Privatisation has failed – it would be cheaper if it was owned by us. The farce needs to end.

David Rossiter, London

It’s quite simple. They should never have been sold off as they belong to the people.

Sheila English, Newport

The current British railway system is inherently flawed, and has gone noticeably downhill. As a 24 year old, I am struggling to afford the 1 hour commute into London.

Jarvis Coxwell, Farnham

Since the sell-off, prices have gone sky high. Occasional travellers cannot afford the fares, trains are crowded, even at off-peak times.

Jill Malenoir, Andover

The nuclear industry is in public ownership and we pay over and over. The railway system should be in public ownership.

Marianne Bennett, Milnthorpe

East Coast is working well – keep it public.

Julia Charlton, Newcastle upon Tyne

They should never have been privatised in the first place. But beware of legislation that would globally prevent this.

Mel Thomas, Blaenau Ffestiniog

Privatisation has delivered little or no improvement to the rail network. All we have is higher fares and richer shareholders.

Mark Barrett, Luton

Public services are not for profit.

Mark Donoghue, Dartford

I’ve caught the Cotswold Line trains for six years and I cannot recall a time when I could call them consistent or reliable.

Maddy Whitby, Stow-on-the-Wold

We need to bring British Rail as well as the rest of the UK infrastructure into public ownership.

Edward Wilson, Chediston

I joined British Rail in 1983 and am still in the industry today. I can’t believe we pay people to run a service so that they can make a profit.

Dario Giudici, Stevenage

Privatisation has been shown again and again to make public services worse, not better. Railways are not set up for a competitive market.

Daniel Hadley, Brighton

We need cheaper, people-friendly fares not company fares. If we go back to state ownership of railways with British Rail everyone should have a better outcome.

Joshua Langstaff, Driffield

It’s about time it was returned to us. East Coast Rail has proved that it works better than privately-owned.

Liz Andelin, Otley

We are a not very big island in the Atlantic ocean The railways, like electricity and gas should be run by the nation for the nation. We don’t need corporate investors.

Sue Radford, York

Railways should be run for people, not for profit.

Annette Lillig, Edinburgh

The railways should be a publicly-owned, fully integrated, modern service, not a money-making machine for a few greedy companies subsided by the taxes.

Philip Gibbard, Cambridge

They should never have been sold off.

Margaret Powell, London

The sums just don’t add up. I would like my train journey to be cheaper than car travel or at least not wildly more expensive.

Sally Renner

BR gave us the 125 and 225. Privatisation gave us Voyagers – and taxpayers’ money syphoned off into tax havens and foreign governments.

Paul Williamson, Coventry

Let us get back to providing a railway that is for passengers and not shareholders, and a service that is not an embarrassment to Britain.

Alastair Allan, Haddington

Their profligate greed is bringing this country to a standstill. A service should be just that and all profits made should be driven back into making services better.

Joe Sims, Bristol

Please can we get things joined up again. I am fed up with a rail network using different operators and shopped out maintenance. It was better before.

Kathryn Read, Nottingham

Privatisation sucks in England.

Jean-Marie Avril, Cheltenham

Like may privatised national assets, the service went down and prices up to satisfy the fat cats and to hell with customers.

George Tuck, Gateshead

It is one area where it makes sense to subsidise public transport for economic benefit in moving the population around safely.

Leslie Reid, Aberdour

Time to put the resources of the community back into community ownership.

Andrew Macmillan, Glasgow