BBC Radio Scotland ScotRail debate
19th December 2019 | Media Coverage / News
Following Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson’s announcement that he would be ending Abellio’s contract to run the ScotRail franchise three years’ early (on 31 March 2022), Bring Back British Rail’s Ellie Harrison was invited onto BBC Radio Scotland’s Jackie Brambles show to discuss ScotRail’s future with rail journalist Philip Haigh and Rachel Jackson, actress and comedian.
General Election 2019
22nd November 2019 | Merchandise / News
The Labour Party’s manifesto for the UK General Election on 12 December 2019 promises to deliver publicly-owned railways, mail, water and energy. Could this finally be our chance to Bring Back British Rail?
Make sure you register to vote before the deadline on Tuesday 26 November 2019, 11.59pm so that you can have your say!
And order your Bring Back British Rail merchandise in time for the election! Our #GE2019 Special Offer gets you a Rail Card Wallet, Enamel Badge and Embroidered Patch for just £10 including delivery in the UK.
Williams Rail Review
18th March 2019 | News
Today Bring Back British Rail and We Own It met Keith Williams, head of the Williams Rail Review, the biggest review of our railways since privatisation.
We agreed with Keith, rail franchising is broken and told him public ownership is the answer!
Please take time to #TellKeith your views before the deadline on 31 May 2019
📝 gov.uk/government/consultations/williams-rail-review
We all want British Rail
18th January 2019 | Media Coverage / News
Coverage in the Daily Mirror of our Care2 petition hand-in with more than 120,000 signatures, at the Department for Transport on 18 January 2019. We’re demanding that the public ownership of our railways is properly considered in the Williams Rail Review.
Rail Revolution: Day of Action
11th December 2018 | Demonstration / Media Coverage / News
Sick of rising rail fares and chaotic commuting?
Tired of the endless tinkering with our broken privatised railway system?
It’s time for a #RailRevolution.
On Wednesday 2 January 2019, as our rail fares rise again by 3.1%, we’re joining forces with our friends at We Own It, the Association of British Commuters and NOR4NOR to organise a national day of action calling for radical reform.
Coinciding with the public consultation for the government’s new ‘root and branch’ review of rail: the Williams Rail Review, we’re calling on passengers all over the country to respond in favour of a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.
On Wednesday 2 January 2019, protests will take place at stations across the country (see full list here), with a central one at London King’s Cross from 7:30-9:00am (photo call at 8:00am). See the Facebook event page for details, print a Bring Back British Rail placard and come join us!
Sign the Petition
Then on Friday 18 January 2019, to mark the deadline of the Williams Rail Review public consultation, we’ll be delivering our Care2 Petition to Re-nationalise our Railways signed by 118,039 people to the Department for Transport to demonstrate the sheer weight of public support for public ownership.
Make sure you add your name before then: bringbackbritishrail.org/care2
Media Coverage from 2 January 2019
• Furious passengers protest price hikes, Daily Mail
• Anger at ‘disgraceful’ rail fare rises as stations hit by protests, Sky News
• Chris Grayling blames unions for rail fare hike, BBC News
• Rail passengers stage ‘national day of action’ in protest at fare increases, Evening Standard
• Rail users to mount ‘national day of action’ over 3.1% fare rise, The Guardian
• Rail season tickets to jump by £100 for many commuters, Metro
• Train price hike: Jeremy Corbyn calls for public ownership of railways, Independent
• Rail fares rise 3.2% TODAY despite trains chaos, Mirror
• Protest in Birmingham over rising rail fares, Birmingham Live
• Protests at Sheffield railway station as rail fares rise by an average of 3.1 per cent, The Star
• York protest over national rail fare hike, The Press
Jeremy Vine on bringing back British Rail
20th September 2018 | Media Coverage / News
Following the Office of Rail and Road finding that ‘systemic failings’ have been the cause of the huge problems with new timetables on the Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway franchises, Ellie Harrison was invited to address the question ‘should we bring back British Rail?’ on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show.
‘Privatised rail just doesn’t work’ – Ellie Harrison
20th September 2018 | Media Coverage / News
Bring Back British Rail campaign founder Ellie Harrison was interviewed by Johanna Ross for Sputnik News, following Chris Grayling’s acknowledgement that ‘systemic failings’ are the cause of the many problems on our privatised rail network. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying for the last nine years?
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.
Bring Back British Rail
4 days ago
"Privatisation... has delivered a service that is expensive, unreliable and dysfunctional" 🚍🚊💷 Don't miss former UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston's & Bassam Khawaja's devastating critique of UK bus policy. Read the report: bit.ly/AlstonBusReport Watch the full video here: bit.ly/3i08jLo ...
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Watch the full video of the Britain’s Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAnhTTbjMM
Read the full 'Public Transport, Private Profit' report: bit.ly/AlstonBusReport
Privatizing has buggered up the electricity industry, the gas industry, the water industry and the waste disposal industry too. Some things should be considered a service and run to provide just that at an economic cost not a way of milking the end users.
As with everything else the Tory’s de- nationalised
I sympathise with their sentiments and agree for the most part. However I have seen far better written reports than this. I note with interest the total lack of integration across the public transport network, it is of course a universal truth, a result not just of operator competition, but of competing modes. The great shame in all of this is that once upon a time, all of the large and many of the smaller urban areas had their own bus or occasionally tram networks provided by the local authorities. They offered usually a high quality service tailored to local needs, Manchester (mentioned in the report) being a classic case.
The buses and trains need to be put back in public hands we at the moment subsidies them ever since the Tories sold them of so how can you tell me that they are private companys
but as it doesn't affect them, they don't care
Has the government's decarbonisation policy hit fever point?
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Bring Back British Rail
2 weeks ago
📢 Next Weds 21 July, 7-8pm – don't miss Britain’s Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights – the launch event for Philip Alston’s new report examining the devastating impact of bus privatisation across the UK 🚍🚏💸 Register to attend here 👇 alstonbusreport.eventbrite.com ...
Britain's Bus Crisis: Privatisation, Poverty & Human Rights
alstonbusreport.eventbrite.com
Join us for the launch of Philip Alston’s new report examining the devastating impact of bus privatisation in the United Kingdom.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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When young I could get a train from Leven to Dunfermline.Beeching stuffed that.Then they let private companies loose and it went downhill.Buses were much better as well but they let the private companies loose there and the same route followed.Private companies want profit above service.
Bring back the corporations, metropolitan undertaking and regional state owned companies. The only private services should be those like the Delaine in Lincs who have been around for a long time and have given sterling service. The big groups need to be renationalised and broken up.
This makes me angry another Tory fuck up and they get away with it..grrrr
XX
Covid19 has seen passenger numbers on both trains and buses at a very low ebb and could mean number of train rolling stock being made increasingly surplus to requirements.
Bus deregulation far more scandalous than rail privatisation ever was. The absence of anything resembling a minimum service requirement at the heart of that.
Nicholas Ridley, need I say more!
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Bring Back British Rail
1 month ago
The ‘Great British Rip-Off’ – why new ‘flexi-tickets’ are an insult to passengers ...
The ‘Great British Rip-Off’ – why new ‘flexi-tickets’ are an insult to passengers
abcommuters.com
The Department for Transport’s new ‘flexible season tickets’ are an absolute insult to passengers. Neither cheap nor flexible, they are just another pricing trap for a captive com…Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Meanwhile Grant Shapps gets to claim all his train fares back as expenses..
Shapps.Another one????????
Great article
These are priced deliberately to convince many that going into work 2 or 3 days/week isn't much of a saving in travel costs compared to traditional 5 day a week. Government probably scared that businesses might downsize office space and property market suffers. I'm sure the Tory party have a few funders with owning some of these prestige buildings that have gone up in many cities over the last few decades. Actually what might happen now is more might just continue to work from home full time.
Sadly, I feel Grant Shapps is a Government gimmick rolled out to jazz up wet Mondays and bad news days to act as if Government is doing something relevant to ordinary people e.g. Renationalisation - we have the name, but what of the finer details? Reversing Beeching, really... where's the flow/beef in it, just a trickle currently and 2030 is the cut off date for irreversible climate change. Likewise Chris Heaton Harris, MP for Daventry - one large town without any rail access/safe Tory seat cracks jokes on Twitter as if no tomorrow, but how much is he working towards delivering an affordable, integrated and growing railway apart from #HS2? £27 billion for new roads which only panders to road dependency cultures, heaps up congestion and electric vehicles do not deal with tyres on hard surfaces and the particles we all breathe. I think rail should not be facing any cuts, rather top slice that £27 billion and let's have parity between road and rail at least.
As this scheme is being lead by the treasury and they won't introduce anything that reduces income
It is getting ready for "Home Rule" in Wales and Scotland,soon to be Great English Railways (GER)
Sadly British Rail is not really British Rail, its a joke, you just have to look at the extortionate prices thats charged for even the smallest journey, it would be much more sensible to cut fares and have more customers take a leaf out of other countries some charge as little as a fiver for a 50mile trip.
no discount for senior or regional pass holders
what did you expect from this government????????
And the fools fell for it, £350 million a week for the NHSand still waiting ?
Bandits
People voted for a privatised railway and they got what they voted for.
But, but, they're doing their best. Dunno what their worst would be.
Utter waste of time. It would save me 12% over daily tickets, but is still 22% dearer than buying weekly tickets, and despite the name, they're *less* flexible. On several occasions, pre-Covid, I've bought a weekly ticket to Manchester, only to find out that the event I'm running has been reallocated or cancelled, so I can work from home the rest of the week. So I've then gone to the ticket office and they've cancelled the weekly ticket and refunded me, minus the cost of one daily ticket, with *no admin fees*. This "flexible" ticket would let me buy eight journeys to be used over four weeks. But if it gets to the last week and I've not used four of them, I can get the unused journeys refunded, but they'll charge me £10 admin fee to do so, which would wipe out most of the refund. The only change they need to make is to remove the admin fee, or remove the 28 day limit on using the journeys. If I could buy eight journeys and use them over say three months, then that would be worth doing. As it is, I shan't bother. Might just get on my bike more and get to work for free.
If they are a privatised industry why do the taxpayer subsidise them is it to fill the pockets of the shareholders oh wait are the tory backers just a thought
They seem to be only available for smart cards and one cannot buy paper tickets. Flexi rover tickets (which work in the same way) have been around as paper tickets since time immemorial.
No matter what party you vote for they are all as bad each . labour where in under Tony Blair did they renationalised the railway and have the Torys renationalised no to both it is all about looking after the private company that run the railways.Also they get government grants to run the railway s which comes out of our taxes so in effect we are paying twice for the public transport .. Public transport should be made cheaper. If they want to get more people of the roads to use . Prime example of the over inflated prices is ebbsfleet to London I believe it £8 pound one way
Perversely it is £5 cheaper per journey if I buy an annual season ticket and travel 5 days per week to the office. There is no real incentive for me to do 2-3 days week in the office.
They are "another option". That's all. Depending on when, where and how often you travel, flexis may or may not be the answer. They may not be what people were expecting, however it may just be that people's expectations were wrong.
Money grabbing Bastards !
Just as expected, another way to fleece the commuter by the stealth of privatised railways !!!!
Rip off? In Britain?
When are people going to wake up, the tories are only it to make money not to give rail users a fair deal, you want a fair deal stop voting for them...
Season tickets Sheffield-Derby (Adult, Standard Class) Flexi Season £9,998.00 Seven Day £80.30 12 months £3,212.00 (Source: BR Fares)
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months ago
Back by popular demand! Bring Back British Rail enamel badges are finally back in stock. All proceeds go towards funding campaign materials and activities. Why not treat yourself 😊 ...
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Bring back the CEGB as well. Let's have reliable and AFFORDABLE electric power
Any chance we actually WILL bring back British Rail? I’ve been so hopeless lately, with the government using their supermajority in Parliament to steamroll their agenda on us! Don’t get me started on how they’re destroying the NHS!
Thats for travelling in the other direction Les
Link to buy doesn't work? 😕
Bring back British Rail and the crap wages. I'm up for that.
Logo is round the wrong way.....
Bring back everything that's been privatised.
Yes am with you
Bring back British Rail? How do you react to this Nationalised part of the System's attempts to improve passenger services? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-57510262
British Rail was just not that good! At least the trains have improved. More investment is key.
I remember the “good old days” of British Rail. Overstaffed. Under motivated. Filthy and unreliable trains. Couldn’t give a toss about the paying public, just as long as they remained state funded. Worst of all, run by politicians, with political agendas. The privatisation model isn’t perfect, but it’s a bloody sight better than the alternative.
Got to the checkout on your shop, but you use PayPal! Paypal supports the apartheid and dehumanising of the Palestinians in Israel/Palestine. So I will not be buying from you!
your being hood winked into loosing more of the service and system. Network Rail becomes British Rail and the sections are still operated by the franchise holders, Privatisation has moved vast amount of freight onto the road and this "New" British Rail will not put it back on the rails. the yards and lines to handle the freight have all gone. also the Inter City sign is the wrong way round.
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Bring Back British Rail
2 months ago
We're really pleased to be opening our merch store again! Our popular Rail Card Wallets will be ready to dispatch next week. All proceeds go towards funding Bring Back British Rail materials and activities, so this is a great way to support our volunteer-run campaign 😊 ...
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I might buy one of these! I could keep not just my railcard but also my library card in it!
Waiting for 'The logo is back to front' comments.
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