Submission to the UK Parliament’s Transport Committee

25th May 2016 | News

Have your Say!

Below is our submission to the UK Parliament’s Transport Committee ‘Improving the Rail Passenger Experience‘ consultation, which closed on 25 May 2016. It is also published here.

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Dear sir / madam,

I am writing to make a submission on behalf of the national Bring Back British Rail campaign.

Launched in 2009, our volunteer-run campaign has now grown to represent well over 150,000 passengers and train employees via our online communities and petitions (Facebook: 102197, Twitter: 4154, Riseup email list: 42062, website petition: 38789, Care2 petition: 62372 people as of 25 May 2016).

Together we are calling for a re-unified national rail network, run in the interests of passengers and train employees rather than the shareholders of the private train operating companies, many of whom are based overseas (Abellio is Dutch, Arriva is German, Keolis is French, MTR Corporation is in Hong Kong).

Privatisation has failed the people of Britain. Not only does the fractured rail franchising system waste more than £1billion every year, which could be saved under public ownership (and used to reduce fares or re-invest in infrastructure), but it also creates an unnecessarily complicated, frustrating, inefficient and expensive system for passengers to use.

We now have more than 10,000 comments archived on our website, detailing our supporters’ concerns and frustrations with the privatised rail system. I urge the Transport Committee to take a good look through these.

Here I will summarise some of the most frequently cited problems and concerns, which result from a system where train operating companies compete with each other rather than co-operate in the public interest:

• Train tickets are far too expensive and many people simple cannot afford to travel by rail. Britain has the most expensive trains in Europe. This is at a time when we need to be encouraging more people to choose more sustainable rail travel to meet our national / international commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
• The fare structure is overly complex and people are unfairly penalised for having to travel at short notice. There should be one simple and affordable price to get from A-to-B and flexibility to change travel plans if necessary without losing out.
• There is confusion and lack of co-operation between train operating companies in all of the main aspects of a rail journey: planning, making the journey and complaints / accountability afterwards:
o Planning: Buying a ticket is overly complicated because of vast number of websites and competing information provided by the different train operating companies. For anyone without access to the internet the system becomes even more opaque and these passengers (predominantly elderly or on low-incomes) are more likely to have to pay higher prices.
o Making a Journey: because different train operating companies manage different stations and routes, there is often a communication breakdown when passengers have to change trains or find out information. Train operating companies often blame each other for problems rather than putting passengers first.
o Complaints: Because train journeys are so frequently delayed as a result of lack of co-operation, complaints are a regular occurrence.
The complexity of the system makes this procedure overly complicated and again favours passengers with internet access.

All of the problems outlined above would be eliminated by re-unifying our national rail network under one simplified, publicly-owned structure. We would have one website to buy tickets and get the correct information. We would have one body of staff managing all our country’s stations, wearing the same coloured uniforms, sharing information and communicating with each other as a matter of course. But most importantly, we could have one body responsible and accountable for all problems and complaints on the railways, who passengers know they can turn to should they need help.

The only way to reliably improve the rail passenger experience in the long-term is to abolish the flawed market approach, and to return our railways public ownership to ensure that they are always only ever run in our interests.

We look forward to hearing the outcomes of your inquiry and to seeing our railways truly improved as a result.

Yours sincerely,

Ellie Harrison
Bring Back British Rail
info@bringbackbritishrail.org

Improving the Rail Passenger Experience

7th May 2016 | News

Have your Say!

The UK Parliament’s Transport Committee has launched ‘Improving the Rail Passenger Experience‘ – a short consultation to get passenger perspectives on the experience of using our ludicrously over-priced and over-complicated privatised railway system.

Please take a few minutes to tell them how much simpler and more efficient everything would be, if we had a re-unified national rail network run for people not profit.

Have your say before the deadline on Wednesday 25 May 2016

bringbackbritishrail.org/haveyoursay

Joint Letter in Rail Professional magazine

1st March 2016 | News

A joint letter from campaigners and rail experts opposing the privatisation of Network Rail is published in this month’s Rail Professional magazine (page 16). Read the full text below.

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Dear madam,

The call by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for ‘full-blooded privatisation’ is not only ideological and misguided, it is dangerous.

Rail infrastructure has been privatised before. Under Railtrack, our railways were asset stripped to maximise shareholder value. The result was that people died in the crashes of Hatfield and Potters Bar.

Passengers don’t want new standing-only carriages and line closures as the IEA prescribes, and they don’t want deaths on the railway. We don’t know who the IEA is working for – it has been found to be ‘highly opaque’ and untransparent in terms of its funding. It is definitely not working for passengers.

There is no mandate for privatising Network Rail. Nearly 60% of the public want a publicly owned Network Rail; less than one in four support its privatisation. Amongst Conservative voters, a majority still supports public ownership.

Now that Network Rail’s debt is on the public balance sheet, politicians have leapt to attention. But the reality is that Network Rail has been indirectly subsidising the train companies for years through low track access charges. Meanwhile, the train companies have been leeching off passengers, increasing fares to boost their profits.

We are paying more than we should for our railways because of privatisation. Private railways won’t ‘end wasteful investment’ as the IEA would like to think – they are wasteful investment. Research shows that £1.2 billion a year could be saved under public ownership – and this move would have strong public support.

Privatisation and fragmentation have been a disaster. We don’t need any more of them. The IEA is like a medieval doctor, using outdated methods, calling for our railways to be bled dry.

Passengers will suffer if this goes ahead – we need to stop Network Rail privatisation in its tracks.

Cat Hobbs, Director, We Own It

Christian Wolmar, journalist, author and railway historian

Dr John Stittle, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of Essex

Ellie Harrison, Founder, Bring Back British Rail

Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass

Tony Murphy, National Officer, Unite

Dr Robert Jupe, Professor of Accounting and Public Management, University of Kent

Ian Taylor, Director, Transport for Quality of Life

New Year Protests: End the RailRipOff!

1st January 2016 | Demonstration / News

End the #RailRipOff!

Bring Back British Rail and Action For Rail are organising protests at stations across the country demanding an end to rip off rail fares and a return to a re-unified publicly owned railway.

Come and join us at London Kings Cross Station on Monday 4th January 07:30 – 09:30, and at stations across the country. See full details here >

Due to the New Year Bank Holiday, protests in Scotland will take place on Tuesday 5th January: Glasgow Central Station, Gordon Street Exit 17:00 – 18:00.

Join the Facebook Event for full details!

Print your own Bring Back British Rail placards here:
> PRIVATISATION IS NOT PROGRESS!
> PASSENGERS BEFORE PROFITS!