Neither trains, railways nor buses should ever have been privatised. High prices for poor transport services. Nationalised would be better maintenance/service/price.

Susan Dawson, Rosudgeon

Major infrastructure such as the railway system should never be run by private companies. There will always be detriment to the public.

Mark Shaw, Edinburgh

Rail operators earn increasing profits and get government subsidies of around £4 billion a year. A good deal for passengers and a good deal for taxpayers?

T Jackson, Coulsdon

Time to take back what was stolen from us.

Peter Crampton, Halifax

Help more people commute and get to work cheaply.

Maria Ali, Manchester

East Coast Rail is great and easy to deal with. A government with imagination would let it compete against the privatised companies and see who performed best.

Fred Bridgland, Edinburgh

Re-nationalise all the rail network and get a grip on the fares and conditions (like overcrowding.)

Douglas Elliott, Sheffield

All privatisation does is create multimillionaires at taxpayers’ expense. Halting direct services because they encroach on other franchise areas is a disgrace.

Edward Moss, Manchester

BR was the result of combining many disparate private companies which made sense in our tiny little island. To have broken it into pieces again was patent madness.

Tony Murray, Middlesbrough

The proposed privatisation of East Coast, an excellent and profitable railway, is complete madness, Remember EC’s predecessors’ incompetence.

Martin Dibbs, Fife

Please return the profits back into the railways and not the pockets of others.

Chris Straiton, Brighton

Rail profits back to the people.

Patricia Burn, Manchester

Put people before profits and see what happens.

Maire Wilcox, Calstock

I rarely use trains since it took 7 hours to go from Chester to Doncaster. After that journey I purchased a motorcycle and never looked back.

Neil Harness, Weston Super Mare

We want lower prices for poor people.

Martin Chadwick, Wrexham

People before profits.

Noel Grummitt, Ilfracombe

Bring an end to privatised railway madness. The only people it benefits are shareholders not the rail passengers.

Mark Brun, Stockton-on-Tees

I’ve used trains for 60+ years. It’s gone downhill since privatisation. We need a national strategy and organisation that puts people and the national interest first.

Christine Oliver, Wells

You know it makes sense. Why subsidise train operating companies with taxpayers’ money so they can pay dividends to their shareholders?

George Lynes, Abingdon

Profits at all levels instead of one public service.

Michael Crook, Hucknall

We must keep this. Profit versus service and shareholder dividend always means we lose out.

Colin Waugh, Stockton-on-Tees

BR was sold for Tory profit. Taxpayers were robbed of their investment. It’s time to take it back.

Mike Fowler, Peterborough

Nationalisation of the railways has always been an essential part of society. I am pessimistic in the extreme in these days of everything being privatised.

Simon Mayhall, Leeds

Privatisation has failed the passengers and serves only the shareholders of the rail companies. Re-nationalised and run efficiently East Coast line shows public success.

Simon Bell, Torpoint

It’s not even properly private. Paying massive subsidies to private companies is wrong.

Jules Dawes, Sheffield

Public transport must serve the interests of the public.

Alex Bailey, Craven Arms

Privatisation has created incentives for companies to do each other down, or grab extra profits, by practices that make journeys worse for passengers.

Janet Wright, Cambridge

I remember British Rail before it was all sold off. It worked well. Since privatisation we’ve returned to the Victorian era. Re-nationalise, now.

Christine Laugesen, Leyland

It seems that over the years the whole country has been flogged off to private business, and look at the mess we are in. It’s time to put an end to this rip-off now.

Richard Campbell, Huntingdon

Public services are services to the public not for private profit.

Trevor Wise, Uppingham