Common sense over chaos.

Chris Palmer, Runcorn

Bring back BR and introduce a clear standardised fare structure.

Robert Hill, London

The price of train tickets is honestly ridiculous. I saw an old British Rail advert from 1982 that said ‘Anytime Return London – Manchester only £11’. Now it’s about £100!

Anonymous

We need a railway that is a public service, not a profit-making business with expensive fares that is made possible by considerable injections of cash from taxpayers.

Justin Smith, Plymouth

I completely agree.

Nicholas Seivewright, Dartford

They were told it wouldn’t work. No other country has such a fragmented system. Unify the lot, track, signalling, rolling stock and stations.

David Gray-Clough, Harrogate

The banks and government are screwing us out of every last penny on every level.

Ian Greenhalgh, Edinburgh

As part of the national infrastructure of this country we need dedicated professionals running our railways. It would be in the best interest of this country and its population.

Geoffrey Hartin, Southampton

I’m sick of big business making all the money and leaving the tax payers (Network Rail) to foot the bill.

Ian Snipp, London

Competition is an impossibility on the train lines. It is a national service that should be run for public benefit at cost price, not for private profit.

Samuel Gunn, London

The East Coast line runs right through my town. In fact I live only a few hundred yards from it. I can sit and watch the array of privatised train companies using it.

Robin Braddow, Newark

Lets take back our trains and make them work for us, not private companies.

Deb Tetley, Leeds

I am completely for this. As someone who uses a number of UK rail operators in a single day to get to university, this really affects me.

Dale Easson, Nottingham

It costs almost £150 to get from Manchester to see family in Devon. It’s cheaper to fly to Paris. What a joke.

Sam Wahnon, Manchester

All service companies should never have been privatised.

Kate Rowland, Tywyn

The railways need good management in the nationalised sector with the capacity to raise funds to make improvements.

Maureen Cooper, London

Fair price for fares. No stockbroker style ticket buying. Stick to advertised prices, no unannounced hourly changes to ruin student travel budgeting.

Jane Skyrme, Hereford

Sadly, the current disjointed rail organisation and ticketing is a national embarrassment.

Michael Branney, Leicester

Bringing Back British Rail will save millions of lives on our roads and help save the NHS. It is a sensible way to fix the UK economy.

Paul Bright, Bournemouth

UK railways are in a shocking state.

Mark Kapalo, Telford

Nothing owned by the state should be allowed to be sold off unless a general referendum is held for each of the sales.

Peter Stratton, Cardiff

Affordable, local rail services for everyone!

Nicholas Lyle, Woking / Portsmouth

If a nationalised transport system could be run as a business and profits being fed back into the business instead of paying shareholders it might work for everyone.

Margaret White, Newton Stewart

A publicly owned rail system has always made better sense in every respect than a private piecemeal network in the hands of shareholders.

Margaret Reeves, Southwell

End the rip-off of both passengers and taxpayers. We pay more now than we did for BR.

James Aitken, Edinburgh

Privatisation is not working for passengers. I believe that nationalisation would put good service as the number one priority rather than making a profit.

Andrew Smith, Borehamwood

Take it away from profiteers who cherry-pick services and disregard less popular routes and vital investment.

Luke Norris, Brighton

Privatisation means profit to shareholders. Pay them off and go back to good old British Rail.

Mr Tall, Louth

The last two decades have been a very expensive farce. It’s been tried, it’s failed. I’m tired of subsidising the private shareholders with my taxes.

John Walker, Bristol

Every privatisation I have seen has failed and has ended up with a more expensive, less efficient, worse service for the people, whilst lining the pockets of a select few.

Stuart Moir, Filey