railways as state owned
But they forgot about it in the election ! Spilt milk ?!!
My heart says renationalise everything. It is, after all infrastructure - which is different from 'industry'. My head, however, remembers when my coloured wife was insulted by British Rail counter staff in Nottingham in the seventies, I was ripped off by platform staff (porters) - also in the seventies - and generally an attitude that people turned up their places of employment as a favour. Customers were treated as a nuisance. Civility was rare. Workmanship standards were questionable. British cars were a joke, albeit rusty.
Privatisation has benefitted nobody apart from foreign ownership shareholders CEOs etc and has allowed regular frequent price rises and pisspoor customer service. Anybody who says it is better than British Rail is a stupid idiot
Biggest scam ever,privatisation,conned,gulled all for the rich to bleed the country dry with little or no input back.Crumbling britain except Londonistan gets everything going.
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
Northern Rail renationalised - a great decision for passengers! ...
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Privatisation has made so many poor decisions since early days. It's been a disaster.
This government's idea of re-nationalisation and our idea of re-nationalisation aren't necessarily the same thing!
This arguing about tory /labour is pointless. Look at the rail and coal industries, more track milage and pits shut when labour were in than the tories. Labour had 13 years and never renationalised the railway. That makes me think that both parties are bought and paid for and the establishment can then control things to suit themselves. If voting changed anything it would have been banned years ago. Just look at the government policies and broken promises since 1958.
I was a Deputy Chief Controller when we lost the supervision of the Great Eastern railways. You can imagine how difficult it was with the stock, staff and routes being under control. It will never work again until we gain ONE CONTROL system.
ive worked on the railway 32 years now. she has no idea what she's on about. its nothing to do with tories or labour because labour were in charge for 13 year and did nothing. lner is now government run. I used it today and it's still shit. another sticker another name changes nothing. the bunch of wankers in charge of the company are the problem
The East Coast route has been taken back into public ownership three times. It's easy to see what the future is for Northern Rail.
but i cannot easily get to southport on a sunday. 6 days a week its a doddle to get notts to southport. sunday twice as long and all over the country. ridiculous
well done Cat Hobbs, that is great!
For how long,Capitalism does not like nationalisation,tax payer will put it right again for privatisation.
We need to own it AND control it
But it needs to improve.
Slowly but surely
Now do the other franchises!
About bloody time. Northern are a bloody disgrace.
I really want to know just how much First Group are bunging the Tories to keep hold of Trans-Pennine. How they are somehow being portrayed as a victim of Northern Rail’s issue is disgusting. Northern never regular boot off a whole peak hour trainload of passengers at Stalybridge so the train can be reversed and avoid delay fines later in the day...
I don’t mind if others want their local or national lines renationalised but, current ticketing difficulties aside, please don’t change C2C it works better, far better than it ever did under BR
RIP BR's Mr S & C (Settle & Carlisle) Ron Cotton.
Network Rail is state owned. The DfT sanction what train operator's do. The Government is at the core of what goes both wrong and right with the railway. It was also Government interference that scuppered British Rail.
JEREMY CORBYN is right again 👍⭐🌟
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
Today Northern rail is re-nationalised. That’s two franchises down, only eighteen more to go! Join the original passenger-led campaign for a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit 🚆✊ bringbackbritishrail.org/franchises ...
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LNER are not exactly a good example are they? I support nationalisation wholeheartedly, but they have not improved the London to Leeds service plus it's now even more expensive than before! It needs to be done properly!
Let’s face it. This government is only nationalising these lines to pump public money into them and then, when they’ve got them up to spec, they’ll sell them, on the cheap, back to the public sector.
Will they ever learn the railways are for people to get around to see loved ones and visit places and earn a living not to fill up pockets of shareholders and foreign investors it's time for Change
But the same trains, same people running them, empty promises from the Dominic Cummings led government of overdue infrastructure improvements.
The common factor with the failed franchises is the DFT, yet renationalisation will involve the DFT and politicians even more. How exactly will that work? Get rid of political interference and safeguard freight paths and I would be all for renationalisation.
A lot of the reason it's shit is the billions wasted reducing capacity and the legacy of stupid short MUT rubbish. Marples totally fucking the system and the endless real cuts after were done by governments of both flavours.
maybe you should look into LNER and see who is actually running it , you maybe surprised , or maybe you just dont want to say !!!! simple fact is no part of the railway is run on a nationalised basis its all contracts
Unfortunately it will make very little difference until network rail get off their arse and do some serious work on the infrastructure, with proper skilled railwaymen.
Needs to be re-organised. Publicity runned Northern Ireland Railways and mainland Europe Railway are working.
You do understand that under either a nationalised or privatised railway the industry is run by the government irrespective...
Strike some more and South Western Railways is next. A total shambles of a train company.
Still.needs a lot of common sense building into the system.
I do hope the r m t ballot calls for all out strikes time to rid us of johnson
Get rid of first class coaches. They have no place in the modern world.
You forgot Railtrack. Easily done - it’s just all the infrastructure. www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/oct/08/Whitehall.transport
South Western Railway next?!
This needs to happen on the K&WVR.
Please let Southwestern be next.
I was in Brighton last weekend. Sunday 1530 to London was 12 carriages. Compare this with 3 or 6 Edinburgh to Manchester service at peak times!
I can honestly see GWR doing this very soon
Southeastern next please, 14 years of misery for us now...
Capitalism is just one success after another 🤔
I hope we can renationalise South Eastern rail soon!
When the railways were built in the victorian times. Their was not so many people to transport around. In comparison to nowadays a lot more people. Nothing has changed a lot over the years of improving the rail network. Still in the yeara of the victorian times. Its not easy to get trains in the right places to go if its unworkable. It needs good planning to make it work.
On this site I’d like to know which part of BR you want back, you have to remember things were very different in those days, for example PPE was absolutely dire. The H&S was often non existent, there were a lot of dead-wood staff. Even the sandwiches were horrific!!! It was run on a shoestring budget, so the equipment was clapped out and skinflint ideas are still about such as the Pacers. Sadly we still have equipment although nostalgic is costly to run all legacies of that should have gone ages ago. Unfortunately the words future proof are low on priorities except for the busiest main lines, despite the vast numbers of new housing developments going on and the over-congested roads.
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